BARB WIRE
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros
We'll Always Have BARB WIRE
(Gramercy)
Directed by David Hogan
Written by Chuck Pfarrer and Ilene Chaiken
Cast Pamela Anderson Lee, Temuera Morrison, Victoria Rowell ,
Steve Railsback, Jack Noseworthy, Xander Berkeley, Udo
Kier
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably language, violence, and brief nudity)
Running Time 95 minutes
Reviewed at Six Forks Station Cinemas, Raleigh, NC (6MAY96)
==
It's not every day that we get to see a reworking of CASABLANCA, much less one that (a.) is adapted from a comic book and (b.) stars Pamela Anderson Lee. Ms. Lee, a.k.a. "the Baywatch babe," a.k.a. "you're looking rather buoyant this evening," plays the title character, a bounty-hunting bar owner who lives in a (near) future where civil war is being waged between the Nazi-looking Congressionals and the underground Resistance. They all come to Barb's place, though, because she doesn't take sides. That is, until a former lover-- and Resistance alley-- steps out of the past and into her bar. Sound familiar?
There's more, of course, including a fat man who rides in a bucket loader, a pair of contact lenses that fool retina scans, and, oh yeah, a rocket-firing motorcycle. (Trust me: it sounds more exciting than it is.) BARB WIRE has a great "look," but director David Hogan doesn't deliver a decent action sequence until the end. And don't expect any Bogarts or Bergmans, either; most of the cast appears to have been hired for "assets" other than their acting abilities. (Calm down guys, this stuff doesn't even qualify as *soft*-core porn. Just cleavage cleavage cleavage and only the *occasional* peek behind curtains number one and two.) No, there isn't much to this movie beyond the, uh, obvious, but if you love CASABLANCA, and you can stomach Pamela Lee's hissed-through- clinched-teeth line readings, then this may be the matinee for you.
Grade: D+
--
Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC
legeros@nando.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w)
Visit me in MOVIE HELL
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