AS-69

This movie is just another example of a loveless attempt to cash in on a successful trademark. It is simply a crude collage of recycled gags from the old looney tunes cartoons and maybe hundreds of other movies without a spark of originality (e.g., the light swords of Star Wars are quoted for the hundredth time, who can call this "intellectual"?). Even technically, the movie is weak. Mediocre actors are overcharged with imagining the later inserted animated characters (just look at Jenna Elfman holding Duffy Duck in the first scene). It is by far more rewarding to watch the old "Looney Tunes" cartoons (Tex Avery, Chuck Jones's Wile E. Coyote, ...), or "Who framed Roger Rabbit" (so far, the masterpiece in the mixture of life action and animation), or some episodes of "The Simpsons" (to see how one can cleverly quote other movies - not just for hiding one's lack of imagination). Well, the fact that the theater was empty at a Sunday afternoon during the first week of the movie's screening and that even the kids stopped laughing after a few minutes is the only hope that this kind of movie will not be repeated too many times.

With One Shot Productions, Jess Franco has found somebody who finances and distributes his home videos.

In Franco's filmography, Mari-Cookie follows Tender Flesh. Whereas the latter was quite a good effort, Mari-Cookie is barely watchable. As so often, Franco stretches material which would be good for 5-10 minutes of film to a full length movie. There are some elements which only a director like Jess Franco could conceive: A shot from inside a vagina (extremely badly executed), an exaggeratedly phony toy spider provided by a digital special effect with a living human face, and the usual extended scenes of voyeurism and exhibitionism, as well as a good musical score. The final showdown where all the trashy elements of the movie (the singing male captive, the toy spider, and so on) dissolve in abstraction is of some interest.

But for the most part, the film is really on the level of an amateur's home video (there is one scene where the microphone is not properly adjusted) obsessed with exhibiting Franco's aging wife having sex with other not so fresh women (except for Amber Newman). I have rarely witnessed such disregard for the audience.

By the way, the Spanish soundtrack is slightly better. E.g., it features Jess Franco as the voice of the tarantula in the opening scene.