Reaction & Review | Guns

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm going back to a series of movies that I put a pause on last year. It is the 5th movie in Andy Sidaris's "Triple B" series, which came out in 1990. And that movie is "Guns".

Now, for those of you who are new here reading this, I'll explain what's going on. Around this time last year, I reviewed a series of movies from a man named Andy Sidaris called the "Triple B" series. And these movies were mostly just low budget action flicks that featured sexy looking women showing off their boobs on screen. I watched the first 4 movies in his series, and they were all dumb, stupid action flicks that hardly took themselves seriously. And yet, I still wound up enjoying all 4 of them. Even "Hard Ticket To Hawaii", which I personally thought wasn't that great while everyone else who saw that movie ended up loving it, I still wound up enjoying for all of it's flaws.

So I decided that, since I enjoyed watching them, I figured it was time to check out more of what this series of movies has to offer. And as for tonight's movie, I don't really know much about it. I'm gonna take a wild guess though, and this is just a wild shot in the dark, that it has something to do with guns. Don't ask me why I'm guessing that, I'm just spitballing here because I could be totally off base here with that guess.

Anyway, while I don't know anything about the plot, I do know of two people that star in this film. One of them is Erik Estrada, which is an interesting choice, and I know he's starred in other TV shows and movies, so I'm curious to see if Mr. Estrada will pull off anything decent here. The other person I know who stars in this movie is Danny Trejo. And Danny Trejo's been in a lot of movies over the years, which are too many for me to count. So, that also ought to be interesting.

Beyond that, guys, I don't know what to expect from this movie, outside of the obvious stuff that I already pointed out when it comes to Andy Sidaris's movies. I haven't seen any trailers or clips for this one, so I'm going into this one mostly blind. I'm hoping for it to live up to the stupid cheesiness factor of the first 4 movies. I don't know if it will or not, but the only way I'm gonna find out for myself 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 "Guns".

16 minutes later

Holy shit...OK, so they successfully killed off 3 people. One of them, of course, being their target. And I probably wouldn't have an issue with this...except, they pulled this stunt off in broad-fucking daylight! Meaning that other people at this restaurant could've probably seen them in their ugly disguises as women and report them to the police. At least, that's what I'm thinking will happen. Because if not, then the witnesses at the restaurant are probably gonna be the dumbest batch of retards I've ever seen. My god, we're *barely* in this movie and I've already jumped into a logic hole, guys. That is not what I was expecting when watching an Andy Sidaris movie.

6 minutes later

So this idiot is actually trying to shoot at a flying plane with his tiny ass silencer from like 20 yards away, and all the while is on the other side of a moving car where his partner is driving. What the fuck is wrong with you, dude!?

6 minutes later

You know, guys, when I started doing this series, I wasn't expecting to see two women compete in oil wrestling. And apparently, one of them is also named Hug Huggins. That has to got be one of the worst names for a wrestler I've heard of in a long time. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.

9 minutes later

So, guys, you know how I mentioned earlier when one of the retard assassins tried to use a silencer gun to shoot down a flying plane and failed miserably? Well apparently, Donna found the remedy by using a mini rocket launcher to shoot down an enemy plane. It's certainly a lesson to be learned, am I right, guys?

10 minutes later

Wait, is this footage from "Picasso Trigger"!? My god, it is. And I know it's from "Picasso Trigger" because it features the same scene I complained about back then where the fat guy and the blonde guy pulled over to the side of the road to shoot at a helicopter, only for them to get blown up by a bazooka. Why in the hell are we seeing footage from that movie of all things? This makes no sense at all, guys.

15 minutes later

So this dumbass ninja stands there for about a second or two after Donna says a really cheesy one-liner and shoots him in the chest. Gotta say, Jack has hired some of the dumbest fucking people if you can't even get ninjas to kill our main heroes. Just thought I'd mention that.

6 minutes later

Well, guys, I just found probably the most creative kill in this entire movie that involves a beer can and a grenade. It's creative, and I probably wouldn't be able to do it justice if I just explained it to you guys, so it's best you look it up for yourself.

The Review

OK...well, guys, that was "Guns". Let me go ahead and shut the film off here...OK. Dear god, where do I even begin with this thing? I normally wouldn't ask that about an Andy Sidaris film, but this film is the first one I have to do that for. I don't even know where to begin with this thing. I suppose, maybe, I could summarize my quick thoughts right now on whether or not this movie is good. Well...I guess it's decent, I suppose. It's not really that good, but I can't say it's completely awful either. I mean, it has most of the same tropes from the previous films, both good and bad, yet it still is able to have the Andy Sidaris charm that was in the previous installments also.

