From story authors Jonathan Demme & Joe Viola, screenwriter H.R. Christian, and the prolific Eddie Romero, comes this diverting Filipino chase movie that puts an exploitative spin on the premise of "The Defiant Ones".
It starts out as your average women in prison flick, with blonde revolutionary Karen Brent (Margaret Markov) and black prostitute Lee Daniels (Pam Grier) meeting. While escorted away from the prison, they are shackled together. They soon make their break for freedom, often arguing over methodology and directions but coming to rely on each other and even care for each other.
Director Romero makes this a pretty lively affair, and it's worth noting that things take on a rather tongue in cheek tone at times. The ample humour helps to make this quite easy to watch, with Pams' frequent co-star Sid Haig given a meaty role which he plays with relish: a flamboyant, horny, loud talking dude in a cowboy costume. Romeros' pacing is effective, and the action scenes are fairly intense; there are some brief bursts of bloody violence. The location shooting is excellent, and the supporting cast features some familiar faces from Filipino exploitation cinema: Eddie Garcia, Alfonso Carvajal, Bruno Punzalan, and the always welcome Vic Diaz, who's a hoot as an oily crime lord. Sexy Lynn Borden has the role of a lustful prison guard. Stars Markov and Grier look fantastic and get some great chemistry going.
The true highlight of the movie definitely has to be the sequence where Markov and Grier masquerade as nuns; it provides the biggest laughs. But it must be said that Romero knows how to get down to business, delivering delectable nudity in the obligatory shower scene that occurs no more than four minutes into the movie.
All in all, this is solid entertainment that should please fans of the A.I.P. drive-in flicks of the 1970s.
Seven out of 10.
It starts out as your average women in prison flick, with blonde revolutionary Karen Brent (Margaret Markov) and black prostitute Lee Daniels (Pam Grier) meeting. While escorted away from the prison, they are shackled together. They soon make their break for freedom, often arguing over methodology and directions but coming to rely on each other and even care for each other.
Director Romero makes this a pretty lively affair, and it's worth noting that things take on a rather tongue in cheek tone at times. The ample humour helps to make this quite easy to watch, with Pams' frequent co-star Sid Haig given a meaty role which he plays with relish: a flamboyant, horny, loud talking dude in a cowboy costume. Romeros' pacing is effective, and the action scenes are fairly intense; there are some brief bursts of bloody violence. The location shooting is excellent, and the supporting cast features some familiar faces from Filipino exploitation cinema: Eddie Garcia, Alfonso Carvajal, Bruno Punzalan, and the always welcome Vic Diaz, who's a hoot as an oily crime lord. Sexy Lynn Borden has the role of a lustful prison guard. Stars Markov and Grier look fantastic and get some great chemistry going.
The true highlight of the movie definitely has to be the sequence where Markov and Grier masquerade as nuns; it provides the biggest laughs. But it must be said that Romero knows how to get down to business, delivering delectable nudity in the obligatory shower scene that occurs no more than four minutes into the movie.
All in all, this is solid entertainment that should please fans of the A.I.P. drive-in flicks of the 1970s.
Seven out of 10.