Prison-A-Go-Go! (2003)

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.

if you go into this movie expecting a masterpiece.. your surely going to be let down.. but come on.. you can freakin tell by the name alone that its going to be a over the top, fun, boobalicous little film. Which it is! Sure its doesn't have the best FX or the best acting.. or the best anything for the sake of argument. But its very entertaining and hilarious. there's a scene where this ninja tells another one to look up.. and he proceeds to karate chop him in the throat. Come on people, don't read into indie movies that are made just to entertain.If your going to see this, watch out for the shower scene timer.. thats right there's a little clock that counts down to the next shower scene.. you will be be completely caught off guard of what happens in one of them.

*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.

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.