Barbarian Queen (1985) Movie Review

Barbarian Queen was a 1985 sword-and-Sandal fantasy action film directed by Héctor Olivera, written by Howard R. Cohen and produced by B-movie king Roger Corman as part of his nine picture deal that included shooting several films in Don Torcuato, Argentina. The cast includes six foot bombshell Lana Clarkson, actress turned writer/director Katt Shea, Frank Zagarino, Dawn Dunlap, Armando Bó's son Víctor Bó, Susana Traverso, Andrea Barbieri and Tony Middleton. The film was one in a series of fantasy films Corman shot in that country throughout the 1980s, including Deathstalker (1983), The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984), Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (1985), Amazons (1986) and Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans (1987). Most of these films recycled the same sets, props, costumes and even footage, each movie recycling more and more resources.

The wedding of Queen Amethea is interrupted by a gang of bloodthirsty soldiers following the orders of Lord Arrakur. Her groom is captured and her sister is raped. Amethea unites with her handmained, Estrild, and a warrior, Tiniara, in order to rescue her loved ones and defeat the man who caused her such pain.

Without much to brag about, Barbarian Queen functions very smoothly and without issues as a likable and fast paced fantasy flick with all of the ingredients that make this type of formula work: cheap attires that add to the drab ancient look, lots of violence and nudity for the sake of exploitation that makes the whole ordeal sleazy, captivating characters that fall into archetypes but that are decently played by the cast, a simple but ultimately engaging storyline that has all the emotion and rawness needed to entertain and a particular rhythm that makes things more digestable. It's a pretty complete package, it goes along well with the technical skills of Hector Olivera and his wonderful directing as the film is well blocked and expertly lit, giving a lot of texture and grittiness to the images.

While the characters are not profoundly explored they are very well defined, which gives the routine plotline some more substance. The performers do their job very well and the three main ladies stand out both because of their skills and their physicality seen on the frame. They really do have some screen presence. We also get some cheap and silly but endearing special effects that are not that bad considering that it's such a meager production. The film's biggest flaws are the more misogynistic components and the lack of investment in the bonding or interactions between the female leads themselves.

The fact that this was a low budget genre film should already give you a hint of how sleazy this film is going to be. Some will find shocking the fact that a film with a semi-feminist message ends up exploiting women and has some lurid nudity and sexual assault as a form of spectacle for the public but a lot of these contradictions are why exploitation movies are fascinating. By having to appeal to the market they can also inject some thoughtful commentary or ideas without having to lose the audience. Nothing wrong with touching upon subjects directly, but having this distance and paradoxical nature does give us some very interesting results. It should also be said that this is a common thing for Corman, especially considering how there's small remains of The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957) throughout this film, only updated and modified to fit the Conan rip-off mold. 

Overall, this is a good sword-and-sandal item of the eighties with enough virtues and interesting implications in its subtext.

Slayers Gorgeous (1998) Anime Movie Review

Slayers Gorgeous is a comedy fantasy anime film directed by Hiroshi Watanabe and written by Hajime Kanzaka. The cast includes Megumi Hayashibara, Maria Kawamura, Akira Kamiya, Kyoko Hikami and Junpei Takiguchi. Released on August 1st, 1998, on a double feature with Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture – Prince of Darkness, it was the very last Slayers prequel feature film to be released during this decade  and it was one of the last gasps of the franchise as it had been squeezed by executives ever since 1995.

Lina and Naga wander around a little town but they are surprised by the attack of a girl riding a gigantic dragon. Lina confronts her but she is stopped by one of the local guards. Turns out the girl riding the dragon is the King's daughter, Marlene, who decided to turn on her family and kingdom when her dad wouldn't give her enough money, using the kingdom's fleet of dragons to her advantage. Lina agrees to help the king stop her but Naga allies with the dragon princess looking to gain something out of it.

