Praia Selvagem

Donna (Dona Speir) and Taryn (Hope Marie Carlton) are back! After busting some cocaine dealers (who smuggle their stock in pineapples), our busty federal agent duo find themselves delivering a medical serum to an island for Shane Abilene (Michael J. Shane). Yes, another Abilene! Anyway, a storm causes the plane to mess up and they get way off course before landing on a deserted island. They get company quick though when a group shows up to locate some lost Japanese gold. And, of course, there is also some stranded Japanese World War II vet still living on the island. No sure why, but I enjoyed this much more than previous entry PICASSO TRIGGER (1988). Maybe because it was a bit more focused in the plot department, even though it is convoluted as hell. My mind was also reeling as this was my first "wait, who is this guy again" experience with director Andy Sidaris' roving band of players as Rodrigo Obregon is back for a third time as a new villain. Sidaris also capitalized on the Asian influence and cast James Lew and Al Leong is supporting roles. The end is the best with one of the funniest explanations/flashbacks from the Japanese warrior (who has terrible age make up). Naturally, the film is packed with nudity and Sidaris should get credit for what I believe is the world's most gratuitous airplane changing scene. Sadly, this marked the end of the road for Carlton in Sidaris-land and I'm genuinely sad to see the team of Donna and Taryn break up.

"Savage Beach" has the most unusual story of the Lethal Ladies series. Instead of an over-equipped investigation with a plan, this is more like an accidental adventure. No Las Vegas night clubs or expensive sports-cars - "Savage Beach" plays on a lonely island where a gold treasure was lost in WW II, yet still guarded by an isolated Japanese soldier. Not a new story (I remember "Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure", 1981), but with Sidaris' attention grabbing techniques (from explosions to boobs) it works great. Our heroines, the two pilots Donna (Dona Speir) and Taryn (H.M. Carlton), make an emergency landing on that island after a storm (another rarity: bad weather in a Sidaris movie). More and more sinister characters arrive to make the island unsafe. Al Leong (who later played the helicopter pilot in "Hard Hunted") gets a good role as a tough bad guy. A situation that stuck to my mind is when the Leatherface samurai frees Taryn and explains later: "I can't kill those eyes again" - what a moment of poetry, folks! Oh, and would you believe a bloke who calls Donna "bimbo" survives the next few seconds? This is the 4th out of 12 Sidaris movies I reviewed (in chronological order), and one should note that after 3 successful pictures which he had financed basically from his personal money, Sidaris was offered a deal about 5 more which kept the Lethal Ladies series going. "Savage Beach" surely was an impressive start for this new... uh... pentalogy!

I'm kind of on a Sidaris Marathon this evening. :)

This is the archtypical B movie with gratuitous use of scantily clad, and occasionally unclad women, but it's so typical that it could be considered maybe to define the genre.

It differs mostly in the actual quality of filming, and actual attractiveness of the women acting from the majority of other B's of its type.

It flows very well, so that you never really start to get bored or lulled. For the most part the scenes either make sense to the plot, and move it along or add a different kind of excitement.

Still, of course, only fans of typical B movies, like the kind that push the R rating a little further than mainstream tends to allow, would want to watch it. If you're into that, you'll find this film to be a bit better than average.

My review was written in October 1989 after watching the movie at a Times Square screening room.

"Savage Beach" is an entertaining action pic, the third followup film to Andy Sidaris' "Malibu Express". Newest effort should do modestly well in regional theatrical release commencing October 13 in Gotham, ahead of the guaranteed video/cable market.

Lovely blonde thesps Dona Speir and Hope Marie Carlton return for the third time (following "Hard Ticket to Hawaii" and "Picasso Trigger") in their lead roles as government drug enforcement agents who moonlight as air cargo haulers. Returning home from an emergency serum delivery to ailing kiddies on a remote island, they crash land on Knox Island, 600 miles from their Molokai homebase.

Coincidentally, numerous opposing forces are converging on the island in search of a horde of gold stolen by the Japanese from the Philippines and originally lost in 1943 when its transport ship sunk. Among these are U. S. army & navy types, led by John Aprea, a secret CIA infiltrator (Burce Penhall), a pair of Japanese mercenaries plus two communist insurgents from the Philippines (Rorigo Obregon and Teri Weigel).

There is a surprisingly serious subplot, involving a Japanese warrior (Michael Mikasa) still left on the island 46 years later guarding the gold but guilt ridden for having killed defenseless U. S. navy men who washed up on the island. He takes a liking to Carlton and protects her in the ensuing action.

Filmmaker Andy Sidaris ensures that most of the action is campy fun with his oddball dialog and predilection for having the female cast strip in the least likely situations. For equal time to appease women in the audience there is a new, handsome leading man, Michael Shane as Shane Abiliene, nominal leader of the good guys.

Speir is an impressively tough heroine, while Carlton is allowed to show her soft side via the platonic romance with warrior Mikasa. Unfortunately, the wrinkly makeup converting young Mikasa into an ancient WW II vet is unconvincing.

Odd touch has all of the sex scenes devoted to the heavies, as Obregon and smoldering brunette Weigel discuss the "revolution" while bedding down.

Howard Wexler' lensing makes for a colorful package and producer Arlene Sidaris gets a lot of production value on screen within a modest budget. Action fans who favor a tongue-in-cheek approach will enjoy this one.

Savage Beach is hardly a great departure for director Andy Sidaris, yet another cheezy adventure featuring his stock-in-trade heavily armed, big breasted babes, heroic hunks and despicable bad guys; but although it's still a long way from a work of art, this is perhaps the most enjoyable out of the Sidaris films I've seen so far thanks to a story-line in which a more straightforward adventure takes precedence over the series' usual convoluted espionage nonsense.

The plot sees Taryn and Donna (Hope Marie Carlton and Dona Speir), Molokai's sexiest cargo pilot/drug enforcement agents, take a break from fighting desperate, evil, power-hungry villains to deliver some desperately needed medical supplies to a remote island hospital. On their way home from the drop, the girls run into a violent storm and wind up crashing on a supposedly uninhabited island where they do some naked swimming, construct a hut out of palm leaves, encounter an aged WWII Japanese soldier (sporting the world's worst old-age make-up), and somehow still wind up fighting desperate, evil, power-hungry villains who just happen to be on the island searching for a horde of gold.

In addition to endless shots of the super-buff Carlton and Speir parading around in tight white vests, oh-so-short-shorts and cowboy boots (even when engaging in bouts of unconvincing combat), Savage Beach also offers several other well-endowed babes who are equally obliging when it comes to showing us their wares, a fair few squibtastic bullet hits, some fun kung fu fight scenes, the occasional spot of nookie, plus cult actor Al Leong who, as one of the main goons, shows why he rarely gets given speaking parts.

I rate this trashy nonsense a reasonable 5.5 out of 10—my highest score yet for a Sidaris film—but it's still not good enough for me to warrant rounding it up to 6. Maybe next time, Andy... maybe next time.