Review: Supervixens


Mechanic Charles Pitts has a huge fight with his extremely jealous wife SuperAngel (Shari Eubank) and storms off. Meanwhile, a brutish redneck cop Sledge (character veteran Charles Napier) who helped break up the argument, comes back to fornicate with Eubank. Unfortunately, Sledge ain’t much of a red hot lover, and Eubank (foolishly) taunts him, sending him into a violent, homicidal rage. Being the prime suspect in the murder, Pitts gets the hell outta Dodge and encounters a string of oddly Amazonian, sexpot gals along the way (including milkmaid SuperSoul, SuperCherry, deaf-mute SuperEula, and finally SuperVixen, played again by Eubank, who may or may not be SuperAngel reborn to seek revenge on the vile Sledge. Still following me?). John LaZar, who was the uber-camp transsexual rock guru Z-Man in “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”, appears here in a comparatively more ‘normal’ role as a guy who offers Pitts a lift at one point. The unique (and here very scantily clad) Haji turns up as a sympathetic bar owner named SuperHaji.

 

Truly bizarre, kinky 1975 comedic male fantasy from the inimitable Russ Meyer (“Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”, “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”) isn’t as much fun as “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” (one of my all-time favourite films), because Meyer goes way too far with the violence in one scene that hurts the rest of the film. It is tainted as misogynistic and somewhat nasty (the scene really does get foul), when the rest of the film is just juvenile, silly (there’s just about every sex gag imaginable here, including the amazing Uschi Digard as Swedish farm girl Supersoul, married to a protective old man played by Meyer regular Stuart Lancaster) and almost good-natured. Actually, one could argue that the film has some female empowerment stuff going on in the second half (theorists still debate to this day whether Meyer was a feminist or a misogynist dirty old man). Still, Charles Napier gives one of the most frightening performances you are ever likely to see and his performance (the best of his career, perhaps), along with the huge bazoongas (Digard’s in particular are a sight for sore eyes…really, my eyes were actually hurting!) and Meyer’s genuinely good eye for interesting visuals and locations (especially for a film made for under $100,000) make it a film to see at least once.

 

If only Russ hadn’t have gone too far in that one (admittedly unforgettable) scene, this could’ve been a lot of fun. As is, that one scene taints the rest of the film, throwing the campy tone out of whack entirely. The screenplay is by Meyer himself, his first solo screenwriting effort, apparently. You’ll certainly never forget it, should you choose to watch it, but you might come away feeling a tad depressed.

 

Rating: C+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Boyka: Undisputed

Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) is out of prison and fighting for a living, with ambitions for the ‘Most Complete Fighter’ to make a real name for himself. However, after an opponent dies during a fight, the deeply religious Boyka starts to have a crisis of conscience. He tries to make amends with the man’s widow, which eventually pits him against a local gangster (Alon Moni Aboutboul, quite good). Anything with Scott Adkins will generally get me interested, and although this series peaked with the superlative “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , this 2017 film from director Todor Chapkanov (director of the SyFy movies “Copperhead” and “Ghost Town” ) is no slouch in a series yet to deliver anything less than solid entertainment. Producer Isaac Florentine is missed in the director’s chair, but Chapkanov gives us at the very least the series’ most dramatically ambitious entry, as Adkins’ ‘most complete fighter’ Yuri Boyka continues on his journey to redemption here. In this one, the
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more