Brenda Starr

Brenda Starr is a 1989 American adventure film based on the "Brenda Starr" comic strip by Dale Messick.

The film was directed by Robert Ellis Miller and starred Brooke Shields, Tony Peck, Timothy Dalton, Diana Scarwid and Jeffrey Tambor.

Even though the movie was shot in 1986, due to litigation issues over distribution rights, it wasn't released until 1989. It was released in the United States in 1992.

Plot
The film is about a struggling artist named Mike Randall (Tony Peck) who draws the "Brenda Starr" comic strip for the newspapers.

After Brenda (Brooke Shields) comes to life in the comic strip and sees how unappreciated she is by Mike, she leaves the strip. In order to keep his job, Mike draws himself into Brenda Starr's comic strip.

Cast

 * Brooke Shields as Brenda Starr
 * Tony Peck as Mike Randall
 * Timothy Dalton as Basil St. John
 * Diana Scarwid as Libby Lipscomb
 * Nestor Serrano as Jose
 * Jeffrey Tambor as Vladimir
 * June Gable as Luba
 * Charles Durning as Francis I. Livright
 * Kathleen Wilhoite as Hank O'Hare
 * John Short as Pesky Miller
 * Eddie Albert as Police Chief Maloney
 * Mark von Holstein as Donovan O'Shea
 * Henry Gibson as Professor Gerhardt Von Kreutzer
 * Matthew Cowles as Captain Borg
 * Tom Aldredge as Captain Borg Impostor
 * Ed Nelson as President Harry S. Truman
 * Sergio Kato as Cab Driver Jose
 * Steve Millar as Flight Passenger and Hungry Restaurant Man

Box Office
"Brenda Starr" was a box office failure, making only $30,000 during its first week. Due to the negative reviews from critics, it was soon pulled from theatres.

Critical Reception
"Brenda Starr" received negative reviews from critics.

Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman gave the film a "F," saying that the character of Brenda Starr "comes off as a giggly (if spectacularly elongated) high school princess" and that the character "is so flaccid and cheap-looking, so ineptly pieced together, that it verges on the avant-garde. I suspect they won't even like it in France."

The Rolling Stone's Peter Travers wrote, "There's been so much negative insider buzz about Brooke's 'Brenda' that you might be harboring a hope that the damned thing turned out all right. Get over it. 'Brenda' is not as bad as the also-rans that Hollywood traditionally dumps on us before Labor Day ... it's a heap worse."

The New York Times' Janet Maslin said, "This would-be comic romp is badly dated in several conspicuous ways. Its cold war villains are embarrassingly outré (even allowing for the film's 1940's look, in keeping with the peak popularity of Brenda Starr as a comic strip heroine) ... most dated of all is Brenda herself, the "girl reporter" who worries chiefly about not running her stockings or breaking her high heels, and who in one scene actually uses a black patent leather handbag as a secret weapon."

Pamela Bruce from The Austin Chronicle said, "After gathering dust for five years, some studio executive decided that there just isn't enough dreck in the world and decided to unleash Brenda Starr upon us poor, unsuspecting mortals."