Deathrow Gameshow (1987)

Deathrow Gameshow (1987) 1/2 (out of 4) Chuck Toedan (Mohn McCafferty) is the host of a gameshow, which has deathrow inmates playing for money or an instant death. The game is set up like Let's Make a Deal where they are given options. One could end their life while the other might win their loved ones some money.DEATHROW GAMESHOW, for some reason, gained a cult following but it's hard to see why. I mean, it did come out the same year as THE RUNNING MAN so perhaps VHS hounds just got excited to see something with a familiar storyline but done without much of a budget. The film could have been much better had it stuck to its main storyline but sadly the games end rather early and then we're left with a really awful and boring subplot dealing with the host coming under attack.The film plays the majority of its games for laughs but they're just not very funny. The gore level of the games is also rather low due to the budget but I will at least give the filmmakers credit for at least trying to do something different. You've got the humor of the games but there are also fake commercials in the picture, which, again, aren't funny but at least it was something different. DEATHROW GAMESHOW gave it a shot but still came up with very little.

Strangely, this cheapo effort from Crown International Pictures seems to have got plenty of air time on UK TV channels over the years. I remember when Bravo used to show it all the time at the turn of the millennium, and now Talking Pictures TV have picked it up as part of their Crown package. I guess the title is what sells it, but the film doesn't match.Whichever way you look at it, this has to be the worst Crown picture of all, and they made a lot of dross over the years. DEATHROW GAMESHOW paints picture of a mildly futuristic society in which the masses turn in to see contestants in life-or-death games. THE RUNNING MAN is clearly the film that's being ripped off here, but it's not even close to the quality of that cheesy Schwarzenegger action flick.Instead DEATHROW GAMESHOW is a bore, devoid of laughs and incident. A number of prisoners take part in tasks they can't possibly win, and then the deaths are usually cut away from. This is bargain basement stuff, with appallingly over the top acting and not one ounce of wit in the script stakes. Yes, there's a little obvious satire, but when most of the laughs come from reaction shots of a fat guy eating spaghetti or the crude name-calling of the host then you know you're in trouble. This really is hopeless and I can think of few films worse or indeed less funny.

Chuck Toedan (cheerfully played to smarmy perfection by John McCafferty) hosts "Live or Die," a blithely twisted TV gameshow in which deathrow inmates are given a chance to either beat the executioner or at least win some nice prizes for their loved ones. Not surprisingly, Chuck has amassed a sizable number of enemies who include a bunch of bumbling Italian mobsters who want him dead. Will Chuck continue hosting his controversial program or will he see the error of his ways and call it quits before it's too late? Writer/director Mark Pirro milks the deliciously tasteless premise for every last shameless laugh he can get and joyfully wallows in an often uproarious sense of crude'n'stupid no-brainer black humor that's impossible to either resist or dislike. The game no-name cast attack their juicy broadly caricatured parts with infectiously lip-smacking enthusiasm: McCafferty revels in Chuck's sleazy charm, Robyn Blythe has a ball as uptight censor Gloria Sternvirgin, Beano almost steals the whole movie with his outrageously hammy portrayal of fierce, loutish, disgusting hit-man Luigi Pappalardo, Darwyn Carson makes a favorable impression as Chuck's perky secretary Trudy, and Paul Farbman nerds it up to a sidesplitting extreme as moronic wannabe contestant Dinko. Better still, Pirro offers a generous sprinkling of yummy female nudity: the luscious Esther Elise bares her beautiful body as an annoying fawning groupie and the delectable Debra Lamb as sexy hostess Shanna Shallow performs a sizzling striptease number. Craig Bassuk's fairly polished cinematography, the funky, syncopated theme song, and the bouncy score by Gregg Gross all further add to the considerable campy merriment of this absolute gut-busting dopey riot.

This movie is one of those rare offerings of pure, harmless, campy entertainment! Despite its failure to win a mainstream audience, it does have its own cult following, and it is too bad that the character of Gloria Sternvirgin (aka gloriabitch) was never given a sequel to expand her role. Some of the dialogue and actions of this film hit the bullseye, and the only other films where this combination (and type) of humor and plot structure could be found where in those directed by Paul Bartel (Deathrace 2000, Eating Rauol, Class Struggle in Beverly Hills).It's just a feeling! - see this movie, you will like it.