Did you ever sit down to watch a movie and say to yourself about five minutes in “I’m really not in the mood for this?” That was the feeling I got while watching “Pervirella”. Around the half-hour mark I realized that I couldn’t imagine a time when I would be in the mood to watch this movie.
Incoherent and shoddily made, shot on 16mm under what must have been the absolute worst of circumstances, “Pervirella” is trying very hard to be about … something. Obviously a parody of the Roger Vadim/Jane Fonda movie “Barbarella” (and not the source comic book that is infinitely more entertaining), “Pervirella” takes place sometime in the future, where an eternal and rotting Queen Victoria rules the land and sex has been outlawed. A young woman with an insatiable sexual appetite is born and, after maturing at an alarming rate from infant to voluptuous adulthood, she joins her surrogate scientist father and a team of misfits on an ill-defined adventure to jungles and far-off lands that look like they were all set in one room.
The acting and sexual shenanigans in “Pervirella” are over-the-top without being entertaining or even remotely amusing. The only laugh it got out of me was towards the beginning, when very obvious models were used for cityscapes and flying industrial cars. I appreciated the cheesiness of the settings. The rest was just shrill and annoying.
Actors Warbeck and Ross are wasted, Bouffante’s frequent nudity actually becomes boring, and every scene makes you wonder if you’d somehow missed something, as not a single thing makes any bit of sense. It’s not fun, it’s not shocking; it’s just irritating.
Be warned and be aware. It’s up to you now. Don’t come crying to me if you decide to watch it and something inside of you dies.
