What saves this movie is its unassuming and unabashed hedonism, chauvinism, and sexism; the director's pseudonym, Just Jaeckin ("just jacking") says it all concerning the movie's aim: it is intended purely to entertain; there is no pretense of a socially redeeming purpose or even a theme that amounts to much of
anything. A sexploitation flick, pure and simple, the plot is one of capture and escape (or, for variety's sake, flight and pursuit), as the heroine, Gwendoline (Tawny Kitaen), her French maid (Zabou), and Willard, a freelancing mercenary (Brent Huff) seek the rare butterfly in the land of the Yik-Yak, somewhere in Asia, that eluded Gwendoline?s late father. There are criminals, cannibals, and the all-female tribe of women who, having captured the prisoners, allow the best warrior among them the honor of mating with Willard so as to preserve the tribe. A mad scientist among them ups the stakes when he sets of an explosion that destroys the women's underground city, but it?s really the movie's T & A, or jiggle and wiggle, that keeps up viewers' interest. The film is worth a watch, if one is looking for nothing more than some feminine pulchritude by which to wile away the hours.
January 4, 2010
