Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death

Anyone who doesn't get this movie must not have been tortured by "Heart of Darkness" in High School. Kurtz has gone native in the jungle, and the tale is of the intrepid party braving the unknown to retrieve him... er, her. Kurtz dies, gasping, "The horror... the horror."

"Apocalypse Now!" -- another movie based on 'Heart' -- was an incredibly powerful film. Better than the original book, in my estimation. 'Cannibal Women' is the opposite end of the spectrum... a total farce. And it's also better than the original.

So if you didn't like this movie, read "Heart of Darkness," then watch this again. It'll make more sense, and it'll certainly seem a heck of a lot funnier.

(Okay, after 'Heart' *anything* is funnier... but you get the idea.)

I personally, find this movie so delightfully trashy as to be the epitomy of what "B" films are SUPPOSED to be about: implausible situations, done with the tongue firmly embedded in the cheek, tweeking the audience every chance they get.

Provided that prospective viewers know what they're in for, "Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death" can be a fun and reasonably intelligent movie. They should know up front that it goes for a campy approach, not a sleazy one, and it's lightly entertaining, even interesting. Don't expect any nudity (although there are plenty of sexily clad women and men) or on screen violence. Now, if you're still reading, you may actually find yourself laughing on more than one occasion at this fairly pointed script (by writer / director J.F. Lawton, who went on to write "Pretty Woman" and "Under Siege") and the lively, amiable performances.

It basically satirizes gender politics (while also parodying Joseph Conrads' "Heart of Darkness") in a yarn about feminist professor Margo Hunt (blonde bombshell Shannon Tweed), hired by the U.S. government to infiltrate a large section of California "jungle" and deal with a primitive tribe of females known as the Piranha women. These Amazonian type babes are in the habit of eating their male counterparts after having sex with them. Before making her trek into the jungle, Margo brings along an airhead student of hers, Bunny (Karen M. Waldron, "Return of the Killer Tomatoes") and hires a useless, Indiana Jones wannabe named Jim (comedian / political commentator Bill Maher), who it just so happens was a long ago one night stand of hers, as a guide.

Some viewers will likely think that Lawton is simply too focused on making statements instead of making the movie fun, and in truth, the movie is, as I said, fairly light entertainment. But the jibes in the screenplay are regularly amusing, and Lawton makes sure to take shots at both sexes. Maher is very funny as an obnoxious chauvinist who is taken aback by a male tribe that behave in a very non-stereotypical manner for guys. He goes so far as to teach them about beer and hitting on women. Tweed is a very good straight woman here; if anybody is in any doubt about her having actual acting ability, they need only watch her here. Waldron is cute and adorable. Brett Stimely is likable as the studly Jean-Pierre, Barry Primus makes a guest appearance as the conniving Ford Maddox, and Adrienne Barbeau adds further value with her bright performance as the feminist author who's assumed command of the warrior women.

This is, overall, a nice diversion for an hour and a half.

Seven out of 10.

Truly ridiculous film from one time Full Moon Films Director/Writer J.F. Lawton who has gone on to write numerous more successful, and quite similar, films and series for cinema and television. This film is sometimes credited as launching star Bill Maher to comedy prime time though as the exploration guide to Dr. Margo Hunt (Shannon Tweed) and her assistant Bunny (Karen M. Waldron) he rarely shines in this watchable but mediocre movie. Tweed and co are sent in to the jungle to look for a scary man-eating tribe and to try and secure the future of Avocardos for the USA. There are direct parallels here with the current need for oil and in many ways, because of the current climate, the movie manages to become clever satire when this was probably never the intention. Several digs at the then growing women's movement are thrown in such as Maher's "She wants to eat me, see for yourself what the women's movement is all about" or the suggestion that no Feminist has advocated Feminism since the 1960s. These jokes aside however - and the obvious fact that the women are all 'sexy' and scantily clad - it is the women who are frequently shown to be smart and the men merely void of intelligence and only useful for the reproductive gene they hold. The Carl Dante music (a regular Full Moon composer at the time) is more than suitable and the film easily watchable, though perhaps only once.

If you enjoy B movies like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes or just like silly movies that don't take themselves seriously this is the movie for you.

First, you have the two queens of B movies here: Shannon Tweed and Adrienne Barbeau. You name the B movie and chances are one of them is in it (it also has Karen Waldron who was in one of the Tomato sequels is in this as the overly vacuous Bunny).

You also have a young, before-I-got-political Bill Maher. He's perfect as a stereotypical "man's man".

The plot is ridiculously silly and they know it. IF you just need a no-brains-needed laugh, this is for you.