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Brenda Starr (1989) More at IMDb Pro »

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10 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Unashamedly campy fun. Hilarious!, 10 May 2004

Author: Chaotician from Australia

First of all, let me start off by saying that BRENDA STARR is a breathtakingly amateurish movie. The direction, script and editing are so dreadful it defies belief. But who cares? This film is extremely entertaining, light-hearted and gut-bustingly funny. I'm surprised it hasn't found new life as a cult camp classic.

The luminous Brooke Shields is Brenda, a comic-book reporter character who is tired of doing what her cartoonist (Tony Peck) wants. So she takes off to do her own thing. Not wanting to lose his job, the cartoonist then goes into the comic strip (!) in order to get her back. Shields and Peck then get caught up in a quest for a secret formula that takes them into the amazon, where dashing adventurer Basil St. John (Timothy Dalton) helps them outwit various goofy baddies who want to grab the formula for nefarious purposes. It's an unabashedly gleeful romp, seemingly inviting us to celebrate in the badness of it all. The dialogue and situations are so stupid and corny, yet wonderfully funny. It gives the movie a lively madcap quality that is hard to dislike.

The cast are first class. They achieve the impossible by rising above the ludicrousness and actually crafting colorful characters whom you come to adore. That the film manages to be so much more enjoyable than it deserves to be is mainly due to the professionalism of the actors and their willingness to look ridiculous. Brooke Shields is perfect as Brenda. Her 1940s-style vocabulary ("Jeepers!") and innocent demeanor are instantly lovable. She's the kind of character who, when in the midst of a life-threatening situation, stops to buy a new skirt when her "favorite" one gets torn during the action. In the hands of a different actress, Brenda might be downright irritating. But Shield's inherent goodwill ensures the fashion-obsessed reporter remains endearing. Equally fun to watch is a pre-James Bond Timothy Dalton as the charming soldier-of-fortune who captures Brenda's heart. He gives Basil St. John a sense of mystery and dimension, and you're never quite sure what his real motives are. Tony Peck (son the the late, great Gregory) is also amusing as the stressed-out cartoonist in way over his head. The rest of the cast, mostly slapstick villains, seem to know what kind of film they are in, and deliver larger-than-life, hammy performances.

BRENDA STARR doesn't have one ounce of intelligence, or real filmmaking talent, in it's celluloid head. But in spite of that, or maybe because of it, still gives you a hilarious feel-good adventure.

I rate BRENDA STARR 9/10 for entertainment value.

Switch off your brain, don't think about it, just watch for the sake of pure enjoyment, and you'll love it.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
This film had its premiere in the Florida Theater a couple of years after it was made., 6 May 2000

Author: Miller Movies (miller-movies@prodigy.net) from Jacksonville, Fla

I am one of perhaps a couple thousand people to actually view this film in a theater and not on video-tape. I attended the premiere in the Florida Theater in Jacksonville, Florida. From the cast and crew, only the director, Robert Ellis Miller, managed to attend, introducing his film that was made in the Jacksonville area a few years before.

Overall, it's a fairly good film. The tongue-in-cheek acting is right on, with Brooke Shields and a pre-007 Timothy Dalton having a lot of fun with the material. Unfortunately, a couple of scenes were really hard to believe... especially when our heroine Brenda Starr waterskis on the backs of a pair of alligators!!!

The other effects in the film were nicely handled, including the animation and the scene showing an older New York City behind the historic Ritz Theater which played host to a scene early in the picture.

It's not a great film, but deserving of a viewing if you'd like an adventure flick without much seriousness. 7 out of 10 stars.

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BRENDA STARR (Robert Ellis Miller, 1989) **, 23 February 2008

Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@onvol.net) from Naxxar, Malta

Witless adaptation of a comic-strip revolving around the titular female crime reporter (which had previously been the source of a 1976 TV movie with Jill St. John); Brooke Shields looks good throughout but seems undecided whether to approach the role straight, or else play it for laughs!

Indeed, this dilemma afflicts the entire production to its ultimate detriment – with the result that the film was shelved for some three years (it was, in fact, shot in 1986 i.e. prior to co-star Timothy Dalton's brief stint as James Bond)! At least, the latter seems to have had a good time making it for he subsequently tackled the part of the villain in another comic-strip adaptation with, again, some powerful gizmo as the object of contention between various factions (and nationalities) – namely ROCKETEER (1991; which I watched a day previously and found to be vastly superior)! Dalton's character here is actually enigmatic – dashing in spite of an eye-patch, he always turns up at unexpected moments to save, guide or otherwise romance the heroine.

