Barbarian Queen/Barbarian Queen 2

Rating:
Summary: Simply Entertaining!
Review: In the early 1980s Roger Corman unleased a large number of [poorly made] barbarian films in order to cash in on the success of the Conan movies. They sure have not improved with age.

In the first of the two films on this DVD, the Barbarian Queen (played by Lana Clarkson) is about to get married when an evil tyrant comes along and slaughters everyone, and raping and general exploitation ensues. The Barbarian Queen, who of course escapes, meets up with other angry young women who team up with her to get revenge. Such a plot could provide the makings of a guilty pleasure, but it completely fails to deliver. Most of this film is taken up by people walking around and talking to each other. The only thing good that can be said about this film is that it is not quite as bad as the barbarian films Sybil Danning made for Harry Alan Towers (or was it Fred Olen Ray?), but even the horrendous Italian Ator films (one can be found on the second MST3000 collection) at least managed to mix in an iota of imagination along with sheer boredom.

In Barbarian Queen 2, Lana Clarkson plays a descendant of her character in the first film. Her throne is taken from her by an evil tyrant who keeps her alive because he wants a powerful magical sword which is floating around in a magical protective barrier in one of the castle's rooms, and only Lana knows the spell necessary to wield it without bursting into flames. It only occurs to her to free the sword for her own use near the end the film (and even then doesn't really use it). Therefore much of the movie is taken up by the tyrant trying to convince Lana to hand over the bloody sword already. There is one scene in a torture chamber which is interesting in a twisted sort of way, and there is a subplot which is good for some laughs about an evil preteen girl who plans to get married to a guard who is in his early 30s, and he goes along with her romantic advances because she is in line to inherit the throne when she grows up. There is also an interesting twist at the end of the film. For these reasons I considered giving this second film something closer to 2 stars, but, naaah, not quite.

Maybe some people who like other schlocky Corman barbarian films such as Deathstalker will be able to somehow sit through this double feature.

Rating:
Summary: Simply Terrible
Review: In the early 1980s Roger Corman unleased a large number of [poorly made] barbarian films in order to cash in on the success of the Conan movies. They sure have not improved with age.

In the first of the two films on this DVD, the Barbarian Queen (played by Lana Clarkson) is about to get married when an evil tyrant comes along and slaughters everyone, and raping and general exploitation ensues. The Barbarian Queen, who of course escapes, meets up with other angry young women who team up with her to get revenge. Such a plot could provide the makings of a guilty pleasure, but it completely fails to deliver. Most of this film is taken up by people walking around and talking to each other. The only thing good that can be said about this film is that it is not quite as bad as the barbarian films Sybil Danning made for Harry Alan Towers (or was it Fred Olen Ray?), but even the horrendous Italian Ator films (one can be found on the second MST3000 collection) at least managed to mix in an iota of imagination along with sheer boredom.

In Barbarian Queen 2, Lana Clarkson plays a descendant of her character in the first film. Her throne is taken from her by an evil tyrant who keeps her alive because he wants a powerful magical sword which is floating around in a magical protective barrier in one of the castle's rooms, and only Lana knows the spell necessary to wield it without bursting into flames. It only occurs to her to free the sword for her own use near the end the film (and even then doesn't really use it). Therefore much of the movie is taken up by the tyrant trying to convince Lana to hand over the bloody sword already. There is one scene in a torture chamber which is interesting in a twisted sort of way, and there is a subplot which is good for some laughs about an evil preteen girl who plans to get married to a guard who is in his early 30s, and he goes along with her romantic advances because she is in line to inherit the throne when she grows up. There is also an interesting twist at the end of the film. For these reasons I considered giving this second film something closer to 2 stars, but, naaah, not quite.

Maybe some people who like other schlocky Corman barbarian films such as Deathstalker will be able to somehow sit through this double feature.

Rating:
Summary: Simply Entertaining!
Review: Of course these films are not high class movie entertianment. The title is Barbarian Queen for goodness sake! But they are super enjoyable in the bad movie vein. What we get here is is the beautiful Lana Clarkson (Rest In Peace) participating in some poorly staged sword fights and giving us some of the best "bad" one liners in film history as she goes on various quests. These films are definitly not for everyone, but if you find guilty pleasure in bad low budget 80's flicks such as Deathstalker, you will find enjoyment in the Barbarian Queen flicks, especially getting both films in one set! These are great films to watch with a group of friends on a slow Friday night.