Justice de femme

My review was written in May 1989 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

"Lethal Woman" is an unconvincing revenge pic, suitable as a direct-to-video exploitation genre title.

Pic originally was called "The Most Dangerous Woman Alive" and in fact is a sex-switch on the classic "Most Dangerous Gamer" horror format of humans as prey.

Merete Van Kamp, Dutch thesp who closely resembles Michelle Pfeiffe this time out, plays an army brat who's raped by her commanding officer Col. Maxim (James Luisi, playing heavy in the old twirling-mustache mode). Fellow soldiers and even Van Kamp's fiance (Deon Stewardson) cover up for the colonel.

Embittered, Van Kamp has rounded up other rape victims, including statuesque Shannon Tweed, and set up shop on an all-woman island. There she lures all the men involved in the original rape indent and court-martials them one by one, hunts them down and kills them in bloodthirsty fashion. Robert Lipton is the retired special forces expert who's assigned by the army to put a stop to Van Kamp's antisocial behavior.

Lensed in South Africa, site of several Film Ventures '70s hits (e.g., "Kill or Be Killed" with James Ryan0, pic is competently made but phony. Supporting cast has trouble simulating the all-American accents and no suspense is generated in final reels when the obviously competent Lipton fights various starlets for survival.

Van Kamp is hamstrung in a nasty role, with Tweed stealing the spotlight, especially when the latter delivers the exploitation goods in a topless tryst in the surf with Lipton, simulating "From Here to Eternity" pose. Pic could have used more lighter moments. It's played dead serious by helmer Christian Marnham and is ultimately boring.

I briefly remember this when I was a teen. I heard about this movie, at the time, from my friend. I ended up taking his copy of it & watching it. I did return it, without him knowing.

Now, years later, I was very interested in this movie again, so I bought it off Ebay. After receiving it in the mail yesterday & watching it. This isn't that bad of an action movie. Its very low budget & has a good performance from a young Shannon Tweed, who is the only "big" name person that I know of, in this movie.

I can tell that this is a very under-rated movie & that I'm the 2nd person leaving a comment for this movie. :) I say, this is worth a rent, if you're looking for a low budget action movie or a movie with hot women who get naked too.

I love that tag line too: 'They're sexy, smart & oh, so deadly!'

A female army cadet, assaulted by her commanding officer and unable to obtain justice through a military court, decides to get even. So she buys an island (as you do) recruits other rape victims to help (naturally all beauty-queen-supermodel material) and invites each of the men who have wronged her on an 'erotic adventure' – in fact to be hunted down and killed. As the movie begins, the last of them, the CO himself, sets off cheerfully and alone to the mysterious island – even though he must know that all the others have vanished. And so a tough guy hero type from special ops is sent to sort things out.

The story is nonsense, the plot full of holes big enough to drive a tank through, the d-list TV actors patchy to poor, the characters paper-thin and the dialog corny. There are no surprises and the action is never that exciting or convincing. The island locations are pretty, but this is very low budget stuff. Some people will no doubt enjoy the women undressing every chance they get, but there is no sex, little graphic violence and this wouldn't get an 18 rating today.

The biggest problem is the premise, not so much idiotic as idiotically presented. Top of all her classes, including unarmed combat, we're told several times how the cadet has just creamed a male soldier in the gym. Her CO asks her to back off so the poor men in her class can have a chance. When she refuses, he simply lays her across his desk and rapes her. Does he use a weapon? No. Does he hit her? No, she is unmarked by the attack. Does this unarmed combat A-student fight back? Not at all that we see. Does she scream or call for help? No – soldiers posted just outside the door hear only feeble whimpers. Someone who could be overpowered so easily by a single unarmed assailant can never be effectively transformed into the threat needed to make this movie work.

Lethal Woman is an adaptation of The Most Dangerous Game (1932), but oh boy is it a loose one.

It tells the story of a soldier who is raped by her commanding officer. When he is found innocent in a court of law and betrayed by the man she loves she finds herself going down a very dark route in the name of redemption.

The classic tale of hunting people is present but takes a bit of a backseat and ultimately the more you think about the concept the more absurd it gets. Seriously, watch the movie and then think about the way the "Encounters" play out. It's ridiculous.

Starring erotic thriller veteran Shannon Tweed she almost makes it through the film without exposing herself, almost.

It's a passable enough attempt but as an adaptation of a superior film it falls somewhat flat. It struggles to find its identity, it's not action packed, it's not dramatic and for those wondering since it's a Tweed movie it's not even sexy.

Not the worst adaptation, but certainly a shameless one.

The Good:

Interesting twist

The Bad:

Rather flat

A bit silly

Lethal Woman has a preposterous premise. The main character is Christine, an army lieutenant, whose Commanding officer rapes her when she refuses to obey his orders to "pull back a little" as her credentials are top-notch and the Colonel feels that it may make her male counterparts uncomfortable. She apparently puts up no resistance, neither does she shout for help( even when two duty officers are right outside the door.) Afterwards she walks down the building where her fiancé is waiting for her. Looking at her state, he asks her most casually-"did he rape you ?" as though it is normal to expect such occurrences. Then the fiancé walks up to the Colonel and demands an explanation, but keeps shut when he is threatened to be court martialed. When Christine fails to get justice in a military tribunal, she does the most fantastic thing that can be imagined. She buys a private island ! Yes, she buys one and recruits help from similar women who have all been wronged. Together these women invite their tormentors to their island on the pretext of an 'erotic vacation'( it makes sense, since all these women are the gorgeous supermodel kinds). Once taken there, the men are hunted and killed. Meanwhile, after the disappearance of 20 US military personnel in 7years, the Army finally realizes that something may be wrong, and begin to suspect the retired Lt. Christine's hand in it.Only then an army Major is sent on the trip to capture the"lethal woman" and her gang, before things get worse.One of the trashiest movies which you could probably see. Best avoided, it is no wonder this movie remains obscure on VHS tape, with no DVD release as yet.