The chief villains are a gang of incompetent Russian agents (including a bald-headed goofball and the pint-sized cigar-smoking female leader), though also hindering Shields is the ambitious and vaguely vampish rival reporter played by Diana Scarwid. Incidentally, the plot involves a fantasy framework in which animator Tony Peck inhabits the world of his subject (they keep quarrelling about how he isn't fit to design Brenda's exploits because he continually looks down on her, something of which the film-makers themselves are guilty!) – this doesn't really work and is actually rather pointless.

I was surprised to learn that renowned veteran cinematographer Freddie Francis (a beloved minor genre director in his own right) was behind this one in the former capacity; his craftsmanship at least renders the silly and positively dreary goings-on (which relocates to Brazil during the second half) pleasing to the eye. A number of guest appearances (including Eddie Albert as the Police Commissioner, Charles Durning as Starr's flamboyant boss, Henry Gibson as the obligatory eccentric scientist and Ed Nelson as the piano-playing American President) add nothing of substance to the film.

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2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Proof Positive that God has a sense of humor, 30 October 2000
Author: Shawn Jackson (sjackyl69@hotmail.com) from Ann Arbor, MI

To quote someone "I think someone say Dick Tracy and an A-Ha video and said, 'What a great idea!'"

This movie was really terrible. Watching this was akin to having a Root Canal without anesthetics. Rent only if you have a death wish on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

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3 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Fun, fun, fun!, 13 August 2002

Author: PMacDuffie from Oregon, USA

This movie is great, campy fun! Light-hearted fluff, but wonderful.

They say I need four lines, so I guess I'll say it again, because it really says all that needs saying.

This movie is great, campy fun. Light-hearted fluff, but wonderful!

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2 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
deserves cult status, 8 January 2005

Author: mischam76 from Australia

i thought this movie was unreal.it is certainly Brooke shields vehicle and she does an amazing job with it,she was totally impressive,endearing and mind blowing-ly gorgeous as the ace comic book reporter.her comedic abilities really shine through here so it is a shame that this film didn't become more recognized than it was. the editing in a certain part is terrible-witness Brenda Starr falling from a balcony in slow motion-but the rest is a hell of a lot of camp fun. Diana Scarwidis awesome in this role as is the Russian woman on Brenda's trail. i have watched this film over and over again and it gets better every time. do yourself a favour and dust it off a rental shelf and watch it.

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0 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
In the days before Brooke Shields could act..., 10 November 2002
Author: Blueghost from the San Francisco Bay Area

She would cash in on her looks. Her acting ability has finally reared its head with Suddenly Susan, but prior to her stint on TV Brooke Shields did a number of lack luster appearances films that were shot as A-quality pictures, but suffered from her poor acting ability.

"Brenda Starr" shows a turning point in Brooke's acting career, largely because it seemed as though she actually projected herself into the Brenda Starr character, verse reciting lines in her previous roles.

Even so the film is poorly directed, and veterans like Dalton and Scarwid cannot prop up a film that has a definate lack of vision. In fact the best sequences of the entire film are in Act I; from Shields braving a ledge to get an interview with an Irish immigrant gangster, to her welcome home to the office by the Brenda Starr comic strip's supporting characters.

The film was given a kind of feminine sense of adventure, which I believe detracts from what could've been a far more entertaining film; had the director just followed his personal instincts and created a good adventure film. The high points are seeing Brooke herself in very alluring fashions of the late forties. Beyond that there's not much here. Brooke looks the part, but couldn't act it ... at least not then.

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1 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Why did Brooke put on weight for this one?, 17 December 2001

Author: rlcsljo from Hollywood, ca

Brooke apparently put on 20 pounds to more "realistically" play Brenda Starr (after Robert Dinero put on weight to play Jake LaMotta, this was for a while the "in" thing to do--I am not sure she just did not pig out). I am not a big fan of the Comic Strip, but I do not remember Brenda Starr being particularly plump. Well Brook never really got the weight off her thighs (although the face is still gorgeous, but puffy) and this movie is where I lost the Brooke I used to adore, now I just love a hell of a lot.

For fans of Brooke that want to know "What the hell happened to her after 'Blue Lagoon', this is her watershed (fat gain) public moment.

Brooke, this movie was not worth sacrificing your figure for!

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