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.
Review of The Muthers
