Uncaged

"Uncaged", a.k.a. "Angel in Red", tells the story of a young hooker named Mickie (Leslie Bega of 'Head of the Class' and 'The Sopranos'). She lives with a mentally disabled brother, Robby (Jason Oliver, "Stand by Me"), and answers to a pimp, Sharkey (Jeffrey Dean "Negan" Morgan, in his film debut). Her relationship with Sharkey sours when he becomes more and more unhinged, and beats one of her fellow hookers to death. Sharkey escapes punishment from an underworld figure, Slash (Henry Brown, "Stepfather II"), and believing that he was set up by Mickie, spends an eventful night tracking her down for the sake of revenge.

If this sounds familiar, it's because it's essentially a remake of the earlier Roger Corman production "Streetwalkin'". Nothing new is brought to the table with this version, which doesn't offer anything memorable. It has a sufficient amount of sex, partial nudity, and violence if that's all that the potential viewer desires, but the story is now trite. The sordid goings-on, written by Catherine Cyran, are given reasonable pace by director Lisa Hunt, who took her name off the picture in favor of a male pseudonym. The movies' look is just right, there are some very sexy ladies present, and there's an omnipresent pop and rock soundtrack.

The performances are adequate to the occasion. Bega has appeal as the heroine. Morgan is amusing enough as the villain. Brown is actually pretty good, while Pamella D'Pella and Sheila Scott-Wilkenson do alright as Mickies' more experienced co-workers.

"Uncaged" is watchable, but undistinguished. Viewers are better off revisiting "Streetwalkin'" or, for that matter, the vastly superior "Vice Squad".

Five out of 10.

This is a tense, tragic crime story about prostitutes caught in a territorial struggle between pimps. One pimp is psychotic and the other is just a thug. The characters are believable enough that the tension works, you can feel the danger the women are in, and feel sorry for them when their friends are hurt.

There are a few shots of strippers in a nightclub and prostitutes at work, but no more than are needed to advance the plot. This isn't a soft-porn, it's a drama.

This is a bad movie that I happen to enjoy and find entertaining. I saw it on HBO about 7 years ago, and liked it enough to tape it and watch it a few times. Yes, I know it's exploitive and sleazy, but then again I certainly wasn't bored. I actually like the ending a lot. The last few moments are actually fairly well-done.

This movie barely falls into the "so bad, it's good" category of movies. It's basically about five prostitutes who live on the streets and dream of a better life. One of them cares for her mentally challenged brother, who is that way after being hit on the head as a toddler by an adult. After the brother witnesses the hookers' psychotic pimp kill one of their own, it's an all-out war:the pimp vs. the whores. The ending was suspenseful, and the acting was decent, but that was pretty much all this has to recommend to it. I got this as part of a Roger Cormon double feature DVD I got along with the movie Streets-that one was better. This was wasn't too good-OK at best.

** out of ****

It was actually a pretty decent late night film have a copy of it on it DVD a double feature with a similar film called streets both are rarer films but this particular one I found rather enjoyable seen it a few times I would recommend if you're a Jeffrey dean morgan fan