|
In search of her father who has mysteriously disappeared while
on a mission to find a mythical species of butterfly, Gwendoline
and her sidekick Beth travel as stowaways on a ship bound
for the Far East. On arrival, the two are abducted and imprisoned
by a gang of lecherous seamen. Luckily, the two are rescued
by mercenary adventurer, Willard, a man for whom money means
more than anything. Realising that Willard could be of some
assistance, Gwendoline blackmails him into joining her and
Beth on their quest and soon the trio are embarking on a daring
and deadly journey into the Land of the Yik Yak, a country
ruled by a diabolical dominant Amazon queen and her army of
scantily-clad, fetishistic female warriors. There, Gwendoline
must defeat the evil queen and prevent Willard from being
forced to spawn a new race of female warriors before facing
certain death...
Gwendoline
(1984)
certainly has a lot going for it. The sets are impressive
for a low budget production, the acting on the whole is not
that bad, and the story is in the same vein as other action
adventure movies of that era (including the Indiana Jones
films, Romance in the Stone and King Solomon's Mines).
While Gwendoline never comes anywhere close to reaching
the quality of these films (well, maybe King Solomon's
Mines) there is still something that makes it watchable.
Sure there is the odd moment of overacting (something that
Just Jaeckin, the director, claims was intentional in order
to capture the comic feel of the original illustrated strips)
and the sets, as beautiful as they are, wobble, but you can
see what Jaeckin was trying to do.
In
all honesty I don't know if it was such a good idea to hire
a director of erotic movies to direct Gwendoline. In
truth though the
breast scenes are few and far between and the whole movie
will disappoint those who are expecting titillation, while
still managing to frighten off those who will think this is
pornographic just because Jaeckin's name is attached to it.
It isn't, of course, but it's also not family entertainment.
Brent
Huff is the real star of this movie and it is criminal that
he never went on to become a huge player in Hollywood. He
has the rugged good looks of Harrison Ford and is equally
as good an actor. Let's face it, Ford was never that good
- just lucky. You can easily imagine Huff playing Indiana
Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I'm not sure though
that Ford would have managed to turn in as believable a performance
as Huff if he had starred in Gwendoline.
The
rest of the cast bumble along, hamming it up for all they
are worth - did anyone ever think that Tawny
Kitaen could act? By the way, if the French actor that plays
D'Arcy (Jean Rougerie) looks familiar, that's because a year
later he played Aubergine in A View to a Kill.
Another
problem is that this movie was an American/French production
which means that half of the actors delivered their lines
in English, whilst the other half delivered their dialogue
in French, which was then dubbed for the American market.
The trouble is that, no matter how good the voice actors are,
over dubbing of foreign films always sticks out a mile. It
would have been so much better if the French actors delivery
had been left in and subtitles provided.
Extras
are pretty impressive. We get an audio commentary with the
director (listen out for his revelations about Steven Spielberg);
The Perils of Just (18 min featurette on the making
of the movie); US title sequence; UK promo; Lui photo shoot
(several photos from the French glamour magazine - some which
have never been published); Gwendoline and the BBFC
(a look at the cuts needed for the movie to get a UK cinema
release - which was then mysteriously dropped - and video
release); and trailers for several erotic movies.
I
particularly enjoyed the Gwendoline and the BBFC extra.
This has a list of the cuts that had to be made in order for
the movie to get an 18 certificate on it's original release.
I found it funny that the censors had absolutely no problem
with someone's ears being ripped off, but showing two semi-nude
women fighting had to be cut to a bare (pun intended) minimum.
While
this movie is far from great, it does have it's moments. And
for an '80s action adventure, this is not half bad.
Nick
Smithson
Buy
this item online
We
compare prices online so you get the cheapest
deal!
Click on the logo of the desired store below
to purchase this item.
|
|
|
£10.49
(Amazon.co.uk) |
| |
|
|
|
£14.99
(Blahdvd.com) |
| |
|
|
|
£13.69
(Thehut.com) |
| |
|
|
|
£14.99
(Moviemail-online.co.uk) |
All prices correct at time of going to press.
|
|
