The Muthers

Needless to say that I had never actually heard about the 1976 movie titled "The Muthers" prior to stumbling upon it by random chance here in 2024. And of course I opted to sit down and watch the movie, on account of it being a movie that I hadn't already seen.

Of course I had no particular expectations to the movie, as I had no idea what I was in for here.

Writers Cirio H. Santiago and Cyril St. James put together a pretty straightforward script here, though the storyline was bland and generic. If you've seen one exploitation movie before, then you know what you're in for here and also what you're getting. So yeah, the writers didn't exactly impress me with the storyline they concocted for this movie.

I wasn't familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list. The acting performances in the movie were a bag of mixed nuts, because some of the performances were rather wooden and rigid, whereas other performances were actually fair enough when taking into consideration the type of movie that "The Muthers" is.

The fight scenes throughout the movie are pretty stages and looks laughable most of the time. And I will say that the poorly choreographed and executed fight scenes in "The Muthers" actually makes is worthwhile sitting through 83 minutes of an otherwise bland storyline.

"The Muthers" is not a movie that entertained me much. And it definitely is not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. But I am sure that for fans of the exploitation genre, then "The Muthers" is a good movie.

My rating of director Cirio H. Santiago's 1976 movie "The Muthers" lands on a three out of ten stars.

This film essentially begins with a female pirate by the name of "Kelly" (Jeannie Bell) being told that her younger sister has been kidnapped and subsequently used as slave labor by a man named "Monteiro" (Tony Carreon) who owns a large coffee plantation somewhere in the South Seas. So, not being able to count on government intervention, both Kelly and her trusted colleague "Anggie" (Rosanne Katon) decide to allow themselves to be captured with the intention of finding her sister and then escaping. What they don't count on, however, is how difficult escape will be to achieve. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that watching this movie was similar to observing a trainwreck in slow motion. You know it's bad but you can't avert your eyes from it. Having said that, I'm not sure which was worse-the action scenes or the overall acting. As a matter of fact, about the only positive attribute was the inclusion of several attractive actresses with Rosanne Katon and Jayne Kennedy (as "Serena") probably standing out the most, in my opinion. Even so, none of these young ladies could have possibly saved this film and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

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.

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.

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.