Barbarella (1968)

Barbarella (1968), directed by Roger Vadim.

When a scientist goes missing, dim but earnest agent Jane Fonda is, for some damned reason, dispatched to find him. (Plot? Look elsewhere). She has a pink spacecraft shaped like a packet of lipstick, and the interior is entirely covered with brown shag carpet.

She gets laid a few times, despite initial ignorance of the physical nature of the act as still practiced on primitive planets.

I don't know what they were going for here, or if they achieved it. Maybe it's too subtle for me, but you would think anyone trying to make a science fiction spoof would know something about science fiction and something about humor.

The project's assets are:

• Fonda's face and figure...

...and that is about it. She provides a bit of t&a nudity. Apart from that and some sexual situations, it looks like something made for children, with 10 cent special effects and ridiculous costumes. In look and design there is a direct line connecting this with another De Laurentiis production, Flash Gordon (1980), although the latter film looks like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) by comparison.

Ok, I admit I laughed a couple of times: when she burned out the death-by-orgasm device, and at the hapless revolutionary commander played by David Hemmings, a character named "Dildano". (I don't make these films, folks, I just review 'em).

Available on Blu-ray.