Barb Wire is yet another of the 90's movies which tried and failed to bring the comic book experience to the big screen. It fits within the group of movies such as Tankgirl, Johnny Mnemonic and Street Fighter which bombed at the box office despite the significant interest of the public.
Its basically a Casablanca rip off with Pamela Anderson as the main character who is some kind of bar manager/bounty hunter. While the first third of the movie tries to paint her as being some uber sexy vixen that goes out the window when the goofy violence and bad acting kick into gear. After that she is just an anybody in a badly fitting leather suit and clumpy 90's boots. The movie actually manages to make Pamela look unattractive. If your asking how is this possible well it looks like they picked a rock music video director to helm the movie. And it shows. The whole thing has a made for TV action movie/rock video look. Lots of filters and funny overhead camera angles for no reason and a Saturday afternoon TV show budget look, everything looks so sparse. There is zero excitement despite plenty violence and explosions, there is also zero evidence of acting ability despite some very well known faces.
This movie also shows that Pamela simply isn't a good actress and was hired for her looks. Its just that on Baywatch it doesn't matter because there isn't really an demands on her character as she's simply another beach girl, but Barb Wire is an actual character which she simply fails to project. Her tough girl act comes across as a mix between bored and annoyed.
That said it is worth watching for the sake of seeing what was a big trend in 90's movies, that of the cyberpunk/post apocalyptic vibe and failed comic movie attempt. Its ironic that some lesser budget straight to video affairs did a much better job than this ever did, despite the cast and money involved.
Its basically a Casablanca rip off with Pamela Anderson as the main character who is some kind of bar manager/bounty hunter. While the first third of the movie tries to paint her as being some uber sexy vixen that goes out the window when the goofy violence and bad acting kick into gear. After that she is just an anybody in a badly fitting leather suit and clumpy 90's boots. The movie actually manages to make Pamela look unattractive. If your asking how is this possible well it looks like they picked a rock music video director to helm the movie. And it shows. The whole thing has a made for TV action movie/rock video look. Lots of filters and funny overhead camera angles for no reason and a Saturday afternoon TV show budget look, everything looks so sparse. There is zero excitement despite plenty violence and explosions, there is also zero evidence of acting ability despite some very well known faces.
This movie also shows that Pamela simply isn't a good actress and was hired for her looks. Its just that on Baywatch it doesn't matter because there isn't really an demands on her character as she's simply another beach girl, but Barb Wire is an actual character which she simply fails to project. Her tough girl act comes across as a mix between bored and annoyed.
That said it is worth watching for the sake of seeing what was a big trend in 90's movies, that of the cyberpunk/post apocalyptic vibe and failed comic movie attempt. Its ironic that some lesser budget straight to video affairs did a much better job than this ever did, despite the cast and money involved.