This is so visually kitsch and camp that it should really have been made in the 70s, though it only missed out by a couple of years. The main rationale behind the film seems to be to get Jane Fonda to not wear very much (which may not be an ignoble ambition in itself, but will only carry the movie for the sad and desperate). Spoiler: yes, you get to see her breasts. Otherwise, this is notable mainly because the mad scientist she's hunting, Duran Duran, gave the English 80s pop band (who are still going I believe) their name, and because famous mime Marcel Marceau is in it. Spoiler: he speaks. I think it's aiming at comedy, but I can't believe the script is by the same guy who wrote the peerless Dr. Strangelove, because the humour simply falls flat most of the time. There's the odd scene or line that raises a grin, as when Fonda causes the machine which is supposed to kill her with pleasure to explode because she can take more than it can dish out, but mostly, this is only worth watching to see just how nonsensical it can get.
Review of Barbarella
