Director: Ruggero Deodato | Writer: James R. Silke
Starring: David Paul, Peter Paul, Eva LaRue, Richard Lynch, Virginia Bryant
I like that The Barbarians’ one award was a Razzie nomination for Worst New Star for both Paul Brothers. If you’re gonna be bad, be terrible, I guess, and this movie certainly is that. It’s one of those combinations of love for the ridiculousness but honesty about the quality, and the result is a godawful mess that’s still a great time. The Razzies weren’t wrong though; these guys should NOT have made movies.
A group of peaceful, musical, traveling caravan folk are attacked by an evil warlord who cares more for the magical ruby they carry than he does for the amnesty given to the band of entertainers. Taking their leader hostage as his wife, and two twin boys as his slaves, he begins a years-long search for the special jewel. But the boys grow up to be great warrior-gladiators, and vow to kill the twisted lord as they gain their freedom and reunite with their old tribe.
Oh my it’s silly. You know the genre, the swords and sandals stuff, the magic and the warlocks, the clunky creatures and the fuzzy hide bras. It’s some of the same you’ve seen in the 80s, there’s nothing new here, but I guess the Paul Brothers are interesting, since they’re twins and they’re enormous. Seriously, their muscles are like planets, it’s wild, but they can’t act and their movie isn’t good; win some, lose some. Barbarians is just fun fluff, but can’t be ranked as anything other than pure trash.
My rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