My introduction to the WWII character Jane was with the early '80s BBC TV series, which combined live action with drawings to create a retro comic-book style. The overall effect was kinda cheap, but it did feature sexy Glynis Barber in her silky underwear, so all was not lost. Jane and the Lost City dispenses with the stylised visuals, but retains the overall comic-book atmosphere, with preposterous adventure, OTT characters and deliberately corny jokes. Barber doesn't reprise her role, Jane played on this occasion by the also rather attractive Kirsten Hughes (who frequently flashes her gusset, bares her butt, and exposes her cleavage).
It's a good job that Hughes is so appealing, because without her pleasing physical attributes, Jane and the Lost City would be quite unbearable. I get that the film is deliberately camp, but it simply isn't very funny, with some truly terrible performances, Sam Jones making for a wooden hero, and TV 'funny-man' Jasper Carrott failing to launch a career on the big screen by playing three characters, all of them badly. It mightn't have been such a disaster if they had upped the adventure angle, but the budget was clearly too tight for any impressive Indiana Jones-style cliffhanger escapades. What we get is less Raiders of the Lost Ark and more Allan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold (trust me, that's not a good thing).
3/10 for Hughes in her underwear, plus an extra point for Fritz the Dachshund - I'm a sucker for a sausage dog.