So, as you can guess, this film is going to be a bit tough for me to review. And with that said, let's get into the writing here. Now, for those of you who've never seen any of the previous Andy Sidaris films in this series, the best way I can summarize them was that, again, they were really dumb, stupid action films that hardly took themselves seriously. And also, they were hardly connected to each other in terms of continuity. Which is, again, something that I didn't think I would be talking about when covering an Andy Sidaris film, but here we are. Anyway, the most continuity the previous films had, barring the first movie, was mainly involving the cast, specifically the two women who played our heroines, Donna and Taryn. They were the main stars of those movies. Donna actually does come back in this movie, though there's no mention of her partner Taryn, nor what exactly happened to her. Instead, she gets replaced with Nicole as Donna's new partner. And if you were somehow watching this movie first, and not any of the previous films, you would definitely not notice that. But as someone who has seen the previous films, it's something that kinda sorta bothers me slightly.

Speaking of which, while Taryn doesn't come back in this movie, Shane Abilene does. And if you'e not familiar, he was a part of the previous movie, which was "Savage Beach". But much like with "Savage Beach", he really doesn't play much of a role in anything important. He's in a couple of action scenes, which is certainly more than what he did in "Savage Beach, but sadly, again, he really doesn't do very much here outside of it. And I feel it's another case of what I talked about in my review of "Savage Beach" where you could replace him with any other member of the Abilene family, and you wouldn't be missing a thing about him. He's really fucking bland, which part of that could be attributed to his acting, but I'll get into that later when I cover acting.

Now strangely enough, Donna gets the most depth out of every character in this movie. Which is shocking, because she had almost no kind of character whatsoever in the previous movies other than looking pretty and showing her tits. But yeah, she actually does have something resembling depth in this movie. Because our villain of the movie, who is known as the "Jack of Diamonds", is the man responsible for killing Donna's father 10 years ago, and he also kidnaps her mother, who also happens to be the president of...something. I actually don't remember what exactly. She was either the president of local county or some kind of suite. I genuinely don't remember, and to be honest, it's not really that important. All I can tell you is that she is Donna's mother and she's not in the film for very long anyways. I believe she's only in the movie for, like, less than than 10 minutes or so. But anyway, this leads into a personal vendetta where Donna tries to get revenge by killing Jack and saving her mother at the same time.

One other scene I wanted to mention is the interrogation scene that also featured footage from "Picasso Trigger", which was the third film in the "Triple B" series. I asked why exactly was that scene included, and it's revealed that one of the agents that died in the car in that movie was the brother of the magician that's interrogating the two guys that were apart of it. And yes, believe it or not, one of those guys that was controlling the helicopter is the very same guy that was in "Picasso Trigger". Which is something that I didn't think that they would even go that much lengths to because, again, this is a series of action movies that features women topless and over-the-top action scenes. And yet, Andy Sidaris actually bothered to give out some continuity shoutouts to his previous movies. Is it unnecessary? Eh, maybe, since the scene didn't really provide much, other than to let our main villain know that two of his subordinates were killed by the magician. However, it shows that Andy Sidaris does care about his movies and tries to make them as cohesive as possible. Which, if you were to compare that kind of thing to how the MCU tries to fit in its own continuity nowadays, it's pretty damn sad and laughable when Andy Sidaris is able to outdo a once juggernaut series on how to properly insert continuity within it's own films. Difference here though is that the "Triple B" series has 12 films to work with, while the MCU is still shambling like the rotting corpse it already is.

But anyway, setting that little tangent aside, I should get back to writing. In terms of characters, aside from Donna and Shane, no other character has any real depth. The other character that has something resembling a personality is our Jack of Diamonds, who is also played by Erik Estrada. It's not much of a personality, but it is at least something. The story here is OK, I suppose, but there are a couple of things that kinda hurt it a bit. One, the story feels a bit bloated. There is so much going on that I'm not sure you would be able to grasp all of it on your first go. It really is something that you might have to watch a second or third time in order to fully grasp it. In fact, I think I may have to rewatch the previous films for myself since it's been about a year when I last covered these particular movies. Because they do bring back some characters that were probably in the previous movie that I don't remember at all. Which, again, for a series of movies about over-the-top action scenes and topless women, is something I wasn't expecting from Andy Sidaris.

