Gwendoline

Top badass moment? A film about a hunt for a rare butterfly, our first sight of hero Willard is him crashing through a window, adjusting his hat, smiling handsomely and then disposing of some bad guys, before retiring to play roulette. I really, really wish I was that cool. Still, at least I look a lot like him. On a more serious note, as a (former) member of Butterfly Conservation, I was disgusted to see one of the butterflies was killed and mounted. No cats, chainsaws or decapitations.

The first hour or so is a mess - bizarre storytelling, incoherent characterization and really, really dumb dialogue - but still a lot of trashy mindless fun. However, the last half an hour when our heroes journey into the land of the Yik Yak - full of scantily clad female gladiators - is genuinely amazing and visually impressive like a glossier Peter Greenaway film, definitely worth slogging through the rest of the film for.

Tawny Kitaen stars as Gwendoline, an innocent waif who treks off into the dangerous jungles of Southeast Asia to find her missing father, who had gone in hunting a unique species of butterfly. She, her nanny, and their guide all get captured by natives and get into all kinds of kinky and wacky scrapes. It's a low rent Indiana Jones wannabe with a lot of tits. Kinda fun but very campy with lots of cheeseball action.

Though it's bad in almost every aspect, from the acting to the plot to the dull characters, it's so silly & stupid that there's a strange watchability to it. And, for what it's worth, most of the nudity- while very gratuitous- isn't overtly sexual, which was surprising. Still, despite an obvious (not totally successful) attempt to make the title character have some depth, this would be outright awful if not for the pure absurdity of it- & the fact that it oddly has a lot of heart.

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