Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering an action film from 1989. That movie is "Savage Beach".
Now, this movie's a bit of an interesting case, because out of all the films from the "Triple-B" series, this is one of the only ones to actually spawn a sequel. A sequel, I should mention, that won't happen until much later on in this "Triple-B" series. I'll get more into that in a second, but first, I should quickly mention that this is the fourth entry in the "Triple-B" series, and it also stars the same two ladies that were in the previous two films. So, I'm not gonna expect anything good when it comes to their acting. I'm also expecting more of the same things I've seen from the other films, such as topless women, over-the-top action scenes, and a plot that will most likely not matter in the grand scheme of things.
Now, I should've mentioned this back when I first started doing this series with "Malibu Express", but there are at least 12 films in Andy Sidaris's "Triple-B" series. Not counting the stuff he made back during the 70's, since he didn't start up the "Triple-B" series up until 1985 when he first made "Malibu Express". So, there's quite a bit he made here. I should also quickly mention that this film will be the last one I cover from Andy Sidaris, at least for a while. Since there's 12 films in this series, I'm not gonna burn myself out by reviewing all of his movies every other week. I kinda learned my lesson back when I reviewed the "Digimon Adventure Tri." series a couple of years. Those movies burned me out and kinda made me lose interest in "Digimon" for quite a while, and I don't want to see a repeat with these movies since there's more than half of what the "Digimon Adventure Tri." series consisted of, which was 6 in case you didn't know.
So, with that aside, I'm hoping this one will at least be as entertaining as most of the previous movies have been so far. Good, I'm not really expecting out of this, considering these movies have been far from "good" anyways. But I'm still hoping for this one to be just as entertaining as most of the previous movies were. And the only way I'm gonna know for sure is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Savage Beach".
10 minutes later
All right, so we have *another* member of the Abilene family named Shane, who I'm going to assume is going to be the main substituted character for Travis from "Picasso Trigger". I would love to know exactly what happened to Travis, but I have a strange suspicion that they're not going to address that at all. They might, but I have my doubts about that.
20 minutes later
So, guys, I'm gonna ask this because I am somewhat curious here. When does this movie start to get interesting? So far, the only bits of information that we've gotten for a plot is that some treasure is sunken somewhere near a Japanese war ship, and our heroes have successfully delivered the medicine to some sick children at a hospital. That's interesting and all, but can we actually get something going here? I'm not asking for these action scenes to quickly pop in here and all, I'm just asking for something interesting to happen is all. And so far, I haven't really gotten that yet.
1 minute later
Wow, OK...so we just a had businessman blow up shortly after receiving his payment from a suitcase. Admittedly, I was gonna ask why exactly didn't he open it up to check to see if the money was legit and all, but I don't have to now, because he's dead. So...yeah, I guess that answers my own question.
16 minutes later
You know, guys, this is the second time now that we've seen our villains, Martinez and his chick, having sex with each other, this time in the back seat of a car. And throughout their interactions with each other, they sound kinda cartoonishly evil that it sorta makes their characters stand out a little bit. It's not much, mind you, but it is at least kinda something.
15 minutes later
Hold up, I just thought of something. So, Donna and Taryn have been stranded on this island for a number of days now, possibly a week, couldn't tell you exactly. And our villains just landed on the island with their super-secret plane that is radar-proof. Instead of just following them, why don't the women just take the plane for themselves and leave the villains stranded on the island? Yes, I know it wouldn't exactly be in their moral code, but it would make a lot more sense considering how long they've been on the island and all. Yes, I understand that I'm trying to put logic into an action film, especially of this caliber, but it is something that I still wanted to ask.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Savage Beach". Let me go ahead and shut the film off here...OK. So, where to start here...?
You know what? I'm just gonna get straight into this one, and I'm gonna start, as usual, with the writing. Now, if you read my review for the previous Andy Sidaris flick, which was "Picasso Trigger", one of the big complaints I had about that movie was that the writing for that thing felt incredibly convoluted and didn't really make a whole lot of sense. It felt like the movie wanted to go with a slightly more serious story, but it ended up not working that way because it tried *way* too hard at doing all these things with it's story and characters that it just ended up failing miserably at it. I bring this up, because "Savage Beach" is how you do it properly. In fact, I'm gonna go on record by stating that this is quite possibly the strongest script I've seen from Andy Sidaris up till this point. Most of everything here is very coherent, and while there are a couple of things here and there that you could poke holes at, it's still very easy to follow, as the framing device for this film centers around this treasure that is hidden on this remote island, which our two leading ladies get stranded on and are trying to survive, while a couple of other factions enter the fray in which they're after the gold for their own various reasons. There's also this feral Japanese soldier, whose backstory I won't spoil, because they don't really go into depth on that until towards the very end of the movie.
