Quentin Tarantino and John Waters are pleased to announce the birth of their bastard child. It's a bouncing, healthy transvestite exploitation/revenge movie! Wait, did I say healthy? Strike that. It is, however, a whole lot of fun to watch. It's Kill Bill meets Pink Flamingos and, yes, there are ticked-off trannies with knives here, and they're the best ones you're likely to ever see. So see them, already.
This flick is camp, knows it, flaunts it and works it. Never once did I get the feeling it was trying to take itself seriously, although there are some grind-house-style grueling moments involving large knives and foreign objects inserted uncomfortably into body cavities (the latter never explicitly shown). The eponymous trannies are of the convincingly feminine type and include a dark-skinned stand-in for Divine who plays the psychotically vengeful mama-tranny almost too well. I can't imagine why John Waters hasn't heard of him yet. Witty and catty lines spill effortlessly and convincingly, with grind-house intensity mixing perfectly with comedy throughout. The culmination is a very dark but twistedly satisfying ending that you will NOT forget anytime soon.
This is far from a perfect film. Its low budget shows through in many places, and the "reel missing" gag goes on a bit too long. The main villain isn't a very good actor; he comes across hammy and his timing is just off in a number of scenes. The effort to shoehorn in pop culture references as comedy sometimes fall flat, too. It's not enough to make this anything less than a worthwhile, fun and uniquely off-the-wall experience, though, and the presence of a subtly scary drag queen nurse with the name Helluva Bottom-Carter makes up for all of the shortcomings in a single five-minute scene.
If you like John Waters, you'll definitely like Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives. If you like Both Waters and Quentin Tarantino, you'll like this gem even more. This one is destined for cult status.
