Sadly Over-hyped

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The title suggests this is likely to be about women who fight with swords. That's certainly the case, but when we see that they do this wearing boots and bikinis (while their male allies and opponents of course dress far more modestly) it's fairly obvious what kind of movie this is. In fact it's a standard Conan-style fantasy. A powerful wizard-warrior is invading and two young Amazons are sent on a quest for a magic sword – the only thing which can defeat him. There's not a whole lot of originality in this theme, and not much elsewhere either, but there is a surprise or two, and the shape-shifting lioness is a nice touch.The budget is very low, the special effects laughable, the acting poor across the board, the direction clumsy and the dialog always predictable. The fight scenes need a Cory Yuen makeover – even the martial arts trained (and splendidly named!) Windsor Taylor Randolph, who plays Dyala, the lead Amazon, is unconvincing as a swordswoman. But the story, though unoriginal, is good enough to maintain some interest and excitement.This movie isn't about any of that though. It's about bare female skin, the bikini-clad Amazons, and various women they need to rescue, who keep ending up naked. There's even a brief sex scene. Some of the bodies on display, particularly the truly gorgeous Penelope Reed as Dyala's sidekick, are athletic rather than soft starlet types and, while the nudity is always gratuitous, it's definitely not unpleasant.Anyone who enjoys a corny fantasy quest with tough women and isn't put off by the exploitation side, should have fun watching this.

Roger Corman tells a story so well that this sword & sorcery adventure would have been on par with popular blockbuster films such as Conan the barbarian, were it not for obvious shortcomings in the time and money spent on production. The dubbing is sloppy and the dialog is toneless. The cheap special effects are mediocre at best and, at their worst, they look like something taken out of a cheap horror/science fiction flick from the 1950's.As an alternative attraction, Corman affords us numerous glimpses of sexy and/or athletic women, usually dressed in revealing attire and sometimes completely naked. Unlike a soft-porn production, however, the emphasis is on action and adventure, thus providing a unique platform for this kind of voyeurism.This movie may have some appeal for amazon aficionados. The hand to hand combat scenes come off reasonably well. In fact, Mindi Miller (Windsor Taylor Randolph), as Dyala, was particularly adept at handling a staff. And, both she and Penelope Reed, who played Tashi, have physiques suitable for their roles.Corman depicts amazons somewhat differently than I have seen in other productions such as Xena. In Corman's story, amazons have a prominent role in society, but still keep their place alongside men. This makes sense if anyone ever wondered where baby amazons come from. I also like the fact that despite being great warriors, the amazons still remain vulnerable, allowing us to fear for their safety and making them appear more human.Basically, the amazons are threatened by en evil wizard, who makes a pact with supernatural ghost-like beings and uses human sacrifice to gain metaphysical powers. To stop him, Dyala and Tashi, are sent on a dangerous quest for the sword of Azundati. The suspense and the overall impact of the movie are dampened, however, since we know that despite impossible odds, ultimately good will conquer evil, and all will enjoy a happy ending. So, Corman makes their challenge more difficult by creating dissension and treachery among the amazons and their friends. To provide a greater sense of reality and mortal peril, a few key characters in the story actually die.If you like the thrill of naked breasts and thighs, but you still want a half-way decent story, this movie may be worth your while.