So anyway, setting that all aside, the only other bit that hurts the film a little is the pacing. The movie clocks in a little over an hour and half long. Which I know doesn't sound long, but the movie honestly felt pretty long itself. It honestly could've used some trimming here and there. But it is what it is, so I'm just gonna leave it at that. Beyond that, guys, the writing here still does have that Andy Sidaris charm to it, though it tries to go for more of a thriller kind of story, what with I already talked about earlier involving Donna. And it kinda works, especially in the last 20 minutes or so. But for the most part, it doesn't completely overshadow what makes these movies work, as an Andy Sidaris project. It's still a dumb, stupid action flick, but it still kinda works in it's own unique way.

Now with all that said about the writing, let's get into the acting. First of all, I need to mention something that I kinda left out at the beginning. One of the things you have to know about Andy Sidaris's movies in this series is that he would often hire women who were Playboy Playmates to star in his movies. Dona Speir, who played Donna in the previous 3 movies before this one, is one of them. And much like with the previous movies, her acting is just terrible. Now admittedly, it's not as terrible as it was in the previous films, save for "Savage Beach", but it's still pretty terrible for the range that she gives out. But it's still better than the guy who plays Shane Abilene, who sounds just as wooden as he did in "Savage Beach". So I guess it's not that much of a surprise. The rest of the acting ranges on being a mixed bag. The best actor would have to go Erik Estrada, since he is the main villain of the movie, and he does a halfway decent job of portraying his character rather well. And as for Danny Trejo, well, I honestly can't gauge an opinion about that one, since he hardly had any speaking lines in this movie. It's certainly better than Shane Abilene's acting, I'll say that much.

But anyway, let's move onto special effects. And to be perfectly honest with you, guys, there's really not much I can say here about them. Most of, if not all of it, is pretty standard stuff in what you have seen in the previous movies. I'm talking about things such as pyrotechnics, squib work for the guns, and what little blood effects are present in this movie. All of it is pretty much on par with the previous movies, so it's just something you either take or leave with here.

Camerawork here is pretty good. Lighting here is lit really well. But then again, similar to the previous films, most of it was shot outdoors. Although this time, instead of just being in Hawaii, they actually spend quite a bit of time in Las Vegas, too. So it's a change up of sorts. Sound-mix here is fine. The music here is really sort of forgettable, save for one song that plays at the beginning of the movie and at the end, and they're both the same song as well. It's pretty decent, so at least there is that.

So, with all this in mind, guys, can I recommend "Guns"? I can, but on a couple of conditions. First of all, I would say if you have seen the previous 4 films from Andy Sidaris, and you enjoyed them, then there's a good chance that you'll enjoy this one, too. Also, if you're someone who's into mindless action films, I would strongly recommend that you go into this one with your brain shut off, if you're someone who's not looking for a plot here. One other condition I would recommend is if you have to watch this movie, go watch the other 4 films first. Because this isn't exactly what I would call a good starting point if you're looking to watch the "Triple B" series. It'll just leave you confused as all hell. The only reason why I'm bringing that up is because from my own experience, seeing as how it's been nearly a year since I last watched these movies. But with that said, by itself, the movie is just OK, but I would say that it's not as strong as the previous films were, at least for me anyway. So with that said, I kinda want to go back and watch these movies again right now. I'm curious to see how exactly they've aged since I last watched them. So, I'm gonna go do that as soon as I get this review uploaded.

Anyway, guys, with that, 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.

Reaction & Review | Critters

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror comedy from 1986. That movie is "Critters".

Now I mentioned this movie way back during my review of "Munchies", when I was listing certain movies that were trying to cash in on the success of "Gremlins". And I had mentioned that I had never seen any of the "Critters" movies. Well, that's gonna change, because for the next couple of months, I'm gonna be reviewing all 4 movies for this series. Now I know there's technically a fifth movie, however, aside from owning the first 4 movies in a combo pack, from what I've looked up, it's more or less a reboot of the first movie. So, I'm not gonna be reviewing that one anytime soon. Plus, I don't own a copy of it anyways, so it doesn't really matter regardless.

So anyway, let's get into the first movie here. Now aside from what I've already mentioned about this movie already, I don't know much about the plot. All I know is that it involves some weird-looking creatures that probably terrorize people. And...that's kinda it, really. I have no idea about the content of the movie itself, but that's what I'm here to find out. I'm hoping that this movie will be a good start for this franchise. And the only way I'm gonna find out if it is any good, 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 "Critters".

