Once upon a time, comic book films were not always expected to be sophisticated works of classy entertainment.
Still, Barb Wire is totally inept and inert. Busting out with a tawdry introduction of soft-core striptease, the film takes a buxom bounty hunter from Dark Horse comics (home to Hellboy and Sin City) and lets pneumatic Pamela Anderson play her as a DOA mannequin.
In the early 21st century, the USA is in the wake of the Second American Civil War. The whole country is in a constant state of emergency and the fascistic Congressional Directorate rules the country.
There is only one free city left, Steel Harbor, a coastal California industrial town which is also headquarters for the resistance. This is the hometown of Barb Wire, owner of the Hammerhead nightclub (and part-time mercenary and bounty hunter).
One evening, her former lover Axel Hood (Temuera Morrison) appears at the club asking for a favour to help him and his lover Cora D (Victoria Rowell) – who just happens to be a former government scientist who has information about a bioweapon being developed by the Congressional Directorate – flee the country to Canada.
The plot is a shameless rip-off of Casablanca and makes no effort to hide it.
Barb Wire
Pamela Anderson Axel Hood
Temuera Morrison Cora D (Dr Corrina Devonshire)
Victoria Rowell Alexander Willis
Xander Berkeley Colonel Pryzer
Steve Railsback Curly
Udo Kier Schmitz
Clint Howard Emily
Vanessa Lee Asher Spike
Jennifer Banko Foster
Tony Bill Big Fatso
Andre Rosey Brown Manny
Mark Collver Sharif
Shelly Desai Weasel
Neil Hunt Moe
Henry Kingi Sheik
Marshall Manesh Charlie
Jack Noseworthy Smooth
John Paxton Frick
Peewee Piemonte Krebs
Loren Rubin Santo
Michael Russo Jack
Nils Allen Stewart Frack
Dominique Vandenberg China
Ai Wan Maria
Diane Warshay Ruben
Nicholas Worth
