WASP WOMAN (1995)
Damn body double, gettin' my hopes up...

  I admit, I rented this movie for one reason and one reason only: I've got a soft spot for Jennifer Rubin.  Mmm-mmm, she's a cutie.

Rubin plays a cosmetics queen (and chief model for her company) who is being advised by her board of directors that the reason for her company's recent drop in sales is very likely the fact that she, well, isn't nineteen anymore.  (I thought Rubin looked like she was made up to be a little bit haggard here, and soon enough it became clear why; no matter, she's got my complete attention either way)  She doesn't take well to this, so she goes to a scientist who's working on skin rejuvenation using wasp hormones, and using a combination of blackmail and flattery, she cons him into using her as his first test subject.

Oh, the results are quick and promising (soon enough, she starts looking more like the Rubin I'm familiar with; I'm guessing that the character she plays is supposed to be 40 or so); she even gets ID'd at the bar.  Unfortunately, the side effects include slight paranoid delusions, not to mention the ability to turn into a giant wasp, complete with breasts (!) and a chitinous bustier (!!!).

There's a not-exactly-subtle subtext here which may strike a chord for women (or even men) who've been unfairly judged on their looks; sure enough, those who make the mistake of doing so meet unenviable ends.  Setting such a story in the modeling industry is almost a gimme; you don't see a lot of 40-year-old models, even though Hollywood has any number of stunning 40+-year-old women.  The thing is, despite it being a gimme, it makes the subtext kind of inappropriate; judging people on their looks is what modeling is all about, and anybody who gets into that industry not wanting to be judged on their looks is a fool.

Additionally, while I like Rubin a lot in anything she does, I like her a lot more in a more sweet and vulnerable place than she is in this movie; there are actresses I'd love to see turn into a killer wasp-woman, but Rubin isn't one of them.  It doesn't help that her nude scenes are obviously body-doubled, although the brief moments where bits of the model's face can be seen almost made me buy it.

Even at 95 minutes, a lot of this movie could've been cut out (the gratuitous destruction of a police car, or a lot of explanation of just what wasps do to their victims, as if anybody cares for the whys behind what our heroine is doing to hers).  The plot's every bit as silly as it sounds, with Rubin morphing into that wasp and back without any apparent damage to her clothes which you'd think would've burst Incredible Hulk-style.

Still, it's schlocky fun for those whose interest is piqued by the notion of a big-breasted wasp biting off men's genitalia.  I won't claim to be above this sort of thing.  It comes as no surprise that this Roger Corman production (also known as Forbidden Beauty) is directed by Jim Wynorski.

BACK TO MAIN PAGE BACK TO THE W's