Rating of
2/4
Dear God, imagine if the 1980s never ended...
Indyfreak - wrote on 02/02/15
We'd still be making movies like Sheena: Queen of the Jungle. It's a bit of a twisted miracle that this was made at all. I mean, it must have been a hell of a time to be a filmmaker back in the 1980s where it seemed one could have gotten anything produced at all. I mean don't get me wrong, this is not an awful film nor a misunderstood classic. It's just not a good film but the content and the style and hell the whole premise is so off-the-wall crazy it's remarkable that this was made. In a word, it's just hokey. Pure hokum in fact. It plays its laughable premise completely straight and fails to see the humor in that.
A pretty blonde raised in the African jungle by natives to be a warrior telepathic with animals? The villain is a retired football player who is trying to launch a revolution to become king? We have X - rated nudity in a PG film marketed to families? The hero is a former Playboy bunny that rides a horse painted to look like a zebra? The crux for the plot is a patch of earth with healing properties? Tanya Roberts actually does NOT get the guy in the end? What kind of movie is this you might ask?
After some thought, I consider it the Raiders of the Lost Ark...of bad movies. Take everything cool about Indiana Jones and flip it to make it lame. That's Sheena: Queen of the Jungle. If there's one thing going for it, it's Tanya Roberts. And I don't mean her nude scenes-for which I'm still grateful. But it's the fact that the poor woman is saddled with a lead role in a dumb movie but my word, she tries her best (as she herself is capable of) acting-wise and takes it deadly serious. This is of course made silly since everyone else seems to be on the joke that it's a bad movie.
Oh I forget myself. There's one more positive thing about it and that is the scenery. They shot on location in Kenya and sweet mother of God, it is gorgeous. What is it about bad movies looking so damn good?
I'm knocking it harshly throughout this review and yet I'm astounded that this got made at all and took itself so seriously it's actually a guilty pleasure even without the nudity....I think.
