La reina barbara

This is a follow-up to Barbarian Queen, but certainly not a sequel, although Lana Clarkson is back as the female protagonist (slightly changed name, Amathea). This time she is rivaling her brother, who has unjustly usurped the crown on the basis of a presumed death of their father, but on a more mundane level his principal advisor Hofrax is her chief nemesis, along with her brother's daughter. The characters are different, but she is once again leading a few elite women warriors and peasants to justice. Greg Wrangler plays her love interest (Aurion). Pretty much the same stuff, with less often, less intense bondage etc. but a nice mudwrestling scene near the beginning. In movies like this, when I think some of the acting is pretty bad (this does not include Lana), I guess I have to be understanding in realizing they have programmed, wooden lines and delivery, so... Overall, I felt this one fell a bit short of the original.

Well, this film is what it is. Some of the criticism is a bit overwrought. Yes, the plot is odd, and the production values are low. I would describe it as campy rather than just simply bad. The filmmakers cannot be oblivious to what they are putting on the screen. In the sword fighting scenes, the actors don't really even try to make it look real. Lana Clarkson looked so beautiful here, and that is sort of the point, not the medieval plot and staging. I had forgotten that Miss Clarkson was the actress murdered by Phil Spector. So sad.

This was never going to be a truly good movie, let alone a great one -- just a direct-to-video sequel to a low-budget drive-in action flick. Despite that, I find it an improvement over the first Barbarian Queen. And no, I don't mean in the acting, editing, sets or costumes; in those departments, it's just another of the Deathstalker series of sword-and-sorcery skin-a-thons. But once accepted for that, it's still passable in the way that works best for these movies: a bit tongue-in-cheek (OK, a lot tongue-in-cheek), with a fair share of skin thrown in for eye candy.

Walking tall throughout is the amazonic Lana Clarkson, who manages to deliver her hack dialog with surprisingly real conviction. Greg Wrangler, too, pulls off his Prince Nice Guy role fairly convincingly. Add in some girl-power plot, and we have ... well, a film of very minor interest, and a lot of technical issues. Whole scenes appear to have been cut (if ever filmed) and Corman was never one to ix-nay a story for getting ludicrous (and then to insist adding one more gratuitous shot of a bare-breasted actress).

What makes it all work is the strength and conviction brought by Lana Clarkson to her role. To that end, the story's theme of female empowerment is realized in her performances, even as she made films like these. Objectified she might be, but not herself made an object. As silly as the plots might get, Clarkson has us believing that *she* believes them -- or at least herself -- for long enough to film her scenes. That doesn't bring this up to Citizen Kane, but it isn't far behind Conan the Barbarian's friend Red Sonja, and on a tenth of the budget. For the Deathstalker series, that's par: cheap costumes and sets, but fairly brisk editing, and at least the sound is clear and the shots are focused. If Lana hadn't been murdered by her boyfriend, she would have gone on to greater things. As it stands, we'll have to take her in films like this.

Actually this wasn't that bad. Lana Clarkson is lovely as usual and yes there are plenty of topless shots, but what set this b-grade sword and sorcery tale apart is the other actors. Rodger Cudney is a great villain as always and somehow manages to maintain his dignity no matter how awful the situation. Greg Wrangler does a nice job as the conflicted love interest and best of all is the young Cecilia Twerina as the evil little Tamis. Who the heck let a kid on this picture? Who cares? she's great.

The plot is simply, Athalia's father, the king, may be dead and the evil Ankaris wants the throne, but needs the magical scepter to hold it. For some reason, never really explained, Hofrax (Cudney) is helping him. Tamis is Ankaris's wicked daughter. OK, the budget is obviously low, but the film doesn't look that bad and the performers appear to be trying. Note the convenient barrel of water that spills off the back of the wagon so Althalia and a barbarian babe can mud wrestle!! the fights aren't too badly staged and the plotting is pretty decent. Chris Young tries hard to convey a sense of epic with the music.

Athalia refuses to divulge the secret, in case her Father is still alive, and gets tortured by Hofrax and Tamis!! All together for the rack sequence and spider bite-ewww! Orian (Wrangler) rescues Athalia nd together they unite, literally and then the King's warrior's return and it's off to strike for justice! I won't reveal the fate of Ankaris and Tamis, but it is rather moving.

All in all this is a good b-movie with attractive performers and plenty of fun for all.

Lana Clarkson is back as A barbarian Queen (her name's different) in this Z-grade flick. The tale has something to do with a queen being outcast and joining up with other rebels to fight the king and his snotty brat of a daughter to get a magic scepture, but you didn't choose to watch something called Barbarian Queen 2 looking for plot did you? Copious amounts of T&A are what you're after, perv. Fortunately, it has a liberal dose of those. But it seems Lana spent more on her chest than the film makers spent on the movie. There's cheap, there's low-budget, there's NO budget, and then there's Barbarian Queen 2. Pretty watchable late at night while in a drunken stupor though. We'll miss you Lana, it's sad that a piece of excrement felt the need to take your life.

My Trash movie grade: D+