Amazons (1986)

User Rating:

4.4/10   

Director:

Alejandro Sessa

Writer:

Charles Saunders (writer)

Release Date:

29 October 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Fantasy | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

An epic from the dark ages about the legendary lost tribe of warrior women! The girls fly into danger...

Plot Keywords:

Transformation | Female Nudity | Sword And Sorcery | Nudity | Magic

Cast

Ty Randolph	...	Dyala (as Windsor Taylor Randolph)
Penelope Reed	...	Tashi
Joseph Whipp	...	Kalungo
Danitza Kingsley	...	Tshingi
Wolfram Hoechst	...	Mallin
Jacques Arndt	...	High Priest
Charles Finch	...	Timar
Francisco Cocuzza	...	Balgur (as Frank Cocza)
Santiago Mallo	...	Halfhead
Anita Larronde	...	Emerald Queen (as Annie Larronde)
Armando Capo	...	Habron (as Armand Capó)
Maria Fournery	...	Vishti (as Mary Fournery)
Noëlle Balfour	...	Lali
Esther Velázquez	...	Azundati
Marcos Woinsky	...	Arban (as Marc Woinsky)

Also Known As:

Amazon (USA) (working title)
Amazonas (Argentina)

Runtime:

Germany:87 min | USA:76 min

Country:

Argentina

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Norway:18 (video premiere) | Germany:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Baires Studios, Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Company:

Aries Films International

Friendship conquers all… on this epic treck.

A king turned evil sorcerer from the dark ages is conquering civilizations and he has his eyes set on the Emerald land next. The home of the infamous 'Amazon" female warriors. To stop this from happening, two Amazons Dyala and Tashi head out on a dangerous quest to retrieve the powerful "Sword of Azundati", which is the only weapon that could put a stop to this tyrant. But could a history between the two Amazon warriors' families hinder the important journey.

I wasn't expecting a miracle from this chunky and bottom-of-the-barrel schlock of sword 'n' sorcery that was inspired by the commercial success of "Conan the Barbarian". Although I didn't think this Roger Corman produced, obtuse turkey was going to be "this" boring. How boring? Hugely… dull and unexciting. And how's that? As you can't go wrong with a stunning lot of fur bikini clad Amazon women. Well, you would like to think so. T & A features constantly, and they like baring their breasts in regular intervals. Too bad about the rest of the feature and the great cover art on the video case disguises and promises more than it actually delivers.

Everything else is pretty bland and pedestrian. Vividly magical and unique this fantasy world is not. From the flaccidly lacklustre fight sequences to its sloth-like pacing, which feels like its always-trapped in slow motion. This is caused by many irrelevant stoppages (naturally getting sidetracked) in the quest that makes the 87 minutes running time come across like an eternity. I'm just so glad there was eye candy on show. The acting by all is plain stiff and strangely well-mannered (!). Mindi Millar, Penelope Reed (who's character gets knocked out cold and caught in trouble a lot) and a titillatingly feisty Danitza Kingsley are scratchy, but do look fine nonetheless. Joseph Whipp takes the cake in the woodenly droll evil sorcerer who shoots thunderbolts from his fingers. Truly malevolent… hell no! The special effects are as cheap and clumsy as can be (look at the transformation scene). While, the cheapjack cardboard sets don't add up much too primitive reality, but in all, these trusty elements were expected and were its charm.

The drolly soft-centred story is the traditional set-up, and easy as it comes. Some oddly resourceful and quick marks shape its way into the jumbled material. The shabby script that suffocates the feature just doesn't matter here, as thinking about what they say will hurt your head. And who came up with these horrendously obscure names?! Oh right, you don't want your head to explode. Filmed in Argentina and directed by Alejandro Sessa. Nothing makes a huge dent, but there was one okay atmospheric piece, that went crazy with the lighting to go all spooky. Unfocusedly murky photography and being lampooned by a chaotically corn-riddled music score reminded me what I was watching.

This fantasy sub-genre has its share of crap and "Amazons" deserves to stand along those titles. There are too little unintentional laughs that you would expect from this type of inept film-making. I wanted to enjoy this gloriously incompetence, but it had me yawning for most part.