ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 4, 1996 TAG: 9605070037
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
"Barb Wire" is a bizarre little hybrid.
As the advertising has indicated, it's a comic book shoot-'em-up filled with pyrotechnic fight scenes. But the plot has been lifted from a more curious source: "Casablanca."
Yes, in this variation - set in Steel Harbor, the last free city in a fascist future America - Rick's Cafe is Hammerhead, a nightclub run by the motorcycle-riding blond bombshell Barb Wire (Pamela Anderson Lee). The local corrupt policeman, Commander Willis (Xander Berkeley), takes over for Claude Rains' Capt. Renault.
Ilsa is now Axel (Temuera Morrison, from ``Once Were Warriors''), a man from Barb's past, and Victor Laszlo is Cora D (Victoria Rowell). Instead of letters of transit, they need "retinal lenses" to evade the evil Congressionals' security scanners. And Col. Pryzer (Steve Railsback), filling in for Maj. Strasser, will do anything to stop them, etc., etc.
With its recycled script, the film has virtually no suspense or surprises. You know what's going to happen next. The only difference is that something will blow up or someone will be shot.
Director David Hogan does an adequate job with the cartoonish kinetic action. He has the sense to copy the right people - most obviously John Woo - but he can't match Woo's elaborate choreography or the deeper levels of meaning that underlie Woo's best work.
Star Pamela Anderson Lee isn't altogether persuasive as a tough, physically powerful heroine. Her grotesquely tight lace-up leather outfits make her look smaller than everyone else in the cast, and all the exaggerated sound effects and stunt-double work don't make her kicks and punches seem real. That said, neither she nor anyone else involved with the production seems to take it seriously. Note the various jokes about Lee's surgically enhanced breasts.
In the end, nobody really expects much of these manufactured sex symbols, and so "Barb Wire" is an adequate vehicle for her limited abilities.
Barb Wire **
A Gramercy Pictures release playing at the Salem Valley 8 and Valley View 6. 94 min. Rated R for strong language, graphic violence, teasing nudity.
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