Review of Barb Wire

Barb Wire (1996)
5/10
Not That Bad
10 March 2014
"Barb Wire" (Pamela Anderson) is a nightclub owner in a futuristic America where a civil war has broken out between two distinct factions. The first is known as the "Congressional Directoret" and the second as the "Resistance". Now, as it so happens Barb Wire also moonlights as a mercenary who has little sympathy for either side and operates in the only free city left which is known as "Steel Harbor". However, when a former government scientist named "Dr. Corina Devonshire" (Victoria Rowell) escapes from the Congressional Directoret and arrives in Steel Harbor carrying some special contact lenses worth $2 million-along with Barb Wire's former lover named "Axel Hood" (Temuera Morrison)-Barb Wire becomes indirectly involved. And that spells bad news for whichever side she's not on. Anyway, rather than reveal the rest of the details and possibly spoil the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this movie was widely panned by the critics when it first came out. As a matter of fact, Pamela Anderson received several Razzie Awards for her performance which included "Worst New Star" and "Worst Actress". Other Razzie Awards for the film included "Worst Picture" along with being nominated for "Worst Screenplay" and "Worst Original Song". So judging from these awards and nominations one would think that this was an extremely bad movie. However, rather than simply going with the proverbial crowd I happen to have my own opinion which is quite different. First, I didn't think her performance was that bad. As a matter of fact I kind of enjoyed it. Not only that but I have seen a lot worse movies than this particular one. Now, that's not to say that this film was great by any means because it clearly wasn't. But it was hardly the worst movie for that year. Nowhere close. Likewise, although I didn't especially care for the performance of Temuera Morrison I thought the performance of Udo Kier (as "Curly") was actually quite good. Anyway, there you have it. Again, while "Barb Wire" may not be a great film I didn't think it was necessarily that bad either. I rate it as average.
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