A king turned evil sorcerer from the dark ages is conquering civilizations and he has his eyes set on the Emerald land next. The home of the infamous 'Amazon" female warriors. To stop this from happening, two Amazons Dyala and Tashi head out on a dangerous quest to retrieve the powerful "Sword of Azundati", which is the only weapon that could put a stop to this tyrant. But could a history between the two Amazon warriors' families hinder the important journey.I wasn't expecting a miracle from this chunky and bottom-of-the-barrel schlock of sword 'n' sorcery that was inspired by the commercial success of "Conan the Barbarian". Although I didn't think this Roger Corman produced, obtuse turkey was going to be "this" boring. How boring? Hugely… dull and unexciting. And how's that? As you can't go wrong with a stunning lot of fur bikini clad Amazon women. Well, you would like to think so. T & A features constantly, and they like baring their breasts in regular intervals. Too bad about the rest of the feature and the great cover art on the video case disguises and promises more than it actually delivers.Everything else is pretty bland and pedestrian. Vividly magical and unique this fantasy world is not. From the flaccidly lacklustre fight sequences to its sloth-like pacing, which feels like its always-trapped in slow motion. This is caused by many irrelevant stoppages (naturally getting sidetracked) in the quest that makes the 87 minutes running time come across like an eternity. I'm just so glad there was eye candy on show. The acting by all is plain stiff and strangely well-mannered (!). Mindi Millar, Penelope Reed (who's character gets knocked out cold and caught in trouble a lot) and a titillatingly feisty Danitza Kingsley are scratchy, but do look fine nonetheless. Joseph Whipp takes the cake in the woodenly droll evil sorcerer who shoots thunderbolts from his fingers. Truly malevolent… hell no! The special effects are as cheap and clumsy as can be (look at the transformation scene). While, the cheapjack cardboard sets don't add up much too primitive reality, but in all, these trusty elements were expected and were its charm.The drolly soft-centred story is the traditional set-up, and easy as it comes. Some oddly resourceful and quick marks shape its way into the jumbled material. The shabby script that suffocates the feature just doesn't matter here, as thinking about what they say will hurt your head. And who came up with these horrendously obscure names?! Oh right, you don't want your head to explode. Filmed in Argentina and directed by Alejandro Sessa. Nothing makes a huge dent, but there was one okay atmospheric piece, that went crazy with the lighting to go all spooky. Unfocusedly murky photography and being lampooned by a chaotically corn-riddled music score reminded me what I was watching.This fantasy sub-genre has its share of crap and "Amazons" deserves to stand along those titles. There are too little unintentional laughs that you would expect from this type of inept film-making. I wanted to enjoy this gloriously incompetence, but it had me yawning for most part.

I can almost see Beavis sitting back on the couch, licking the yellow Cheeze Puff dust off his fingers and saying "Yep, nothing like sitting down to a nice bag of Cheeze Puffs and a good old Barbarian Women movie." It's sometimes a fascinating if disreputable genre, who's modern form is traceable at least back to 1972's ATTACK OF THE BARBARIAN WOMEN by Alfonso Brescia, or possibly even PREHISTORIC WOMEN from 1967 era Hammer. There is one reason to watch them, and that is to observe hawt, half-naked chicks chop each other & anyone handy up with broadswords before relaxing in the saunas together. Gotta love the Bronze Age some days.As others have stated this one isn't bad, right up there with BARBARIAN QUEEN as probably the best examples of the mid 80's Americanized version of the genre, which probably seemed like a good marketing bet in the wake of the success of CALIGULA and Lucio Fulci's CONQUEST, which this is basically a combination of. They are usually a good bet on the entertainment factor because firstly, the cast members playing the Barbarian Women will all have to be in peak physical shape to look good in their designer fur & leather bikini costumes. People who take care of their bodies usually enjoy showing them off, so the ladies won't be adversed to ideas like being oiled up for frontal shots of their abs & thighs. Couple that with a desire to make an impact and we are talking about actresses who will be delighted to appear on screen naked, do sex scenes, and maybe even a snake dance.This one is curiously plot heavy, and the one thing that kept tweaking my funny bone were all the absurd names given to people, places, events and objects. "We must cross the forest of Anjoo and climb the sacred Nak-Nak tree to find the Sword of Nibblenoon", all said with perfectly straight faces and ample feminine curves. Even the old soothsaying 300 year old witch-lady is hot, and those with a taste for discipline may be amused by the completely subservient & impotent nature of the men in the film. The one guy who is supposedly the hero spends the film locked up in a cage until it's time to feed him to a lioness, and the only male character in the film that makes any kind of an impression is Joseph Whipp's at-times hilarious meanie sorcerer villain, who not only gets to sleep with the lead actress but gets some genuine laughs playing his role in a totally blasé, non-mystical manner. He's just an evil rotten dude endowed with some kind of magical force, basically wants to destroy the world, enslave humanity and conquer Hell. You have to admire someone who knows what they want, and has a scheme to achieve it.The only thing I didn't really like about the film was the one problem I have with the whole Barbarian Women genre, which is that the plots lend themselves to scenes that will inevitably feature sexual violence against the scantily clad heroines -- Fortunately this one aborts it's gang rape before the fireworks start but it's still kind of disturbing to watch a couple of big-haired 80's Valley Girl types get roughed up by a bunch of scummy, sweaty, degenerate male extras who look like roadies for Meatloaf. I guess the fact that they all get killed off after wards is supposed to make it all even out, but notice how you don't see a lot of films like this being made anymore.So get a bag of Nachos or whatever, spark up and enjoy the show. Beats the Global Warming movie genre at least.6/10 for being so relaxingly stupid, and over quickly.