14 minutes later

Well, guys, I will say this much. The song that I just heard a moment ago sounded pretty good. And I also learned something new about these bounty hunters. Apparently, their green blank faces can also morph into whoever they want, too. I will say the effects for it were kinda creepy and messed up, but still, it was sorta cool.

15 minutes later

OK...so even though we haven't seen physically seen these creatures yet, apparently they're strong enough to mutilate a bull and nearly devour it's corpse. I gotta say, that definitely looked a bit nasty there.

8 minutes later

So these furry bastards can also shoot spikes from their bodies. That's actually really cool! I mean, granted, it probably hurts like hell, but at least it is something a little unique.

13 minutes later

OK, so even though they don't technically speak our native language, there's something really funny about one of them just saying the word "fuck" after one of them was just shot at by a shotgun. I don't know why I find it funny, guys, I just sorta do.

12 minutes later

All right, I have a bit of a dumb question here, but how exactly do these creatures grow in size? Is it because they eat a lot? Or is that just a natural thing for them? I'm really kinda curious now, because I don't believe the movie has ever given any sort of detail on how exactly these demonic furballs are growing in size. I'm hoping maybe we'll get something resembling an explanation soon. Until then, I suppose it would be a good idea for Brad to get the hell out of there and find some help. Though how exactly he's gonna outrun the ever-growing creature is something I don't know at this time.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Critters". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So, where to begin with this one...? I suppose I can start by saying that this movie was pretty good. Mind you, it's not really a great film, and I'll get more into why in a moment, but I am gonna say that, just based on what I've seen, I am very interested to see where this franchise goes from here. So, at least I can say that much.

Now why don't we kick things off here with the writing. And I'm gonna be honest with you guys, the writing in this movie is, by far, the weakest point. And the first thing I have to talk about are the stars of this movie, the critters, or "Krites" as they're called in this thing. One thing I noticed right away about them is the lack of information about them. Now to give you guys a comparison, both in "Gremlins" and "Munchies", they explained about what those creatures were and how you should defeat them. With the Gremlins, their weakness was sunlight. And with the Munchies, their weakness was electricity. Now as for the Krites, well...they really don't have any specific weaknesses about them. They can be killed by conventional weapons such as gunshots or explosions. So while they do look threatening on appearance, they're not exactly hard to take down either. Well, unless they grow in size. Which then, yeah, they do become more threatening. The thing is, though, it only happens to one of the Krites, while the others never grow in size. Why exactly that is, is something that's never fully explained.

And that right there is my biggest problem with this movie is that these Krites come off as really generic and bland creatures. There's not really much about them that makes them unique, other than that one of them can grow in size and they can also shoot spikes from their bodies. Which is cool and all, but it's not really enough to make you care about them very much. The only semblance of backstory you get about them is that they escaped from prison facility that was set on an asteroid. Which then leads into our two bounty hunters, who I'll talk about later on, to go after and kill them. But aside from that, there's really nothing much about these Krites that makes them stand out as unique. Now who knows? Maybe they'll expand on them in the sequels later on, but as for their first outing, they just come off as being rather generic.

Which then leads me into talking about the characters. And really, guys, there's nothing much to say about these characters. They too come off as mostly bland and generic. Even the bounty hunters, who have the ability to morph their heads into whoever they like, don't have any sort of personality that makes them interesting. Which is really disappointing, because their first appearance looked really ominous and cool...and then they come on Earth and they also come off as really boring as a whole. The only character who has anything resembling a personality is Charlie, and that's mainly because he's just an alien conspiracy theorist. Which I know is not saying very much, but at least it's the most interesting thing about him. However, we are instead following Brad, our main child character, and his family, as they try to hold off the Krites that are attempting to kill them and destroy their home. Brad is basically an inventor of sorts as he can make unique weapons such as a flamethrower out of a drinking can and also has a slingshot, which was confiscated by his Dad early on when Brad lied about shooting at his older sister's ass while trying to cover for Charlie, who really was the one who shot at Brad's sister's ass.

