A middle-of-the-road entry into the '70s action adventure mould, mixing girls-with-guns shoot-outs, martial arts, blaxploitation and even a little women-in-prison peril into an action-fuelled, sometimes exciting odyssey. Cirio H. Santiago directs with his usual workmanlike abilities, avoiding style at every turn and instead offering up a bog standard and rather routine movie that never gets tiresome at a pacy eighty minutes. Shot in the Philippines with a bare minimum of expertise and money, the film chronicles the adventures of three ass-kicking femme fatales as they find themselves kidnapped for nefarious reasons by a gang of ugly Chinese and Filipino bad guys. As their relations (including a P.I. and a SHAFT wannabe detective) search desperately for the missing girls, they launch repeated escape attempts, which invariably result in some solid if not amazing kung-fu fight techniques.
The best thing the film has to offer is this action, which takes place in a nice range of varied locales - my favourite is the shoot-out in the graveyard. Santiago makes good use of the Filipino locations to provide an interesting visual backdrop to the story and maintains a sense of realism at all times. However, being a PG-rated movie, there is little of the explicit sex or violence which categorise '70s blaxploitation/women-in-peril drive-in movies, aside from a nice meaty moment where a bad guy is pushed into a mangler - hilariously entertaining! The acting is of an adequate standard, but there are no really outstanding performances or memorable turns from the cast here - many of the Filipino extras mingle together, Colleen Camp is a fairly annoying woman, and Katon and Anderson prove to be more adept at high-kicking than quality acting. Although the film does offer the basic minimum of entertainment, it still packs a punch in places and there isn't anything really to dislike about it. Personally I would have preferred something a bit more spectacular but hey, that's Cirio H. Santiago for you...
The best thing the film has to offer is this action, which takes place in a nice range of varied locales - my favourite is the shoot-out in the graveyard. Santiago makes good use of the Filipino locations to provide an interesting visual backdrop to the story and maintains a sense of realism at all times. However, being a PG-rated movie, there is little of the explicit sex or violence which categorise '70s blaxploitation/women-in-peril drive-in movies, aside from a nice meaty moment where a bad guy is pushed into a mangler - hilariously entertaining! The acting is of an adequate standard, but there are no really outstanding performances or memorable turns from the cast here - many of the Filipino extras mingle together, Colleen Camp is a fairly annoying woman, and Katon and Anderson prove to be more adept at high-kicking than quality acting. Although the film does offer the basic minimum of entertainment, it still packs a punch in places and there isn't anything really to dislike about it. Personally I would have preferred something a bit more spectacular but hey, that's Cirio H. Santiago for you...