good back-story, and good acting

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Back in the 80's, we didn't have CGI... we had Gold's Gym.(So I tell "the youngsters")This movie is a vehicle for charisma, pure & simple, and a fantastic example of something being more than the sum of its parts. Yes, it's stupid. Yes, it's another 1980's Conan rip-off. Yes, it looks bad. And no, the plot does nothing to remedy *any* of this.But who cares? I just finished reviewing The Force Awakens, the Carefully Calculated Cash Cow that the Star Wars franchise has tragically yet inevitably become. Which immediately brought this goofy old muscle movie to mind... because it's the polar opposite, and glory-glory-hallelujah is that a good thing.Here's the "story": some admittedly weak gypsy stuff happens for a bit, and then the rest of the movie is two ridiculously huge bodybuilder barbarians acting like the big goofs that they are.The End. Roll credits.In all seriousness, though, these guys have more natural charisma in their *headbands* than the super-duper-über new Star Wars movie that's currently steamrolling toward the $2 billion mark worldwide. That's right, a couple of oafs thumping plastic(?) monsters in the presence of a fog machine is *infinitely* better entertainment than Death Star #3 and its accompanying (overrated) special effects.Zero pretentiousness. Zero much of anything substantive, really! Just good old fun.

First Impressions:After a long day at work I was scrolling through on demand's strange collection of impact movies only to find this little gem. Reading that this film was about twin warriors fighting a David Bowie looking villain, I could hardly resist. Having a twin sister of my own I found that David and Peter Paul worked well together and actually shared some funny moments on screen.The look:The sets where much better looking than I expected (I loved many of the exterior shots, exotic looking locations), acting was good, and many of the characters were certainly enjoyable (The twins were the best, hands down). The good:This film delivers what it promises; to be a Conan-ish 1980s sword and sorcery flick with a little humor, heart, and horses. I like how the actors/actresses play off of each other and getting whisked away into the fantasy flick.The bad:Some of the effects and music where a bit dated; I understand budget restraints and rights could've been a factor BUT according to IMDb it states that it was estimated at around $4,000,000. The gore effects were mostly believable but that dragon was only a head, you couldn't fool me.The ugly:The sorceress was far too flat for my liking. Compared to Lynch, talk about lame villain, nice look going though. I couldn't understand her motivation so much other than jealousy. The women in this flick sadly fell under the damsel in distress route far too often. I can't name one time that they encountered peril and got themselves out. Kara never even used the bow and arrow she eventually acquired, what gives? (I'm no feminist but come on, bring on the hurt!)Overall: I'd love to watch this one again, might even buy it and enjoy it with a bowl of freshly popped popcorn. The version I saw was pretty rough though, looked like an old VHS rip. I won't get my hopes up if the double feature set with the Norseman on Amazon looks much better though. Toodles.

Where do I start about this film. I love it! As a child, the Conan movies and Clash of the Titans were my favorites. I watched everything and anything that had a warrior, sorcerer, dragon, knight, etc., on it's VHS cover. Back when video stores rained supreme and there was no internet to watch trailers, no movie review sites, and no IMDb (the horror!), the cover of the VHS was what made you pick it up and read the 2 or 3 paragraph synopsis of the film (and look at a picture or 3 if you were lucky), or just walk right by it and keep browsing until something caught your eye. The "Sword and Sandal" genre was my favorite (along with sci-fi) but was also probably the most plagued with awesome cover art that mislead you on the often crappy, low quality movies (which I still loved). And one day, I picked up the movie The Barbarians...The Barbarians is directed by Italian director Ruggero Deodato (most famous for his 1980 cult horror Cannibal Holocaust), and he makes an adventure comedy that is one of the "best worst movies" ever made. The film opens in a serious tone, complete with narration explaining who the Ragneks are, essentially free spirited traveling entertainers. As we see the caravan of colorfully clad Ragneks traversing a lush landscape (the film is filled with beautiful scenic landscapes and locations), a band of horsemen is suddenly upon them and starts killing off the peaceful entertainers. After a long, entertaining chase scene (with a decent amount of blood and death!), we meet our film's main villain, Kadar (Richard Lynch, The Sword and the Sorcerer). He wants a magical gem the Ragneks are known to have, and the Ragnek Queen Canary (the stunning Virginia Bryant in one of her 6 film roles) as his companion. During this scene, which is 15 minutes into the movie at this point, we meet two young twin boys and a young girl (who become our heroes later). After more killing, Queen Canary promises to go with Kadar (Lynch) if he and his men promise to never hurt the 3 children...Now fast forward 17 years, we finally meet the title characters, twins Gore and Kutchek, aka the Barbarian Brothers. For better or worse, these two muscle bound knuckle heads turn an otherwise serious movie into an all out fantasy comedy. The brothers, kept separated and told the other was killed, have been tortured and trained as gladiators, each tormented by a man in a mask (one brother by an iron mask, the other brother a brass mask). The brother's, each now the size of Arnold in Conan, are made to wear the other brothers' tormentor's mask (still with me?) and put in a cage to fight each other to the death! Of course the masks come off after a few swift blows and the brother's realize they have been lied to and decide they have to team up to break out. Now free, they decide they must rescue Queen Canary and kill the evil Kadar who killed their people and imprisoned them all those years. They soon team up with young, lovely Kara (Eva La Rue, CSI Miami), who just so happened to be that young girl from the beginning! The trio ventures forth in search of weapons and the aforementioned magical jewel, getting into bar fights (there is a great scene with Italian cult actor George Eastman), battling a werewolf creature, zombies and even a giant dragon (which is one of the most laughably mechanical dragons ever put on film!).The Barbarians is a bad movie no doubt about it, but it knows exactly what it is and goes for it. It is one of those films that is so bad that it is great. The Paul brothers are so over the top, they are clearly not actor's (one of them has the worst over the top laugh ever heard on film). They obviously are not even trying to act and instead use their charisma and charm (if you can call it that) to make an entertaining, fun, fantasy adventure comedy. The movie is full of brawn, babes, swords, sorcerers, monsters, action and laughs. If you like bad movies, sword and sandal flicks, or Italian exploitation films, then The Barbarians is definitely for you and could quit possibly be a new favorite! I just hope that this film get's a DVD/blu ray release soon, because unless you want to spend $50 - $100 on an old VHS on eBay, the only way you can currently (2012) see this fantastic piece of trash cinema is on YouTube, cut up in 10 minute increments, in low resolution. This cult classic is remembered by a select few, but most that remember it, remember it fondly. And some, like myself, will treasure this movie for decades to come...

I love bad movies. Not only, because they often are as entertaining as 'really' 'good' films (like Pirates of the Caribbean series and other Hollywood pathos), but they often are far better than those films. And that's the reason why I love Italian rip off cinema of 1970s and 1980s. And that's the reason why I especially love this movie, The Barbarians & the Company.Director Ruggero Deodato has made some actually very good movies, like House on the Edge of the Park, and also his Atlantis Interceptors and Live Like a Cop, Die Like a Man are enjoyable action movies. But this is really bad. The Barbarians is so idiotic movie. Peter and David Paul as the Barbarian Brothers Kutchek and Gore are very funny, because of their lack of charisma and acting skills. But if they can't act, they yell and scream every time they do something important. In one scene people try to hang the Barbarian Brothers, and they escape very extraordinary way.Bad acting, bad special effects, very stupid story, bad direction, actually everything is bad in this movie. I can't describe how much I laughed when I watched this first time. The Barbarians & the Company is camp classic everybody should see once. If you thought Plan 9 From Outer Space is fun camp, this will be a real killer.