Picasso - Arisco no Gatilho

This film essentially begins with an international crime lord known as "Picasso Trigger" (John Aprea) being assassinated in Paris by a colleague named "Miguel Ortiz" (Rodrigo Obregon) who wants to take over his underworld empire. Not only that, but Miguel is equally determined to kill everyone who anything to do with the death of his brother some time before. To that extent, one of his first attempts is against both "Donna" (Dona Speir) and "Taryn" (Hope Marie Carlton) were vacationing on a boat just off the coast of Maui. Fortunately, as luck would have it, the two of them had just gone snorkeling just minutes before a remote-controlled airplane bomb slams into their boat and blowing it up. Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, a colleague of Miguel by the name of "Mr. Schiavo" (Nicholas Georgiade) has also targeted several agents who have been investigating his white-slavery racket as well. To that effect, with so many of his agents being either killed or narrowly escaping assassination attempts, the man in charge of these agents by the name of "L. G. Abilene" (Guich Koock) decides to turn the tables and go after Miguel Ortiz. What he doesn't know, however, is that there is more to these assassination attempts than he realizes and there is one person within his agency that has a secret agenda of their own. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this sequel to "Hard Ticket to Hawaii" was, in my opinion, a little bit better than its predecessor as both the acting and the script showed a slight improvement. Likewise, the presence of several attractive actresses like Cynthia Bremhall (as "Edy"), Roberta Vasquez ("Pantera"), Kym Malin ("Kym") and the aforementioned Dona Speir and Hope Marie Carlton certainly didn't hurt either. On the other hand, much like the previous picture, the plot lacked depth and needed a lot more suspense or intrigue as the numerous action scenes were simply not sufficient to maintain interest for an extended period of time. At least, I didn't think so. Be that as it may, while this wasn't a bad action film by any means, it had its faults and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

It's not his best work, but I still don't feel like I wasted my rental.

It drags on in some parts, and most of the hand to hand fight scenes are really unconvincing.

On the plus side, it has some tricks and twists that an audience member really wouldn't see coming.

No Julie Strain, but Donna Spier and Roberta Velasquez look really good in most of their shots. :)

Still, the nudity, while gratuitous, isn't very common in occurrence. The scenes where the characters are in swimsuits are nice, I guess. I have to admit they look pretty good.

It really didn't flow very well, and it had some scenes that were just plain boring.

Overall, I still like Sidaris' work, because it's the best you'll ever get in this kind of film work, I think, but he's done better.

My review was written in May 1988 after watching the movie at a Times Square screening room.

"Picasso Trigger" is a campy action picture jampacked with beautiful women and musclebound hunks. In regional release since February, pic is likely to arouse considerable interest in ancillary markets.

Filmmakers Andy and Arlene Sidaris' gimmick is that all seven "Picasso" leading ladies are former Playboy magazine models. Dona Speir and Hope Marie Carltpon encore from the previous opus from the Sidarises: "Hard Ticket to Hawaii", as two government agents stationed in Molokai. They're called in to join the international team to stop Salaza, a/k/a/ Picasso Trigge (John Apriea), who's sent his henchmen to assassinate the agents who got his brother.

Organized by L. G. Abilene (Guich Koock), who is one of the marked men, team is headed by Travis Abilene (former soap star Steve Bond) and includes a mothley group of figting experts (including Harold Diamond, antoher "Hard Ticket" alumnus) and bombshells (Cynthia Brimhall, Kym Malin, Patty Duffek). Also on board is the voluptuous but suspicious-looking foreign agent Pantera (Roberta Vasquez), who coincidentally was Travis' sweetheart in college.

With many cute gadgets, inlcuding toy plane, car and dynamite-laden boomerange, injected into the action, the film plays firmly tongue-in-cheek as a omic strip approach to international intrigue. All the characters and thesps arfe larger than life, with silly bon mots peppering the dialog. Episodic format, with too much time addrfessed to side issues or rounding up the team, is a drawback.

Acting is variable, with most of the cast used to posing rather than reading liens. Bond, recently miscast in a West German period piece "Silent Night", is convincing as the hero who can't shoot straight, allowing his lovely co-stars to assert themselves in the killing and self-defense departments. Speir and Carlton are enthusiastic, uninhibited heroines with newcomer Vasquez making a strong impression as the villainess.

Playboy fans will be glad to see Liv Lindeland again, looking great and delivering a couple of funny lines (her film career peaked wih a character role in "Save the Tiger" 15 years back).

Tech credits including numerous explosions ar fine, with atmospheric location photography in Hawaii, Texas and Louisiana.

Just watching the credits for Sidaris' flicks reveals where he gets his cast. Everyone is from Playboy, Penthouse, or Playgirl. What the heck, everyone wants a chance to act. At least none of these folks gave Sidaris any headaches about doing nude scenes!

The movies are popcorn, not meant to be taken to seriously. Just sit back and watch a bunch of occassionally naked women and guys kill some nefarious bad guys.

Once again, this Sidaris film seems to have everything: a fit and quite believable as an agent Dona Speir, an incredibly adorable Hope Marie Carlton (on a scale of 1 to 10, her smile is a 12), a gorgeous Roberta Vasquez, international locations (Paris, Las Vegas, Texas, Hawaii, etc.), LOTS of explosions, outrageous gadgets, etc. The mix should have been explosively hot, but sadly it's only lukewarm. The execution of the formula is mechanical, as if Sidaris was simply ticking off action scenes from a list. There are very few funny lines (the best belongs to Speir: when she's accused of being jealous, she says "there is not a jealous bone in my body - check it out for yourself", and she disrobes!) and the one fight scene, involving Harold Diamond, is terrible. But to end this comment on a positive note, John Aprea gives a slick performance as the arch-villain of the story. (**)