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Directing
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Starring: Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg
Director: Roger Vadim
Running Time: 98 mins
Barbarella is a French film about a 41st century spacewoman who is tasked with finding and defeating the evil scientist Durand-Durand, and although her path is not easy as she must first discover how to get to him, she finds help in many people she meets along the way.
Well, this film is just terrible. It’s got no story, or not one that makes any sens, it’s camper than Flash Gordon and the original Superman put together, it’s full of cheesy innuendoes that make you cringe at every second, and it’s just an excuse to show Jane Fonda in as little clothing as possible.
I’m sure that after they saw Raquel Welch’s cult success in One Million Years B.C., the producers of this film felt it was a must to do the exact same thing, but this time with more nudity, more dialogue (thankfully), and best of all, set it in space!
However, what you get out of that is a terrible excuse for a movie, with no attention to the story, typically dated 1960s sci-fi effects, terrible acting and characters, and, even though this is meant to be a comedy, effectively no laughs.
In terms of the plot, if there is one, it’s almost impossible to understand what the hell is going on. There’s the simple plot synopsis, and that’s perfectly understandable, but what lies after that is totally incomprehensible, making this a near-100 minute movie only showing Jane Fonda changing outfit every 4 seconds and walking through ‘amazing’ new worlds that are all made on the same set.
It’s always a bit cheap knocking the effects, especially when you’ve got a film made in 1968 trying to be so futuristic, but this is absolutely pathetic, with some of the most laughably disappointing visuals you’ll ever see on screen, totally ruining the effect of it all.
Overall then, this gets a 2.5, because it’s just so boring, with a story that makes no sense, and has about the same amount of narrative worth as that poster of Raquel Welch…
