Barbarella is a futuristic girl from Earth who is called on to retrieve Duran-Duran, a noted scientist, from the evil planet of SoGo. On her perilous (and quite sexy) journey she teams with blind angel Pygar (John Phillip Law), and battles the Black Queen (Anita Pallenberg) along with various sexual torture devices.

The film is hilarious, from the Black Queen's catch-cry of "pretty pretty pretty" to the hoard of evil children with what look like rabid Cabbage Patch dolls. Barbarella's anti-gravity striptease during the opening credits is a hoot, too.

BARBARELLA was directed by Roger Vadim (then the husband of Jane Fonda), and is full of vintage 60's retro influence.

The DVD also includes the trailer.


BARBARELLA PSYCHEDELLA.....   October 13, 2002
 13 out of 13 found this review helpful

Roger Vadim's sexy sci-fi opus starring his then wife Jane Fonda as the outer space adventuress Barbarella opens with the now famous strip-tease scene over the opening credits. Fonda peels out of her space suit accompanied by the sexy sixties pop theme song. She is totally nude but discretely covered here and there by her arm or a letter from the credits. You can still see her breasts anyway. Based on a notorious French comic strip character, this futuristic saga is more of a fetishistic ode by Vadim to Fonda's kittenish sexuality. Through all of her sexual escapades throughout the film, he focuses (like he did with Bardot) on her beauty and body whether nude or clad in skimpy "futuristic" costumes. What stuns me is this got a "PG" on DVD. It's too raunchy for a "PG". Parents should be cautioned before letting their kids see this. Although, older boys will find it a turn on like their fathers did---but it's very campy and a lot of the humor will be lost on today's generation. Still, it's a nice time capsule for what the sixties had going on and Fonda is beautiful.


Funny, Intentionally-Horrid Camp / Cult Sci-Fi Flick   March 17, 2003
 11 out of 13 found this review helpful

Jane Fonda may regret opting Barbarella as one of her earlier films, but fans of bad camp and cult sci-fi are happy to see the actress in this horridly funny sixties film.

Fonda plays the title role of a spaice vixen / astronaut in the exceptionally distant yet sixties-fied future. When genius but mad scientist Dr. Duran Duran (presumably from whom the band took their name) disappears, Barbarella is sent to track him down and given weapons she has no clue how to use (war has been outlawed for ages) and little warning of the planet she'll be landing on.

Pursued by evil children with cannibalistic dolls and rescued by a tough man in furs, Barbarella finds out about real sex (thankfully not pictured) when she offers to use a mood-linking pill, the 41st century method of copulation. From there she's off to a city of evil, avarice, and sin, to be caught by the demented Dr. Duran and put through such tortures as a cage of pecking budgies to the doctor's notorious and sensual machine for execution by sheer pleasure to a lake of liquid evil whose effects look to have been done by lava lamp. Along the way she meets various helpers (most of whom she ends up sleeping with), including a blind angel named Pygar.

Barbarella's costumes vary with each scene, all skin-tight and definitely satirizing the garb of women of golden-age science fiction. On the whole, the movie pokes fun at the field of early science fiction rather well with a heaping helping of sixties hippie culture thrown in for good measure.

Barbarella is by no means a good movie, but it is excellent fare for fans of campy sci-fi that would be right at home on MST:3K and quite humorous when taken with a grain of salt.