Instead of a sprawling adventure with a variety of environments and places we have a very self-contained story secluded to a few locations inside a small kingdom. This is fine as we get a tightly constructed script involving the royal family feud with the help of the girls on each side. Relying more on strategy and the cleverness of each side rather than discovering a mystery or something. Naga joining the villain's side is a bit too automatic though, taken for granted, but coherent if you already know the character. It doesn't even feel like a retreat of Slayers Great because there was more of a motivation there but it still works here as it never goes against what the characters are. It all makes sense.

The combat sequences are more focused and rely more heavily on the characters game plans and the construction of the motion and position of the characters rather than discontinuous shots of violence at a grand scale like other fantasy or action shows do when it comes to storyboarding and direction. In a similar fashion to Slayers Return, we have more intricate action sequences in which the animators can skillfully pull you into the set-piece without lazy bombasticness. Not only that, but the humour is solid enough and is incorporated into the animation with ease, as usual for the Slayers franchise, but because of the purity of the premise it stands out even more in this highly comedic plot that doesn't take itself seriously at all, making fun of itself at every chance.

The new characters are enjoyable and are the perfect comedy fodder that Slayers often takes full comedic advantage of. A spoiled brat like Marlene only could have worked in this series in a way that you both like her and find her brattiness funny and not annoying in any way. They accomplish this by both her well built characterization and her hilarious failures.

A very cool Slayers entry. The prequel movies go out with a bang in this funny and charming little film. Completely recommended.

Slayers Try (1997) Anime Series Review

Slayers Try is a 1997 fantasy anime TV series and is the third one in the Slayers franchise created by Hajime Kanzaka. We talked about the previous seasons here but Try is different in the sense that it's the first Slayers show that doesn't pull from the original light novels to craft its main storyline. In fact, this series is 100% original material by Kanzaka. It's also directed by series regular Takashi Watanabe, with fundamental contributions by artists like Rui Araizumi and Katsumi Hasegawa. This season isn't often as mentioned and remembered as the previous one but it has its fair share of nice moments. 

Lina and company meet a strange woman named Filia who wants to hire the team. She puts them to the test and turns into a golden dragon, Lina's powerful spell she summoned to destroy the golden dragon ends up creating a huge tsunami that annihilates the port they sailed from. Filia comes back to tell Lina that her sister has a very important mission to accomplish: stop the possible destruction of their world. So they decide to embark to the outer world outside of their realm.

Making one of the means of transportation a ship, this change from land to sea, was a very obvious and kind of cheap trick to do something innovative but it works wonders and helps to change things up a bit, giving us also more variety in settings than before since we are now able to witness a wider variety of locations and places by going outside the main group's known land. Lina and friends encounter fantasy creatures, more powerful magicians, kingdoms at war and many other obstacles since now they are even more out of their element.

The hilarious slapstick antics and shenanigans also reappear with precise execution, the animation is a bit slicker and the overall technical quality either stays the same or improves in this season. The structure of the episodes and the overall macro structure of the season is practically the same as always, with enough balance between somewhat self-conclusive episodes that have a very particular set up and payoff, usually comedic, and the multi-part story heavy episodes that require more amounts of exposition of lore but never going overboard with it. While everything seems more streamlined and there's less room for side-quests, there are a few of those that are very reminiscent of the previous seasons like the Alice in Wonderland episode, the Super Sentai parody or the romantic one with the fish people. 

During the more intense fights and magical combats the show keeps itself firmly serious and a bit sober, but since these episodes abound in this season they try to space them out and give us some tonal variety with some of the other characters while the main action goes on or during certain intervals featuring comedic moments. It’s all helped by a brisk pace and a good balance of dramatic elements around 26 episodes and very little filler. 

Filia adds more to the character dynamics by keeping the group in check and also with her rivalry with Xelloss. She is kind of like the opposite of Martina from Next, in that she helps the team and supports them and guides them but ultimately has some friction and conflicts with them on occasion, setting up some very funny jokes along the way. This makes her a different companion and alters the dynamic between the group. So she is a nice new addition. 

Overall, I would totally recommend Try to anyone who had a good time with Next and the original series since it continues what was presented in those shows leaving the core intact but with enough refreshing components to make it feel like an advancement instead of a step back.