Review of Barbarella (1968) by Jc E — 08 Jan 2011

After years and years of hearing about Vadim's "Barbarella," from the cult following to the numerous samples in contemporary music to this being a Dino de Laurentis production to it's biggest coup, being the film that gave Duran Duran their name, it is shocking it took me so long to finally sit down and take it in.

And now I just wish I could go back and forget this movie ever happened.

How anyone can say anything, anything at all, good about this film is beyond me. It is pure and utter bad cheese from it's ludicris opening strip-tease scene to the idiotic final moment, this film offers absolutely nothing worth talking about, besides the fact it gave one of my generation's best bands their name. Imagine if you would a really terrible porn movie that at least had ok sex scenes. No, take out all the explicit sex. You're left with a load of crap, right?

Might as well call it Barbarella.

I have no idea why this film has a huge cult following as there is nothing entertaining about it at all. The story, if there really is one, is idiotic and has no direction or purpose. The acting is horrible. The effects, albiet not bad for 1968, are still hardly impressive enough to worth noting. There are numerous bad movies that are so bad they are good, but this film makes "Showgirls" look like a cinematic masterpiece.

Set your atom transmittor to 035...and hope it wipes this film from your memory.