Barbarella (1968)

Director: Roger Vadim

Starring: Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, Milo O'Shea, Marcel Marceau, David Hemmings

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Who seduces an angel? Who strips in space? Who conveys love by hand? Who gives up the pill? Who takes sex to outer space? Who's the girl of the 21st century? Who nearly dies of pleasure?

Plot: The year is 40,000. Barbarella is a futuristic girl from Earth who is called on to retrieve Durand-Durand, a noted scientist, from the evil planet of SoGo. On her perilous (and quite sexy) journey she teams with blind angel Pygar, and battles the Black Queen along with various sexual torture devices.

My rating: 6/10 (and just barely a 6)

Will I watch it again? Noop.

OK, so it's not as bad as I remember it. This time it held my attention. Maybe it was the abundance of fuzz guitar on the soundtrack or discovering a drinking game where everyone takes a drink every time Barbarella makes a costume change (I think there were 11). Regardless, it's not THAT bad but it's one of those flicks that deserved to have been far better than it was. Seriously, the best part is the first 15 minutes...



There you go. Fonda is sexy and she's quite fun and well-chosen for the role. The sets are huge and have that larger-than-life comic book look to them. The big problem is that nearly every single scene/section over stays its welcome. Just when you think we're going to move along to the next set-piece we're forced to stick around. It's like when you're a kid and your mom forces you to go shopping with her; after five minutes you're ready to move on to the next store. If you watch BARBARELLA, and you should if for no other reason than to satisfy your curiosity, enjoy the campiness for what it is, get some friends over and drink. Then watch DANGER: DIABOLIK (1968) afterwards for some real late 60s goofy fun that gets it right. BARBARELLA is one flick that deserves a remake but only if it's done right.