Girls, Guns and
G-Strings/Stripped Naked/Sugar
Boxx (1985-2011/Anchor Bay,
eOne, Mill Creek DVDs)
Picture:
D/C/C Sound:
D/C/C Extras: B-/D/D
Films: C/D/D
Here we take a look at some movies using sex to sell some more copies. With '70s style exploitation still apparently
a selling point a few years on from Grindhouse, both Stripped Naked
and Sugar Boxx have made attempts at capitalizing on this through their
advertising. While both films inarguably
lame, only the filmmakers of the latter even bothered to actually try to mold
their movie in the style it purports to be. Many elements of the
sexploitation/women in prison genres are in evidence... even Tura Satana
appears in it for a short while.
Unfortunately, the film is familiar in all the wrong ways and done on such a
small budget that it seems they were just barely able to scrape together enough
cash to redress the one or two sets they had at their disposal. While the
trappings are all present, none of the spirit of the old films ever comes around,
leaving this with little going for it - definitely not enough to give it a
shot.
Stripped Naked, on the other hand, is merely a generic thriller that's
short on originality as well as T&A. Seeing as how there's almost no marketable
qualities in this movie, they almost had to use some form of false advertising
- I just can't imagine an audience this crap would appeal to otherwise.
The best out of this selection is without a doubt Girls, Guns and G-Strings:
The Andy Sidaris Collection. It has
all twelve of his wonderfully cornball flicks, and retails for less than the
cost of your average single DVD. It's all typical '80s cable TV action schlock,
but is a big guilty pleasure. The
biggest disappointment with it lies in its presentation, which sees the movies
crammed together, 3 to a side, on 3 double-sided discs. The video and sound quality do suffer rather
noticeably because of this, but its still tough to beat a deal like this when
you're dealing with something not in the public domain.
Picture and sound is average on both Stripped Naked and Sugar Boxx,
with both films presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen and some weak 5.1
surround sound. G,G&G, on the
other hand, has very poor picture and sound, but varies from film to film. These films are presented in 1.33:1 full
frame, and with 2.0 mono sound mixes, but aren't specifically noted as such on
the packaging.
There's a small handful of extras on Sugar Boxx, but none that are all
that noteworthy. The Andy Sidaris
Collection, however, has a small bounty of short clips and trailers to
accompany each film in the form of hidden Easter eggs that you'll have to track
down on the menu screens. It's worth the
time as they are a lot of fun and include some appearances with Joe Bob Briggs.
If scantily clad babes wielding firearms is your kind of thing, G,G&G
is worth risking in spite of its shortcomings. The others are best left avoided by anyone
with even halfway decent judgment.
- David Milchick
