The Muthers (1976) ** (out of 4)Another insane film from director Cirio H. Santiago has a group of female pirates going into a brutal prison camp where they plan on rescuing the leader's sister who is being held captive.The Philippines was the home to some of the craziest movies ever made and this here pretty much lives up to that. The country was used by various low-budget producers who wanted to deliver the kind of goods that you'd find in an American film but of course one advantage here was the fact that they could shoot in a jungle location. THE MUTHERS is a pretty bad movie if you want to be technical about it but at the same time there are enough wild and crazy moments to keep it entertaining.Again, if you're looking for some sort of quality or art film then it's best you stay far away from this picture but if you just want some trashy fun then pull up a chair and enjoy. The film benefits from having a variety of very beautiful women and yes they quite often take their clothes off. As you'd expect from any women-in-prison film, there's a shower sequence with the ladies showing off all their goods as well as catfights and other things you'd expect.The cast is led by the one and only Jeannie Bell who had also appeared in blaxploitation films like TNT JACKSON, THREE THE HARD WAY and the notorious THE KLANSMAN. She's certainly the highlight of the picture and turns in a nice performance in the lead. The rest of the cast were entertaining enough for what they were asked to do and the characters are at least interesting enough.THE MUTHERS isn't a good film or a classic but if you enjoy these types of low-budget films then there's enough here to make it worth watching.

The title of this film might give you a clue to its poor quality. This is the kind of B film that one might expect to find in the worst drive-in theaters.The main characters are some beautiful black women who use poorly simulated martial arts to gain revenge on men who treat them like property, often white men.The dialogue is atrocious, the production values cheap, the acting amateurish, and the background music sounds like someone used a cassette player to tape instrumental sections of other films and then (almost randomly) used them in this film.This is Blaxploitation at its worst. It is demeaning to its audience, because the quality is so bad and it assumes the viewer is less sophisticated than a seventh grader. This film is so bad it would be laughable if not for its blatantly racist and misogynistic undertones.

A band of female pirates partake in a daring rescue mission to save one of their own from the vile clutches of vicious white slavers. Sounds like one hell of a solid and stirring premise, right? Well, alas, the potentially explosive potential of said premise never gets fully realized due to Cirio H. Santiago's flat direction, a rather blah and overly talky script by Cyril St. James, blandly staged action scenes, an often poky pace, surprisingly mild violence, and only a smidgen of gratuitous female nudity. The key problem is that Santiago never manages to acquire the hard sleazy edge needed to make this picture seriously smoke. Luckily, the attractive and animated female leads keep this one watchable: Jayne Kennedy as the classy Serena, Roseanne Katon as the sassy Anggie, Jeannie Bell as the sweet Kelly, and Tina Parks as the sharp-tongued Marcie. Tony Carreon makes for a suitably slimy villain as the scurvy and sadistic Monteiro. John Montgomery likewise breathes some much appreciated life into the otherwise fairly limp proceedings as treacherous rival pirate leader Turko. The ineptly staged martial arts fights with their obvious use of stunt doubles are good for a few hearty unintentional laughs. Fortunately, things pick up considerably in the eventful and exciting last third, but overall this movie sizes up as an okay diversion at best.

Filipino auteur and Roger Corman collaborator Cirio H. Santiago lensed, wrote (as Leonard Hermes) and produced this odd combination of blaxploitation action pic and chicks-in-chains quickie.Janine "TNT Jackson" Bell stars as half of a modern day pirate duo who, along with savage sista Rosanne Katon, must rescue Janine's sister from the clutches of evil coffee plantation owner Tony Carreon. Along the way they meet sportscaster-turned-actress Jayne Kennedy, who turns up as Carreon's mistress, and Trina "Thumper" Parks, who plays the head prisoner in Carreon's jive java jail.Really, this one is for WIP fans only. Trust me on this.