Speaking of which, why don't we actually touch upon the characters here next, shall we? Now, most of them aren't really that well developed, and I'm mostly gonna include the two factions that are on the island, both the U.S. and the freelancers. There's a lot of betrayal in this movie from them, and most of it doesn't really make any sense if you try to put too much thought into it. In terms of our main characters though, Donna and Taryn function almost the exact same way that they did in the previous films, and their characters really haven't changed all that much. I do want to touch upon Shane Abilene, though, for a moment. Because, and I'm gonna be quite honest with you guys, he is quite possibly the blandest character out of all the Abilene's from the previous films. Not only is he bland, but he really plays no factor in the movie at all, which makes sense considering his lack of screen time he has in this movie. And at a point in this film, I had to ask myself why exactly do we need *another* Abilene in this film, especially if he's not gonna serve any purpose at all? You could've just solely stuck with Donna and Taryn, and you really wouldn't miss a thing with Shane. The only thing he really does here is give out some mission statements in regards to delivering some medicine to sick children at a hospital. But other than that, he does nothing else. And again, you could've cut him out of the film entirely and you wouldn't be missing anything with him since he is that bland and forgettable.
But otherwise, like I said, the writing here is still pretty solid, at least by the terms of it being an Andy Sidaris action flick. The action scenes mostly take place on the remote island, and there is, of course, quite a bit of boob shots with the women. It's not as much as it was in the previous films, but it still does exist. So, there is that. The acting here is a little bit of a mixed bag. Now, I'm actually going to do something that I haven't done for the previous two Sidaris films, and that is me actually complimenting the acting from our two leading ladies that play Donna and Taryn. This is, quite possibly, the best effort I've seen when it comes to their acting. Now, mind you, when I say that, I'm not saying that their acting is great. In fact, it still isn't really that good. But if I had to compare their acting here to the previous two films that they were in, it's probably the best effort that they have given out, thus far. They feel really comfortable on camera, and they seem to have some really decent chemistry with each other in the film. So I am going to give them some praise on their acting here being far better than what it was in "Hard Ticket To Hawaii" and "Picasso Trigger". The rest of the acting here, again, ranges on being a mixed bag. Some of it is hammy and wooden, which I guess is sorta on par with the previous films, since the acting there wasn't really all that good anyways.
Special effects are mostly pretty good. In terms of what you'd come to expect from an Andy Sidaris film, most of it is the usual. I'm talking about the blood and gore effects, the pyrotechnics, and the squib work on the guns being decent. All of that is there, and it's mostly sorta average at best. I do want touch upon make-up effects, specifically, one in particular that kinda struck out at me. So, while Donna and Taryn are stuck on the island, they come to realize that someone has been watching them, and that they feel the need to go look for whoever it is that's watching them. So they decide to put on some make-up on their faces that, I guess, was suppose to either be war make-up or them trying to put on half-assed camouflage. I say that, because once they put the make-up on, they start to comb the area together. And on the very next shot as they're doing this, you can see the make-up on their faces is already gone. Which either means, again, they used some really shitty make-up, or the movie couldn't be somewhat more realistic by having the make-up stay on their faces from scene to scene until it's completely gone. The very fact that it's disappeared from their faces from right after they put it on seemed kinda strange to me. Though that honestly could be just more of an editing slip-up by the editors as well, so make of that what you will.
But beyond that, guys, the camerawork here is pretty good. The lighting here is actually great. But then again, similar to the previous films, most of this was shot on location in Hawaii. So it would actually be a challenge from someone to fuck up with the lighting in these particular movies. The sound-mix is mixed well enough. The score here is honestly nothing special. They try to mix it up with a combination of 80's synth music, to electric guitars, to also some Japanese music as well. It's not terrible, mind you, just kinda average at best.
So ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Savage Beach"? Well, once more, only if you are either a fan of Andy Sidaris's previous films, or if you like these kinds of cheese-ball action films with lots of gorgeous women on screen with their boobs hanging out. Either way, I can still recommend it enough to where it's serviceable for both sides of the spectrum. Mind you, it's not a great film by any means, but it's still entertaining enough to where I could see myself watching it again at some point. And who knows? Maybe it's far-off sequel will actually be pretty entertaining, too. But that's another for time, hopefully, as, like I mentioned earlier, this will be the last Andy Sidaris film I cover for a long while. Maybe I'll cover more of them next year or something. But until then, I'm gonna go and watch something different. Perhaps I'll watch something, like, "Dredd" again. I can almost never get tired of rewatching that movie. So that's what I'm probably gonna do next after I get done typing this review up.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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