Prison-a-Go-Go!

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

One of the extras on the "Prison a Go Go" DVD is an interview with the director. It has him sitting by a pool at a Hollywood motel talking about the making of this movie. During the interview, he constantly brings up the lack of money involved and how he really was trying to make fun of 70's schlock women in prison flicks. He also half heartedly apologized for the low quality of his gratuitous shower scenes because of the lack of funding. All I can say is that I'm glad I saw this interview before writing this comment. If I hadn't, I would be taking a baseball bat to this DVD and bashing it into a thousand pieces.

"Prison a Go Go" starts out with one of those pretentious "A film by…" credits as if anyone knows who in the heck this guy is. Within two seconds, I knew this movie was going to derail. "Prison a Go Go" is not a woman's prison movie. It has no interest in woman's prison movies. No self respecting director would take the time to film himself (!) in a woman's prison movie. This movie is attempting to be funny by using and abusing various B-movie genres such as the mad scientist who works in a woman's prison and is attacked by ninja's genre. If I had laughed more than once, I might have enjoyed this movie. Instead, I gritted my teeth as one lame joke after another fell flat.

One of the recurring jokes is that it puts a "Shower clock" in the lower right hand side of the screen to show you when the next ladies showering scene will be. This was added in so guys could just fast forward to the next shower scene. This would have been interesting if the shower scenes were worth fast forwarding to! I say, with the full authority that comes with watching a lot of women's prison flicks, that these shower scenes were pathetic. One of the main reasons I rented this movie was to see Rhonda Shear getting clean in the shower. Oh she's taking a shower all right, but they film her from the neck up! What? Why!? They can't even get their main character to get topless for them! NOOOOO!!! It makes no sense! Why did they bother making a woman's prison flick? The girls who do get topless flash on the screen for a second and it was a second too long. It's a good thing the director apologized for the lack of showering quality in the interview or I would have gladly destroyed this movie.

"Prison a Go Go" is not an exploitation flick. It's just an excuse for a bunch of Grade A film geeks to get together and make a stupid movie that only they will laugh at. Here's some good advice. Woman's prison movies are not to be ridiculed and scoffed at. There are to be treasured and revered as the perfect vehicles of exploitation that they are. If you're a woman's prison fan, don't see this. It will only hurt you. You can't laugh at the lack of nudity in the prison shower scenes. Gratuitous shower scenes are not the same without gratuitous naked breasts.

In a short interview included in the DVD extras of "Prison A-Go-Go!", the very young director comes across as a pleasant guy who is also very knowledgeable about B-movies, and especially Women-In-Prison films. However, the fact that you LOVE movies does not necessarily mean that you should MAKE movies. "Prison A-Go-Go!" plays like a very bad Troma flick - and speaking of Troma, Lloyd Kaufman does not belong in front of the camera, he can barely keep a straight face at his own (embarrassingly unfunny) jokes. Mary Woronov, the other big "name" of the cast, appears only in the first 5 minutes. The film has zero production values, taste, and, most importantly, laughs (the "shower clock" is a good idea on paper, except that all the shower scenes are some of the most uninspiring I've ever seen), but some of the girls are cute, so I'll give it 0.5 out of 4 stars. If you do get the DVD, look for the Q&A sessions with Roger Corman and Mary Woronov among the extra features.

There's no reason at all for a film like "Prison-A-Go-Go!" to exist. Let's just be thankful that it does. It's pure fun and exploitation. Not a single raison d'etre to worry about and not much of a plot so you can keep your mind on vacation and just sit back and enjoy the raucous goings on. Whenever Mary Woronov is in the cast you have to sit up and take notice. A little longer in the tooth than you might remember from "Eating Raoul" or "Rock-n-Roll High School", she remains the premiere female thesp of high comic villainary. If you thought Rhonda Shear's career disappeared when she was replaced by Gilbert Gottfried on television, "Prison-A-Go-Go" will surely remind you why she used to keep you up all night. Lots of pretty girls, lots of gratuitous scenes, lots of laughs. You may not find this on your local vid store shelf but pick up a copy somewhere whenever you can smoke one out.

In my mind Prison-a-go-go represents what movies should be. It is a movie that entertains viewers because of its plot and content as opposed to trying to dazzle us with eye-candy special effects. It also shows that a entertaining movie can be created without a large budget. Prison-a-go-go has it all, evil scientists, a mean bitchy prison warden, Lloyd Kaufman, ninjas, and most important. . .shower scenes. Keep in mind Prison-a-go-go is not intended to be a women-in-prison movie, but is intended to poke fun at 60s/70s women-in-prison movies. The movie features Rhonda "up-all-night" Shear and Mary Woronov in prominent roles and a small appearance by Lloyd Kaufman. In addition to the movie, the DVD features some great bonus footage. The director Barak Epstein gives a great pool-side interview and also very entertaining info in the director's commentary version of the movie.

Prison-a-go-go is a refreshing break from the big-budget schlock that is peddled to us by Hollywood. Check it out !

If you take this movie for what it is worth, it is actually quite fun. It was meant to make fun of the classic 70's prison movies. It does that in spades. This movie isn't meant to be some deep, great blockbuster. If you go into it thinking that, you will get burned. However, if your looking for a mildly amusing, gratuitous nudity filled movie to waste a couple of hours, then this is for you. The acting is quite poor, but thats to be expected out of a no-budget movie. The sound is also atrocious, but that may have just been the copy I was watching. I especially liked the countdown clock that informs viewers of when the next shower scene will take place. The product placement was brilliant. Besides, there just aren't enough movies about mad doctors turning hot women into porcupines.