Filmed and released during the height of Duran Duran's popularity, this concentrated bundle of self-importance tries in vain to straddle two genres and only succeeds in spoiling them both. Footage of the group on-stage during their 1984 Seven and the Ragged Tiger tour is interspersed with (and interrupted by) loud, overplayed vignettes of an invading alien force, which results in an effect similar to constant channel-flips between MTV and an episode of The Transformers. The inclusion of Milo O'Shea, reprising his role as the evil Dr. Durand Durand from the film Barbarella (source of the band's name) is a cute nod, but hardly enough to overcome the surrounding trainwreck. Even the band's performance, what little we actually get to see of it, is sub-par, as if we've caught them on the last few dates of a particularly draining tour. Die-hards and casuals alike should try to forget this one ever existed.
Duran Duran: Arena (An Absurd Notion)
(1985 Video)
Not Quite a Concert and Not Quite a Sci-Fi Crossover
28 June 2013