Transmutations

Hell Comes to Frogtown is a hilarious cult classic. The plot alone makes this one a must see. It's the stuff of legends. No kidding, the greatest plot of all time. Get this: Rowdy Roddy Piper is one of the last fertile men on the planet. He has some kind of super sperm and humanity is a dying race because of a lack of fertile men and women. So, he is forced by a largely female government called MedTech to go to Frogtown (ruled by mutated Frog people known as Greeners) to rescue fertile women from the evil Toady so he can impregnate them. It's all in the name of freedom of course. Great huh? The supporting cast features Sandahl Bergman, Big Will Smith, Nicholas Worth, and Rory Calhoun. Rent only if you're looking for laughs, and laughs you'll get. A thousand thanks go to Anchor Bay for re-releasing this hard to find classic.

'Hell' is the name of the hero of the story. He's a prisoner of the women who now run the USA after a nuclear/biological war. Results of the war are that mutants have evolved, and the human race is in danger of extinction due to infertility. Hell is given the task of helping in the rescue of a group of people from the harem of the mutant leader (resembling a frog). Hell cannot escape since he has a bomb attached to his private parts which will detonate if he strays more than a few hundred yards from his guard. Some cool special effects (the frog creatures look really good), bad acting, cheesy plot....Leave your brain at the front door, there's some entertainment to be found here.

"Hell Comes to Frogtown" is an irresistible serving of 1980s cheese, a deliberately goofy send-up of the whole post-nuke action genre. It's engagingly silly from start to finish, with some choice bits of dialogue and fun performances. It offers more entertainment than a lot of mega buck Hollywood movies, beginning with its casting of wrestling star "Rowdy" Roddy Piper in his first starring role.

Piper stars as Sam Hell, a scavenger & drifter in a future wasteland who is discovered to be an incredible stud. This makes him extremely valuable because the world is in very short supply of fertile males, so the government lays claim to him, and sends him on a mission to rescue and impregnate a group of fertile females that have been kidnapped by humanoid frogs otherwise known as "Greeners". He does this in the company of uptight but sexy Spangle (Sandahl Bergman) and gung ho soldier Centinella (Cec Verrell), and does battle with villains such as Commander Toty (Brian Frank) and Bull (Nicholas Worth).

The filmmakers have a good time with their casting choices, including the legendary William Smith (one of Bergmans' fellow cast members in "Conan the Barbarian") as the thuggish Captain Devlin, the highly amusing Rory Calhoun as grizzled old miner Looney Tunes, and Kristi Somers as helpful Greener Arabella. Roddy is charismatic and terrific as our jovial hero, and has some decent odd-couple chemistry with Bergman. Verrell regularly steals her scenes.

Effective lighting, by Enrico Picard and co-story author / producer / co-director Donald G. Jackson, and good production design by Dins Danielsen help to create just the right futuristic look. Verrell supplies some eye candy by removing her top. The frog masks designed by Steve Wang are most impressive. And there are enough laughs to make this pleasant viewing.

Followed by the sequel "Frogtown II" (with Robert Z'Dar as Sam Hell).

Seven out of 10.

A movie with a name like this and a star like Piper, you know what you are in for... a B movie. However, this B Movie is actually quite entertaining. It sort of plays (in a way) like Barbarella with the exception that the hero is a guy, not that he's walking around half-naked (the girls still do that in this movie). I actually found it quite funny and entertaining. No, it's not classic cinema. It wasn't meant to be. It was meant to be entertaining, and it works.

Quick Summary: Men are mostly sterile. Women are not, and now are in charge. Sam Hell is a rare exception, and they need to "protect his jewels". You have giant mutant frogs trying to control the human race in this post-apocalyptic world.

It's a solid B-movie. If you are a B-movie fan, you will love this.

"Hell Comes to Frogtown" seems to have many of the necessary ingredients to become a genuine cult classic, but the execution is uninspired and the film is not NEARLY as much schlocky fun as it could have been. The main problem is the pacing, which is, in a word, deadening: there are long stretches of nothing happening. In a movie like this, the No 1 thing you want to see is "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Sandahl Bergman kick a lot of mutant frog butt. They do, but to a much lesser degree than you might expect (even after Piper enters a room holding two shotguns and yells "Eat lead, froggies!"). It doesn't help that large portions of the film seem to have been filmed in a small, dusty warehouse. But Piper is likable enough, Sandahl Bergman and Cec Verrell are 2 strong & sexy women, and the "frog effects" are acceptable, so I'm giving this a higher rating than it probably deserves: ** out of 4 stars.