Anton Versluys
This is a movie that many of us remember "watching as a kid", and a secondary thought that follows that feeling relies in the fact that many of those movies indeed were a lot better than most of today's soulless blockbusters. "Sheena" is actually a flawed, rather modest and slightly camp matinée flick which live up to equally modest expectations. As many other movies based in popular culture characters, this is an "Origins story" of the female hero of the title which updates and upgrades the ancient archetype -and male fantasy with racist overtones- of a blonde amazon who rules a savage land, however, this movie succeeds in a more respectful portrayal of the natives and their millenarian wisdom, depicted as rather peaceful people living in balance with nature, properly turned into fierce warriors in order to assume the defense of their land from evil and greedy visitors.Beautiful starlet Tanya Roberts brings charm and brightness to the leading role, despite her odd outfit that underlines an adequate sense of campiness (just like, let's say, a horse painted as a zebra), which delivers the magic (some people would like to call it suspension of disbelief) this story deserves. A most ambiguous issue is the thin line between the innocent eroticism and well-intended exploitation that justifies non-sexual full frontal nude scenes involving a Caucasian woman, but has to be admitted that's precisely the part which everyone expects to see in a movie like this one, where sexiness is the principal ingredient.The DVD, poorly released by Sony/Columbia Pictures definitely doesn't do justice to the movie. The full screen format crops the magnificent landscapes off and the awful quality of the transfer play against the experience. Even the cover artwork (another example of bad photoshop, and, by the way... there are NO tigers in Africa neither do they even appear in this movie) is a big let down to an otherwise enjoyable, fun, sexy and entertaining adventure flick with a soul and a body. Tanya Robert's body.
frtyener
I have seen this movie 25 years later on DVD.I am really astonished when I saw 4.3 user rating on top of the page. I am sure this movie deserves much more than that. It would worth more than 4.3 points even if there were no animals . I give 10 points mainly because of the animals .I must say that this is film about kind of a lady jungle hero.I would recommend this film to children if there were no savage scenes such as shooting,bombing and killing both innocent people and animals.Sheena (Tanya Roberts) is a sexy young girl who brought up by native Africans, has special kinetic powers and can communicate with animals.First of all it is not a boring movie.Landscape is amazing. As for the animals, they are incredible. Director John Guillermin did a superb job in this film with these animals.I will not go into detail about the film but recommend you to buy or rent DVD and watch this movie.
jmatrixrenegade
First off, PG apparently at the time allowed a brief nude scene. A refreshing deal really. The violence really isn't too bad; surely of the comic variety. Not an "R" picture. Second, the movie obviously is not to be taken seriously. As harmless entertainment, it is pretty good, especially if watched in the right frame of mind. The evil countess (best line was demanding equal harm to be done to Sheena ... no ERA stuff for her!), big city reporter (reference to his view of the Towers), mystical shaman (imdb has the actress having a pretty interesting backstory), and Sheena (talk to me in words I understand!) all are fun.Commenting on Tanya Roberts' acting skills is a bit redundant. She is there because she fits into the costume, so to speak, and she does that rather well, thank you. As an actress ... well, she isn't THAT horrible, really. If Heidi Fleiss can be in a movie, TR can play Sheena! And, really, her performance adds to the fun too.I saw this at about 2am. Perfect time.
wizard42
This film is painful to watch most of the time. However, it is so bad, that anyone with even a little taste in cinema will start howling with laughter. The director clearly used as few words as possible to direct this film, and the acting is truly awful, making this film unintentionally funny. Ted Wass actually does act in the first scene and in the last, both shot on the same airplane, leading me to suspect that those were filmed before he met his co-star, the truly inept Tanya Roberts. After meeting her, it is apparent that Wass realized just how bad an actress she was, and gave up trying, producing a monotone performance for the rest of the film. Tanya Roberts may have been good looking but her acting range is limited to one expression where she screws her face up in an effort to look like she is concentrating (I thought she might just have been constipated throughout the filming since that is what her one facial expression suggested to me). The best actress in this whole mess, Elizabeth of Toro is killed off only a quarter of the way through the film, which brings the level of acting way down. The production clearly was filmed on a shoestring budget where they couldn't afford to re-shoot anything. Even the casual viewer in the theater is able to spot the wire the model helicopter is being guided by when it crashes (your not supposed to be able to see that), and there is never any kind of a herd of animals on screen in this African jungle movie, just one of any type at a time. If you watch carefully you will see the occasional shadow on the ground which doesn't belong to any actor in the scene(it must be a crew member's). The plot is blindingly obvious with absolutely no surprises or dramatic tension. The script is also very poor, with cheesy dialog running throughout it, and you can predict lines and jokes far in advance of their being said. Actually, the limited script helps as it means you don't have to suffer through Roberts trying to speak. So go to the film and laugh at it, and learn what not to do when producing a movie.
AD
