Terminal Island

It was really weird to see Tom Selleck and the black guy from Magnum P.I. in a movie together considering I have never seen either one of them in anything else. Do they always work together or was this the only time? I'll probably never know. Anyway, I wasn't expecting much from this movie and I was pleasantly surprised.Strangely, they start the movie with a news team and make it look like they will be a big part of the story but their part is done before the opening credits roll. I assume it's an original plot, although it's very similar to how Australia became a country. The fight scenes we're a bit weak, you could easily see that nobody was really getting hit, but the story was good enough to make up for it. It was a little predictable too but most movies are. I thought it was weird that there was so much nudity and so little swearing, they usually go hand in hand.It was also a bit weird that the woman who was the main character for most of the movie isn't even in the final few minutes but maybe it was just an editing mistake. This is a good movie, watch it.

After the Supreme Court outlaws the death penalty, California circumvents the ruling by sending murderers to a secluded island, where they are declared 'legally dead' and expected to kill each other off. Four intrepid ladies spend some miserable time in the hierarchical sexist work camp on one side of the island, then run off to join the liberated comrades on the other side. There's some pretty big statements waiting to happen in there, and they come through loud 'n' brassy, but they are made in the firm confines of a rockin' 70s drive-in action movie. This is a co-ed prison flick on a cheaper set, with a great bunch of weirdo characters floating around and future Magnum P. I. cast members sweetening the pot. Smart and well made too.

This movie was fine, great, if you're a Tom Selleck fan. Personally, I like Phyllis Davis (who starred later in "Vegas" with the late Robert Urich). The "DVD" version; which is available from Canada, produced by Legacy Entertainment, is a "ripoff" (if you'll pardon an old slang word). It is cut for language, and other material, featuring Ms. Davis, and another actress (separate scenes, not together), involving nudity. I know, because a) I have a book called "The Bare Facts" by Craig Hosada, which reviews these scenes. b.) I have a tape called Famous T & A, I'm not making it up, which features an uncut/uncensored excerpt from the movie which shows what was cut. I am getting a VHS, used, from another place, from a different manufacturer, and hoping it hasn't been "cut". Although rated "R" originally, and even though it says it's been edited (which I didn't look to see, until after I viewed the movie; which if I had done, I'd have returned it) I feel I was cheated. So, this is a warning to any potential buyers. If editing doesn't bother you, then, by all means, buy it. In fact, I'm trying to resell my copy, as it was played once.

Remember Escape From New York? Eight years previously, in 1973, Terminal Island did the exact same idea. Not nearly as well, but hey - being first count for something, too! TI is an exploitation film when being an exploitation film was cool. As such, it has certain shortcoming inherent to the genre, such as street talking tough black guy, the psychotic white chauvinist pig, and the heroic woman, overcoming oppression with sagacity and perserverence. I can live with those stereotypes, but I can't bear the background music leftover from a 1970's porn movie!

Marta Kristen finally gets to play the part of an action hero - quite a leap from the laid back Judy Robinson role she is best known for. She fights and blows things up and knows how to create gunpowder from nature. Very cool.

The early 1970s B picture "Terminal Island" has an effective premise with which to work. In the "future", the Supreme Court has declared the death penalty unconstitutional. In its place, criminals are now dumped on an island 40 miles off the American coast. Here they're (mostly) left to fend for themselves. The latest arrival is a young woman, Carmen (Ena Hartman), who's just in time to witness an uprising. Some of the convicts are tired of the tyranny of their "leaders" Bobby (Sean Kenney, "The Corpse Grinders") and Monk (Roger E. Mosley, "The Mack"). So a small group splits off from the main group, and plots revolution.

Co-written by James Barnett, producer Charles S. Swartz, and director Stephanie Rothman ("The Velvet Vampire"), "Terminal Island" is pretty good for this kind of exploitation fare. It fulfils its requirements - violence, sex, nudity - adequately, and is simply beautifully shot (by Daniel Lacambre, "Humanoids from the Deep") on some pretty locations. While it naturally has its trashy moments, it never really wallows in unpleasantness, and it does have a sense of humour, to boot. (Watch how the horny character, Dylan (Clyde Ventura, "'Gator Bait") is dealt with.) The story is a little thin, but is also provocative on occasion. (Dr. Milford, played by a young Tom Selleck, was convicted of the mercy killing of a patient.)

The cast is full of then-stars, stars-to-be, and familiar character faces. Also appearing are Don Marshall ("The Thing with Two Heads"), Phyllis Davis ("Beyond the Valley of the Dolls"), Marta Kristen ('Lost in Space'), Barbara Leigh ("Junior Bonner"), Geoffrey Deuel ("Chisum"), James Whitworth (Papa Jupe in Wes Cravens' "The Hills Have Eyes"), Richard Stahl ("Nine to Five"), Sandy Ward ("Cujo"), and Albert Cole ("The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant"). The film gained newfound attention when Selleck and Mosley found later fame on 'Magnum P.I.'. Kenney and Mosley are particularly fun as the antagonists of the piece.

Full of solid squib action and some satisfying explosions, "Terminal Island" is worthy of discovery by devotees of the B pictures of decades past.

Seven out of 10.