But yeah, Brad is really not that interesting, in terms of child characters. At least the ones I've seen beforehand anyway. Now, you might think that with all of the problems in the writing, that I'm probably gonna say that it sucks or something. And obviously, that's not the case. Like I said earlier, I still think the movie's pretty good, and while the writing is certainly not as strong as I'd like it to be, I still think it is worth checking out. Because while the characters in this movie are pretty bland, the thing that sorta makes up for is that the movie kinda turns into a home invasion flick where Brad's family is trying to hold off the Krites as best they can. And you do sorta end up caring about them as they try to hold off these monsters. And the whole thing involving them is honestly some of the better parts of the movie. The only other negative I can quickly bring up is that the pacing for this thing is a bit slow. The first 25 minutes of the movie has almost nothing going on. It's only when the Krites spaceship crash lands on Earth is when the movie starts to get interesting for the duration of the movie.

Now with all of the problems I've talked about involving the writing, let's move onto the acting. And I'm gonna say that the acting here is also pretty decent, too. It's not great, as some of it is a little on the wooden side. Most of that comes from the actor playing Brad's Dad, who feels very wooden for a majority of this flick. Everyone else though. did an OK job. I'm even going to include the child actor playing Brad. Even though he sorta had big shoes to fill in terms of being a main child character, he did an OK job with the material that he was given to work with. And while it's obviously not perfect, I am in no way gonna say that it completely sucked either. So yeah, overall guys, the acting here is decent for what it is.

Special effects in this movie are really good. And one of the biggest contributing factors comes from the Chiodo Brothers. For those of you who don't know, they were the same guys who also did the special effects for one of my favorite horror comedies of all time "Killer Klowns from Outer Space". So when I saw their name credit for the special effects, I was hoping for the best when it comes to them regarding the special effects, and they didn't disappoint me whatsoever. The Krites in this movie, in terms of their design, look great. And the puppeteering is also really good. Now granted, it's not exactly on par with something like "Gremlins", however, it's still really good stuff, especially coming from the Chiodo Brothers. The blood effects are also really good. The sets involving the inside of the prison asteroid are decent, although they could've been better with some better lighting. But aside from that, the special effects overall are really good.

Camerawork here is also really good. The lighting here, aside from the darkly lit stuff I mentioned a second ago, is pretty good too. In fact, I'll also say that a good majority of this movie was shot at night, but at least most of it is still very viewable. Sound-mixing here is mixed fine. The music here is also really good, as it is composed by the great David Newman. So I kinda expected the music here to be just as good as some of the other movies he has composed music for.

Overall, guys, when everything is said and done, can I recommend "Critters"? For the most part, yes. As long as you go into it, knowing what to expect, then you're bound to really enjoy it. Now granted, the characters are all pretty generic and bland, as is our furry little creatures, but I still think it's worth watching, if at least just once. If you're someone who's into the creature flicks that are obviously trying to cash in on "Gremlins", then you're still most likely going to really enjoy it. Now obviously, I would prefer "Gremlins" and even "Munchies" to a certain extent, but "Critters" still has it's moments of campy goodness. I'm hoping that the sequels are gonna be just as good, if not even better than this movie was. But until then, I think I'm gonna go and watch something else. And seeing as how I talked about the Chiodo Brothers and "Killer Klowns from Outer Space", I'm gonna go and watch that next because I *love* that movie to pieces.

So yeah, guys, with that, 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.

Reaction & Review | Lady Avenger

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering an action flick from 1988. That movie is "Lady Avenger".

Now I heard about this movie a couple of years back and I originally wanted to cover it in my lead up to my 100th episode. In other words, I wanted to add this movie to my 100th episode tournament that ultimately didn't go anywhere. But for one reason or another, I decided against adding this movie because I had already found more interesting movies to cover at the time. And so eventually, this movie kept getting pushed back further and further until I almost forgot about it entirely.

And I say 'almost', because recently, I had a sudden realization that I haven't covered *any* movies from YouTube for about a year and half now, so I figured why not find something on there this time? And I was looking through a playlist of movies that I've had my eye on for a while now, and eventually this movie popped up, so I finally decided to pull the trigger on this movie and see what it's all about.

Now, I don't really know much about this movie. All I know is that it's an action movie and that it's directed by a man named David DeCoteau. For those of you unaware, the man is essentially known for directing tons of B movies throughout his career. A couple of examples I can think of are "Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge", which was awesome, to "Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama", which kinda sucked. So he's sort of an uneven director for me. But then again, I've only seen about a couple of his movies, which were the two I already listed. So I can't say much about the guy's filmography yet until I've seen more of his work.

