Amazons (1986)

Wonderful character development!

Absolutely Fantastic

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The people of the Emerald Lands are defeated by the evil wizard Kalungo (Joseph Whipp). Since their spirit stone isn't powerful enough, their only hope for freedom is a magic sword that could slay the wizard. The Amazon Dyala (Windsor Taylor Randolph) has a vision where to find the sword and goes on a quest for it. A traitor informs Kalungo about it, therefore the mission becomes increasingly dangerous...Another movie from a series of similar low budget productions of the 1980s, such as 'Barbarian Queen' and 'Deathstalker', but this might actually be the best from the bunch. Acting, dialogs, editing, storyline - everything steps up a notch in quality. Which still means we are talking about a cheap flick with clumsy fight scenes, but it is fairly watchable.

Roger Corman tells a story so well that this sword & sorcery adventure would have been on par with popular blockbuster films such as Conan the barbarian, were it not for obvious shortcomings in the time and money spent on production. The dubbing is sloppy and the dialog is toneless. The cheap special effects are mediocre at best and, at their worst, they look like something taken out of a cheap horror/science fiction flick from the 1950's.As an alternative attraction, Corman affords us numerous glimpses of sexy and/or athletic women, usually dressed in revealing attire and sometimes completely naked. Unlike a soft-porn production, however, the emphasis is on action and adventure, thus providing a unique platform for this kind of voyeurism.This movie may have some appeal for amazon aficionados. The hand to hand combat scenes come off reasonably well. In fact, Mindi Miller (Windsor Taylor Randolph), as Dyala, was particularly adept at handling a staff. And, both she and Penelope Reed, who played Tashi, have physiques suitable for their roles.Corman depicts amazons somewhat differently than I have seen in other productions such as Xena. In Corman's story, amazons have a prominent role in society, but still keep their place alongside men. This makes sense if anyone ever wondered where baby amazons come from. I also like the fact that despite being great warriors, the amazons still remain vulnerable, allowing us to fear for their safety and making them appear more human.Basically, the amazons are threatened by en evil wizard, who makes a pact with supernatural ghost-like beings and uses human sacrifice to gain metaphysical powers. To stop him, Dyala and Tashi, are sent on a dangerous quest for the sword of Azundati. The suspense and the overall impact of the movie are dampened, however, since we know that despite impossible odds, ultimately good will conquer evil, and all will enjoy a happy ending. So, Corman makes their challenge more difficult by creating dissension and treachery among the amazons and their friends. To provide a greater sense of reality and mortal peril, a few key characters in the story actually die.If you like the thrill of naked breasts and thighs, but you still want a half-way decent story, this movie may be worth your while.

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.

Just in case your not hip to who Roger Corman is and your not familiar with the term "Amazons" than maybe you should find another film to view because as far as exploitation goes this delivers the goods. Story is about an evil wizard named Kalungo (Joseph Whipp) who along with his minions attack the Amazon city of Imbissi in which the female warriors are forced to retreat with the Spirit Stone. They head to the Emerald Queen (Anita Larronde) who informs them that they need to retrieve the Sword of Azundati which is the only thing that can combat Kalungo.*****SPOILER ALERT***** A beautiful (of course) warrior named Dyala (Mindi Miller) is dispatched on the mission with Tashi (Penelope Reed) who is the daughter of her sworn rival Tshingi (Danitza Kingsley) who is also a spy for Kalungo. While on their journey they encounter thieves and snakes and hoards of other tribes that want to sacrifice them to supernatural trees.This was made in Argentina and directed by Alejandro Sessa who is making his debut after being a producer on several Corman films and it appears that he learned very well on how to stretch a dollar with a small budget. Naked Amazon warriors. Yep! That's what everyone who hasn't seen this is wondering about so I can tell all of you that this indeed delivers an abundance of nudity and I had to chuckle when the two lead characters venture off to save the world and no sooner than you can say "Russ Meyer" they are skinny dipping in a lake! Not only does this work as far as exploitation but also on a "so bad it's good" level with horrible dubbing and editing. How about that top notch transformation scene where the lioness changes into the naked woman? Or the laughable attempt of actor Whipp trying so hard to be evil when he looks like a left wing pacifist. The story is somewhat all over the place with it's magic swords and feuding families but if your a connoisseur of films that have hot and frequently nude Amazon women or of just bad films altogether than you can be rest assured that this is exactly what it advertises.