Amazons

Trailer—Amazons

source: Amazons

Exactly what it says on the tin. Overflowing with magic, *, and questionably choreographed sword fighting, this film has everything one would expect from an 80s sword and sorcery classic adventure. Once again, Roger Corman shines doing what he does best; making highly entertaining cheesy B-movies that serve as great popcorn watches with plenty of heart. My third favourite sword and sorcery flick, beaten only by Conan the Barbarian in first place and Deathstalker in second!

Well if you think me using the word sword is an innuendo ... well I mean what do you suppose I should tell you? Your thoughts, that I definitely did not stir up, by talking about them. That aside though, the movie is quite decent overall, if you don't mind (or even embrace) the nudity at play here. The stunts are ok and shot in a way, that you mostly can't tell that there is not much behind them (be it the weapons or the action itself). If you like Fantasy movies (and boy did they do a lot of them in the 80s, Conan may be the one to thank/blame for that), I probably don't have to pursuade too much. I would think this is one of the better ones. Quality wise the pic was quite good on the German Blu Ray I own, but since I watched the long version, it also had scenes included that were in a different format - but even more problematic only available dubbed in German and in VHS quality! If you don't know what a VHS is (a cassette put simply), I'm just telling you that the quality is lacking a lot

Sword and sorcery was a big part of the films that Roger Corman released in the 1980's. To be fair, different sword and sorcery cycles - peblum to Conan ripoff - have always been part of Corman's films. Amazons is from Argentina and is based on the Charles R. Saunders story Agbewe's Sword. Saunders was born in Elizabeth, PA, about fifteen minutes from where we live. He settled in Nova Scotia where he worked for a local newspaper and wrote several well-received short stories about the African-American community there. He also, in his spare time, created the world of Imaro and became one of the first writers to create African-American centric sword and sorcery stories*. Based on the real-life female warriors of the West African Kingdom of Dahomey, Amazons tells the story of several female warriors, like Dyala (Mindi Miller, Caged Fury), Tashi (Penelope Reed), Tashinge (Danitza Kingsley, Blackout) and Vishiti (Maria Fournery, Deathstalker). What is not based on reality is that there's a woman in this movie who can transform into a lion. So know that going in. Neither is the Sword of Azundati, which the trailer seems to think is Excalibur. But hey, who cares about reality? There are Amazon fights galore, including one battle between one of the women and a giant snake. That's really why I watch movies. *He also wrote Stormquest, another movie that was made with Sessa directing. It's all about a female-dominated society coming to realize that they may be wrong by excluding men. It's one of the last of ten Argentinan barbarian movies that Corman would produce.

A king turned evil sorcerer from the dark ages is conquering civilizations and he has his eyes set on the Emerald land next. The home of the infamous 'Amazon" female warriors. To stop this from happening, two Amazons Dyala and Tashi head out on a dangerous quest to retrieve the powerful "Sword of Azundati", which is the only weapon that could put a stop to this tyrant. But could a history between the two Amazon warriors' families hinder the important journey. I wasn't expecting a miracle from this chunky and bottom-of-the-barrel schlock of sword 'n' sorcery that was inspired by the commercial success of "Conan the Barbarian". Although I didn't think this Roger Corman produced, obtuse turkey was going to be "this" boring. How boring? Hugely… dull and unexciting. And how's that? As you can't go wrong with a stunning lot of fur bikini clad Amazon women. Well, you would like to think so. T & A features constantly, and they like baring their breasts in regular intervals. Too bad about the rest of the feature and the great cover art on the video case disguises and promises more than it actually delivers. Everything else is pretty bland and pedestrian. Vividly magical and unique this fantasy world is not. From the flaccidly lacklustre fight sequences to its sloth-like pacing, which feels like its always-trapped in slow motion. This is caused by many irrelevant stoppages (naturally getting sidetracked) in the quest that makes the 87 minutes running time come across like an eternity. I'm just so glad there was eye candy on show. The acting by all is plain stiff and strangely well-mannered (!). Mindi Millar, Penelope Reed (who's character gets knocked out cold and caught in trouble a lot) and a titillatingly feisty Danitza Kingsley are scratchy, but do look fine nonetheless. Joseph Whipp takes the cake in the woodenly droll evil sorcerer who shoots thunderbolts from his fingers. Truly malevolent… hell no! The special effects are as cheap and clumsy as can be (look at the transformation scene). While, the cheapjack cardboard sets don't add up much too primitive reality, but in all, these trusty elements were expected and were its charm. The drolly soft-centred story is the traditional set-up, and easy as it comes. Some oddly resourceful and quick marks shape its way into the jumbled material. The shabby script that suffocates the feature just doesn't matter here, as thinking about what they say will hurt your head. And who came up with these horrendously obscure names?! Oh right, you don't want your head to explode. Filmed in Argentina and directed by Alejandro Sessa. Nothing makes a huge dent, but there was one okay atmospheric piece, that went crazy with the lighting to go all spooky. Unfocusedly murky photography and being lampooned by a chaotically corn-riddled music score reminded me what I was watching. This fantasy sub-genre has its share of crap and "Amazons" deserves to stand along those titles. There are too little unintentional laughs that you would expect from this type of inept film-making. I wanted to enjoy this gloriously incompetence, but it had me yawning for most part.

