release year: 1968
genre: cheese
viewing setting: home laserdisc, 9/5/97
what I expected: to see Jane Fonda naked
what I got: a very, very boring movie with a lot of teasing and very little plot or action
synopsis: The balance of peace in the galaxy is threatened by a renegade scientist and his superweapon. Who can find the missing guy and regain the weapon? Barbarella, curvy heroine and space explorer, that's who!
impressions: This was pure cheese. It was overly boring (I fell asleep twice) and overly inane (there was no plot) and overly teasing. What I mean by this last part is that if you're gonna make a movie without a plot, you need to have something else to fill the gap. Violence will do, blood and guts will do, and nudity/sex will do. Well, it looks like the filmmakers thought they were implementing that last option - but they didn't do a good job. We get one brief topless scene (maybe 2 seconds) right at the beginning, and a lot of tease scenes throughout. I will say that the part where Barbarella gets an orgasm from a piano-like device is interesting - but we didn't see any flesh!
acting: Jane Fonda can't act. The only other thing I have to say is that Pygar, the winged dude, bears a remarkable resemblance to my old roommate Kevin.
final word: This is the Limburger cheese of cheesy movies, and was almost unbearable.
rating: D- (if not for Jane's pure cuteness, the rating would be F)