Black Scorpion

I had just seen another Roger Corman film, "The Death Artist" less than a week before this was on, and I found that film very funny and entertaining. I have also seen another Corman film, "Sawbones," which was quite entertaining in itself, so I had high hopes for this one and it very, very much let me down.

The only "good" part of "Black Scorpion" is a cheesy villian called "the Breathtaker," who looks and acts about a serious as the villians in "The Power Rangers," and I guess is supposed to want to take over the city by spraying toxic chemicals or something silly like that. It sounds dumb, and is, and even "The Breathtaker" had his dull moments(like what was with all of his bumbling villian apprentices, especially two annoying female wrestlers, and where, by the way, did he get the power to fly?), but he was better than anything else in the movie. My only major problem with him was not even necessarily related to the character itself, but I must wonder why different actors were used to play The Breathtaker and the, uh, person behind the Breathtaker's mask? Did whomever was in charge of casting think that one or the other of them couldn't pull off the effect by themself? Was the voice of the Breathtaker too "ugly" to have his face revealed, which more or less makes his human counterpart some himbo cast only for his looks? Because that's not very fair to either of them, but I suppose even that discrepancy with "Black Scorpion" did not TOTALLY ruin the film for me...

What ruins "Black Scorpion" is its stupid title character, some bimboey "police officer" named Darcy, (Joan Severance) who, as a cop seems to masquerade as a prostitute with some..."real" prostitute until her daddy(Rick Rossovich, who, as a result of utterly cheap casting looks about the SAME AGE as Severance)is for some reason gunned down by the local DA, and Darcy gets canned(or suspended?) for police brutality after she goes to confront him in jail. A combination of seeking justice for her father's death and letting down her dull prostitute friend inspires Darcy to become the "Black Scorpion," a female superhero that goes around saving...other prostitutes, or at least not-very-properly-dressed people from bad folks, who all seem to somehow be connected to the Breathtaker. I really didn't know how the Black Scorpion's saving the world connected to the Breathtaker, except somewhere in the middle half, Darcy/The Black Scorpion suddenly realizes that he must have been involved in her father's death. Abruptly after that, it suddenly jumps to "who is the Breathtaker?," so what was the point of all of that other junk? Who knows and the character of "Darcy," her charisma-free boyfriend and prostitute friend, and pretty much everyone else were not interested enough for me to make any kind of exceptions to not-very-well developed writing. If people want to make a stupid, intentionally campy film, they can at least make it a WELL-WRITTEN stupid, intentionally campy film, as "Sawbones" and "The Death Artist" proved to be. What went wrong with this one?

I really didn't know much about this film before I watched it... just that it was a female Batman and that Roger Corman was an executive producer on it(and I'm trying to watch every last one of the films he has collaborated on that I can find). I was pleasantly surprised with the film. It's very campy and entertaining. There's no pretense here. The film knows that it's corny comic-book entertainment, and it never acts like anything else. We've got a pair of retired female pro-wrestlers as minor villains. We've got a police captain who is never seen without a lit cigarette in his hand or mouth. We've even got a shape-shifting Batmobile which only responds if you end each request with a "yo". Just about every single opportunity for campiness is put to good use. The plot is quite good, though it is somewhat predictable, in that it follows comic-book formula all the way, from start to finish. Of course, that only adds to the entertainment. The pacing is great. I wasn't bored for a second. The acting is as corny as the rest of the film. The characters are all comic-book clichés, but the main characters are surprisingly fleshed out and well-developed. There's plenty of alluring shots of females showing off a fair bit of skin, most of them being of the Black Scorpion herself. The action is highly entertaining, and very comic-book-like. There's plenty of fun one-liners in there as well... Arnold would be proud. This film won't change any lives, but it will entertain most viewers, particularly those who enjoy comic books and campiness in films. It's a stylish comic book film, no more, no less. Something that deserves a mention is that there's a sex scene with the Black Scorpion, which any man who is into S/M and/or attracted to aggressive women should see. I recommend this to fans of comic books and campy films. 6/10

This movie will not be considered for an academy award, but if you enjoy a movie that doesn't take itself seriously and just wants the viewer to enjoy for ninety mins it is not a disappointment. You'll enjoy a send up of Darth Vader for the villain (the breather), a female Batman for the heroine (but much cuter with much less costume), and a running joke that involves cigarettes and the police captain that's very funny. Not by any means a great cinematic achievement. But if you enjoy campy fun it was worth a viewing. God help me, I liked it.

I was pleasantly surprised when I watched this movie. I rented it with no idea what it was about and really was`nt expecting much. Joan Severance plays a detective who after her father is murdered and she is kicked off the force dons a costume and becomes the Black Scorpion, the protector of the City of Angels. Sounds very Batman, right? Well, it is and it gets even more so as the movie goes by. She has her Batmobile, a red corvette that has been equipped with all sorts of gadgets including the ability to re-form its molecules to change color and model. The villain is the Breathtaker who runs an organization called B.R.E.A.T.H...watch the movie to find out his origin and why he turned to crime. I admit that it`s campy and it`s hokey but if nothing else you get to see Joan nekkid....now that`s something you won`t see in a Batman movie...at least not up to this point.

Well, for a super hero movie it had potential, but it lost it somewhere.

Joan Severance is a hottie and surely fit well into the skimpy outfit she wore, however the lame script, lousy effect, uninteresting action and over all production made this a go nowhere film.

For the rest of the costumes were pretty hooky - bad to say the least.

Also the strip bar scene - even though I liked it, really had no place in the entire movie - as well as the opening scene of her and a hooker on the stroll. Not that I am against anything with hookers or sexy women, but somehow, it just didn't fit. Neither did the love story, neither did the overdone jokes about smoking, neither did the swearing.

Maybe a rework and a larger budget would have done this some justice, but it failed several minutes after the credits opened.