TANYA ROBERTS IS SHEENA

year: 1984 cast: Tanya Roberts, Tedd Wass, Donovan Scott rating: ***

A comic book adaptation where the gorgeous blue-eyed title character could have used a lot more screen time. Tanya Roberts as Sheena, for half of the film, shows up whenever needed. Ted Wass and Donovan Scott are big city transplants from a Sports Magazine doing a story on a famous NFL kicker, who also happens to be the brother of a local African King. The kicker wants to kick his brother out of the hierarchy, permanently. And succeeds.

Ted Wass gets neck high in trouble when thugs tail him and his tubby pal Scott, who tries way too hard as comic relief...  And Sheena... the stunning girl-Tarzan who rides a Zebra and was raised by a female shaman who dies by the hands of the villain... winds up saving Ted’s life and the two make an unlikely duo. Their trek across the African flatlands and mountainsides provide the best moments. Wass has affable charm as a vulnerable everyman out of his element and while Roberts isn’t quite Oscar material, and being stuck with an intentional monotone (she was raised in the jungle after all) doesn’t help matters, she's delicious eye-candy enough, especially in that loincloth, to make this John Guillermin adventure a real treat.

Tamya Roberts and monkey in SHEENA d. by John Guillerman