Which is a great opportunity for me, because I get to see if this one of his is any good. I'm hoping that it is, but I won't know for sure unless 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 "Lady Avenger".

3 minutes later

Well, guys, I am able to say one thing, so far. Even though I know you guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, this opening song here is pretty good, actually. In fact, listening to it more...it's really catchy, too. I'm hoping that it's a good sign of things to come for this movie.

11 minutes later

So let me if I understand this. This matron, who was assigned to look over Maggie at all times, suddenly decides to try and restrain Maggie, because she thought Maggie was going off on her own, even though there wasn't any indication of that. Moments later, Maggie *does* admit that she has "something to do", shoves her off and runs away. And the matron decides to fucking shoot her at Maggie's brother's funeral, which has already ended! And she missed, too, but that's besides the point. I'm gonna say it now, this matron is kind of an idiot for starting this whole mess, unintentional or no.

15 minutes later

O...K, well, even though the sound-mixing during that car chase could've been better, I will say that was certainly kind of an awesome way to end that car chase sequence. So, at least it kinda balances itself some.

5 minutes later

Well...just when I thought this movie couldn't get any darker, the girl who's eyes got cut off at the beginning of the movie ends up getting knifed by some guy who, I think, is suppose to be our main villain of the film. Not sure if he is or not, but it was definitely kinda messed up to kill someone who was practically on her death bed anyways.

7 minutes later

Once more, guys, I'm gonna say that the music in this movie is actually really decent. I love this old school late 80's rock track that's playing here. It's really fucking catchy, guys.

18 minutes later

O...K, why the hell is this lady taking off her clothes? I'm not totally sure what the point is to this scene, unless if it was just a cheap way to get in fanservice. Which is kinda underwhelming, if I'm gonna be honest here. All she's wearing is just lingerie. Which, for some people, they might be really into that. For me, though, again, it just kinda made that scene pointless.

9 minutes later

You know what, guys? No matter how many times I've seen these kinds of kills, it's always satisfying to see someone getting killed with a fucking flamethrower. It always puts a smile on my face.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Lady Avenger". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So...where do I begin with this one? Well, I said earlier that I was hoping for this movie to be pretty good. And you know what? It sorta is. Now granted, the movie is not great. Far from it. This movie is pretty flawed in a lot of areas. But despite all that, I still wound up rather enjoying it. I was pleasantly surprised by this thing.

So, let's go ahead and get into the review proper here. I'm gonna start, as usual, with the writing. Now, as with the case for a lot of action movies, the story is the one thing that's not really gonna be the focus here. Most action fans only care about the cool-looking action scenes. And to be fair, this movie does provide a couple of really cool moments of that, which I'll get into a bit later on. But when it comes to story, that's like the one thing most action fans don't really care for. Myself, personally speaking, I like a little more substance in my action movies. Though there are some exceptions here and there where I can let some of it pass, as long as it's entertaining. And I've stated this beforehand, I watch movies to be entertained. And that's really all I care about is whether or not the movie is entertaining. And this movie is another one of those exceptions. This movie doesn't really have an award winning story here, but then again, it's not really trying for one. This movie aims to be a cheesy, dumb action flick, and it definitely nails that aspect pretty well.

As for the story itself, well, it's pretty much a revenge action flick. Where our main character, Maggie, gets out of jail to attend her brother's funeral, whom he was killed by a gang of drug smugglers, along with his girlfriend that was the one who's eyes got cut out at the beginning of the film. And soon after the funeral ends, she decides to go the route of John Rambo and go after the people that killed her brother. That's the short version of it. The longer version of it is that there's drug smuggling involved, and there's a conspiracy involving Maggie's stepfather, who may also be involved in the whole drug smuggling scheme. And then you have him, who's with Maggie's mother and is also trying to get her to sign some sort of contract, which will give him the land that was originally gonna be inherited to Maggie and her brother. But it doesn't exactly go that way, since he keeps giving her medicine to, I guess, maybe make her really sick so that she can sign Jack's contract and he'll get the land instead. Or something to that effect.