This is a definite "so bad it's good" movie.The acting is nothing short of atrocious,the fight scenes are incredibly clumsy,the dialogue about equal to an Ed Wood movie and the facial expressions are priceless!That coupled with loads of pointless * scenes featuring the super hot Xena-type warriors in the lead roles makes for a totally hilarious movie.

When I sat down to watch the 1986 movie "Amazons" here late in 2020, I had never even heard about the movie. So I didn't really know what it was about, and I must admit that I had hoped for a proper sword and sorcery movie with an amazon theme, but instead I was served a lousy sexploitation movie dressed in a fantasy setting. Not really the movie I was looking for. The story in "Amazons" wasn't really the most thrilling or interesting. Sure, it was adequate enough and provided sufficient contents to maintain the movie afloat. But the plot and script wasn't exactly intricate or elaborate. It was pretty straight forward and generic. Albeit with a bit too much focus on nudity and showing off women. Sure, the amazons are women, but needless to portray in such a sexual manner, as it just made for a sleazy movie. The acting in the movie was not overly great. But hey, for a movie such as this turned out to be, acting wasn't really the top priority. I suppose being able to wear scantily outfits and show off naked bodies was the primary concern here. At least the movie does score some points for its costumes and props, for the most parts. And at least they actually put in an effort in this department. But it was no substitute for a lack of proper storyline or script. If you are looking for a high fantasy sword and sorcery movie, do not waste your time or effort on "Amazons". My rating of this 1986 movie from writer Charles Saunders and director Alejandro Sessa settles on a generous four out of five stars.

I don't know who Alejandro Sessa is, but the Executive Producer on this piece of trash was Roger Corman. Amazons is just another example of the garbage that Corman allowed his name to be attached to in the 80s. Why Roger? Why? Amazons is almost devoid of any real entertainment. It's boring, dull, and lifeless. The dialogue and action are ridiculous. The "acting" (and I put that word in quotes because I'm not sure it's appropriate to call what these people are doing "acting") is abysmal. And the plot is pointless. The real plot is about having scantily clad women run around with swords - end of story. So, why do I rate this a 3/10 and not lower? Regardless of how bad it is, I have a soft spot for these 1980s Sword and Sorcerer movies. No matter how bad they are, every four or five years, I rewatch 'em. Sick, huh?

I can almost see Beavis sitting back on the couch, licking the yellow Cheeze Puff dust off his fingers and saying "Yep, nothing like sitting down to a nice bag of Cheeze Puffs and a good old Barbarian Women movie." It's sometimes a fascinating if disreputable genre, who's modern form is traceable at least back to 1972's ATTACK OF THE BARBARIAN WOMEN by Alfonso Brescia, or possibly even PREHISTORIC WOMEN from 1967 era Hammer. There is one reason to watch them, and that is to observe hawt, half-naked chicks chop each other & anyone handy up with broadswords before relaxing in the saunas together. Gotta love the Bronze Age some days. As others have stated this one isn't bad, right up there with BARBARIAN QUEEN as probably the best examples of the mid 80's Americanized version of the genre, which probably seemed like a good marketing bet in the wake of the success of CALIGULA and Lucio Fulci's CONQUEST, which this is basically a combination of. They are usually a good bet on the entertainment factor because firstly, the cast members playing the Barbarian Women will all have to be in peak physical shape to look good in their designer fur & leather bikini costumes. People who take care of their bodies usually enjoy showing them off, so the ladies won't be adversed to ideas like being oiled up for frontal shots of their abs & thighs. Couple that with a desire to make an impact and we are talking about actresses who will be delighted to appear on screen naked, do sex scenes, and maybe even a snake dance. This one is curiously plot heavy, and the one thing that kept tweaking my funny bone were all the absurd names given to people, places, events and objects. "We must cross the forest of Anjoo and climb the sacred Nak-Nak tree to find the Sword of Nibblenoon", all said with perfectly straight faces and ample feminine curves. Even the old soothsaying 300 year old witch-lady is hot, and those with a taste for discipline may be amused by the completely subservient & impotent nature of the men in the film. The one guy who is supposedly the hero spends the film locked up in a cage until it's time to feed him to a lioness, and the only male character in the film that makes any kind of an impression is Joseph Whipp's at-times hilarious meanie sorcerer villain, who not only gets to sleep with the lead actress but gets some genuine laughs playing his role in a totally blasé, non-mystical manner. He's just an evil rotten dude endowed with some kind of magical force, basically wants to destroy the world, enslave humanity and conquer Hell. You have to admire someone who knows what they want, and has a scheme to achieve it. The only thing I didn't really like about the film was the one problem I have with the whole Barbarian Women genre, which is that the plots lend themselves to scenes that will inevitably feature sexual violence against the scantily clad heroines -- Fortunately this one aborts it's gang rape before the fireworks start but it's still kind of disturbing to watch a couple of big-haired 80's Valley Girl types get roughed up by a bunch of scummy, sweaty, degenerate male extras who look like roadies for Meatloaf. I guess the fact that they all get killed off after wards is supposed to make it all even out, but notice how you don't see a lot of films like this being made anymore. So get a bag of Nachos or whatever, spark up and enjoy the show. Beats the Global Warming movie genre at least. 6/10 for being so relaxingly stupid, and over quickly.