Barb Wire is set during the second American civil war in the year 2017, there is only one free city left in the whole of America & that's Steel Harbour. Bounty hunter & occasional gun for hire leather clad babe Barb Wire (Pamela Anderson) runs a nightclub called the Hammerhead & generally gets on the best she can, Barb decides to capture bail jumper William Krebs (Loren Rubin) & hand him over for the reward. At first all goes well & Barb ends up with $20,000, however it turns out that Krebs was a wanted man. Wanted by both the freedom fighting resistance because of a pair of contact lenses he had & wanted by the evil congressional directorate because of, well, a pair of contact lenses. These lenses are important as they let the wearer pass through any retina scanner & defected congressional scientist Dr. Corrina Devonshire (Victoria Rowell) needs them to board a plane to Canada so she can warn the world about a virus which the congressional are planning on using to wipe out all resistance to them... Barb is caught right in the middle & has to choose a side to work for.
Directed by David Hogan this sci-fi action adventure film was based a Dark Horse comic series of the same name & is a universally trashed film for reasons I personally can't quite figure out although people generally rubbish Pamela Anderson rather than the film itself which leads me to believe most have made their minds up before they see it or are just a tiny bit jealous. Before I go any further I have to say right now that Barb Wire has the best opening credit sequence of any film I've ever seen, period. The hot looking Pamela Anderson in a tight fitting leather dress dancing & being sprayed with water while exposing her breasts is just plain classy film-making. Anyway, the script by Chuck Pfarrer & Ilene Chaiken which could be described as a futuristic remake of Casablanca (1942) isn't anything I didn't expect from it, it's noisy, it has some violent action scenes, a few explosions, simplistic dialogue, a disturbing view of the future run by a Nazi uniform clad government & very one dimensional character's so what's the problem? Did Barb Wire ever promise it was going to be anything other than a futuristic sci-fi? Was it ever intended to be anything other than a fun B-Movie? Personally I think it delivers on some of it's potential but is missing something, the action scenes seem a little light & short, the first 30 odd minutes are great fast paced comic book action but it then loses it's way, some of the character's are just too lightweight & the mix of camp & seriousness isn't quite right. For all it's faults & it has some I liked it, there are bits & pieces here which I enjoyed a lot. It's a situation where I feel the sum of it's parts is less than what it should be.
I think a lot of the blame for Barb Wire has to go to director David Hogan, this was his first film after making a couple of music videos & it shows. The character's aren't fleshed out enough, the film is uneven, the action scenes could have been brilliant in a capable director's hands but Hogan is more interested in placing the camera at cool angles & forgets about putting on a spectacle for the audience. Apart from the gunfight between Barb & two cops & a fight on top of a crane the action scenes are not exciting, far too forgettable & way too short. A stronger more experienced director might have ironed these problems out & Barb Wire could have been a great piece of sci-fi action, I still like it but feel it's flawed. A special mention goes to Pamela Anderson who looks fantastic in this wearing a selection of fetishistic clothing, the long leather coat, the tight corset & thigh high boots she wears while catching Kreps is just god damned cool & sexy! Barb Wire is a frustrating film for me because there are things I like about it so much but other things which I hate, Pamela Anderson & her leather outfits is one thing that I love though.
Technically the film is aright, the daytime scenes all seem to have an orange sepia tone to them while the night scenes are very blue. The film has reasonable production values & a 40's period feel to the production design although the main locations seem to be a couple of old warehouses. There's actually not a bad cast here, Xander Berkeley, Udo Kier, Clint Howard, Victoria Rowell (I just couldn't stop thinking about Diagnosis Murder!), & Steve Railsback isn't a bad selection of actors at all. Pamela Anderson isn't great but she's alright & looks the business although Tamuera Morrison is truly awful in every scene he's in.
Barb Wire could have been great, I think an inexperienced director who hadn't directed a sci-fi or action film before hurt the film in the end. I'm by no means saying Barb Wire is any sort of classic but there are moments here that I really liked, Pamela Anderson just looks great in leather & it has the best opening credit sequence ever, I can't recommend it but it's a film I'll always stick up for when everyone else is trashing it.
Directed by David Hogan this sci-fi action adventure film was based a Dark Horse comic series of the same name & is a universally trashed film for reasons I personally can't quite figure out although people generally rubbish Pamela Anderson rather than the film itself which leads me to believe most have made their minds up before they see it or are just a tiny bit jealous. Before I go any further I have to say right now that Barb Wire has the best opening credit sequence of any film I've ever seen, period. The hot looking Pamela Anderson in a tight fitting leather dress dancing & being sprayed with water while exposing her breasts is just plain classy film-making. Anyway, the script by Chuck Pfarrer & Ilene Chaiken which could be described as a futuristic remake of Casablanca (1942) isn't anything I didn't expect from it, it's noisy, it has some violent action scenes, a few explosions, simplistic dialogue, a disturbing view of the future run by a Nazi uniform clad government & very one dimensional character's so what's the problem? Did Barb Wire ever promise it was going to be anything other than a futuristic sci-fi? Was it ever intended to be anything other than a fun B-Movie? Personally I think it delivers on some of it's potential but is missing something, the action scenes seem a little light & short, the first 30 odd minutes are great fast paced comic book action but it then loses it's way, some of the character's are just too lightweight & the mix of camp & seriousness isn't quite right. For all it's faults & it has some I liked it, there are bits & pieces here which I enjoyed a lot. It's a situation where I feel the sum of it's parts is less than what it should be.
I think a lot of the blame for Barb Wire has to go to director David Hogan, this was his first film after making a couple of music videos & it shows. The character's aren't fleshed out enough, the film is uneven, the action scenes could have been brilliant in a capable director's hands but Hogan is more interested in placing the camera at cool angles & forgets about putting on a spectacle for the audience. Apart from the gunfight between Barb & two cops & a fight on top of a crane the action scenes are not exciting, far too forgettable & way too short. A stronger more experienced director might have ironed these problems out & Barb Wire could have been a great piece of sci-fi action, I still like it but feel it's flawed. A special mention goes to Pamela Anderson who looks fantastic in this wearing a selection of fetishistic clothing, the long leather coat, the tight corset & thigh high boots she wears while catching Kreps is just god damned cool & sexy! Barb Wire is a frustrating film for me because there are things I like about it so much but other things which I hate, Pamela Anderson & her leather outfits is one thing that I love though.
Technically the film is aright, the daytime scenes all seem to have an orange sepia tone to them while the night scenes are very blue. The film has reasonable production values & a 40's period feel to the production design although the main locations seem to be a couple of old warehouses. There's actually not a bad cast here, Xander Berkeley, Udo Kier, Clint Howard, Victoria Rowell (I just couldn't stop thinking about Diagnosis Murder!), & Steve Railsback isn't a bad selection of actors at all. Pamela Anderson isn't great but she's alright & looks the business although Tamuera Morrison is truly awful in every scene he's in.
Barb Wire could have been great, I think an inexperienced director who hadn't directed a sci-fi or action film before hurt the film in the end. I'm by no means saying Barb Wire is any sort of classic but there are moments here that I really liked, Pamela Anderson just looks great in leather & it has the best opening credit sequence ever, I can't recommend it but it's a film I'll always stick up for when everyone else is trashing it.