Believe me, guys, when I say that most of this story doesn't really make any sense. I know the movie was trying to do more with it's story, but once you focus more on that and less on Maggie killing the asshole thugs who killed her brother, then it starts to become a little bit dull. And for someone who normally likes adding more substance into my action movies, this stuff wasn't really all that interesting to me. In fact, I'm gonna tell you guys, straight up, that the characters in this movie don't really have any kind of depth whatsoever. Jack is basically a self-centered asshole, Maggie's mother is really not in the movie very much to contribute to anything, and I could also say that about all of the drug smugglers in this movie. None of them are memorable whatsoever. Maggie is really the only one who you're gonna care about the most, since her character, even though it's a little more on the one-noted side of things, does get the most time on screen. It's not great, but at least it does give her some motivation on why she's out for revenge.

I could also mention the fucking cops who are after her as well, however, they are so incompetent at their jobs that it's almost hilarious. Basically, there were two moments in the movie where they could've just done the easy thing and call for backup. But instead, on both of those moments, Maggie escapes the police on her motorcycle. And what makes it even more laughable is that, at one point in the movie, she's at a bar, and the radio is playing the news where her boyfriend was killed, the girl who got her eyes cut out is dead at the hospital, and the police are after a blonde girl, AKA Maggie, for questioning. And yet, despite *all* of that, there's only two cops in the entire movie that are after her. Maybe in whatever bumble fuck city this movie takes place in, perhaps the police force has gotten so bad there that they only have these two lone cops on duty to go after Maggie. And they fail miserably because they're fucking incompetent as shit.

But still, even with those stupid moments there, it kinda makes the movie all the more hilarious in it's own way. I mean, as long as you don't try to think too hard about all of the issues that this movie has with it's story, then you could definitely find some enjoyment here. That said, this movie does have more issues. The acting here isn't really that good. Most of the acting here is ranging from either being over-the-top and hammy, which comes from the drug smugglers, or it could come from somebody else that isn't them, and they'll sound jaded and kinda shit. Case in point, our lead actress for this movie, who goes by the name of Peggy McIntaggart, sounds horrible here. When she's trying to sound emotional, it sounds fake as hell. And when she's trying to be all badass, it's honestly kinda laughable, especially when she gives out a certain one-liner that I won't spoil here. So yeah, Peggy's delivery here is pretty horrible. But in a way, it's almost done in a so bad, it's good kind of way. To where you could get a laugh out of her terrible performance, and still find it a little bit endearing. At least, that's how I see it, anyways.

Special effects in this movie are kind of on the low budget side of things. But again, this is from the same guy who's made a living off making movies that are made for almost next to nothing. So, the squib-work here is pretty standard stuff, the blood effects are OK, and pyrotechnics are decent at best. Speaking of which, the two biggest stand outs of the entire movie both involve the latter. The first one is right at the end of the car chase sequence which I briefly mentioned earlier, where the car Maggie and her boyfriend are riding in catch fire after a jump, which looked pretty cool. And the other is the flamethrower kill, which I still find really awesome, because I personally can't get enough of that, especially if it's done to a character I absolutely despise. So, special effects here, for low budget standards, are OK at best.

Camerawork here is pretty decent. Lighting here is OK. The sound-mixing could've been better, specifically for one scene, which involves the car chase sequence I already mentioned. Essentially, you have the drug smuggling thugs talking over each other, except you can barely hear what they're saying because of all the noise that's going on in the background while they're driving. And it's not like they're saying anything important, mind you, it's just them yelling at each other at random moments. Still, the sound-mixing could've been fixed there. Music here is actually something I'm going to praise this movie on, because I'm personally a big fan of 80's rock music, and the music that's presented here is really catchy stuff. I'm probably gonna have to look up some of the songs later when I get the chance, but I will say that if you're a fan of 80's rock music, then this movie will definitely provide that for you.

So, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Lady Avenger"? Yes, I can, as long as you view it as a mindless, popcorn flick. Where you go into it and you're not questioning any of the logic issues that the movie has, then you're bound to really enjoy it. For fans of action movies, I could definitely recommend this to you if you're looking for something more obscure to check out. As a revenge movie, it's decent enough, though I've seen far better, obviously. Another big positive I can give this movie is that it's pretty short. It's only about 82 minutes long, and it goes by pretty quickly. So if you have less than an hour and a half to spare, go check it out sometime when you get the chance. As for myself, well, like I said, I was pleasantly surprised by this thing. Part of me thought that it was going to suck, but thankfully, that wasn't entirely the case. It's certainly a flawed movie, but it's enough for me to overlook those flaws. Now...with that said, I'm gonna go and watch something different. Perhaps I'll just watch anyone of my Rambo movies that I own on DVD. Who knows?

But for now, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. And until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.