Aubrey Hackett
While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.
Bessie Smyth
Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
Sameeha Pugh
It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
Woodyanders
Sweet goody goody two shoes Janie (a perky and appealing portrayal by Laurie Watton) goes to the worst prison in the Philippines to find her missing sister Callista (very fetching tall drink of water Lauren Graham). While incarcerated at this brutal women's penitentiary Janie meets a colorful array of female felons, discovers that mad scientist Dr. Hurtrider (wildly overplayed with deliciously hammy relish by Travis Willingham) is using the inmates as guinea pigs for his nefarious experiments, and, naturally, finds time to take a lot of showers.Director Barak Epstein, who also co-wrote the cheerfully inane script with Mike Wiebe, keeps the enjoyably silly story moving along at a zippy pace, maintains an amiable blithely kitschy tongue-in-cheek tone throughout (the running gags about an on-screen shower time clock and blatant product place in particular are quite inspired), and delivers plenty of over-the-top gore along with the expected tasty gratuitous distaff nudity. Moreover, Epstein certainly covers all the pleasingly trashy babes-behind-bars bases: We've got flesh-eating zombies, sadistic guards, nude gals in the shower, a catfight in the mud, a gaggle of bored ninjas who are desperate for action, and a climactic breakout. The enthusiastic cast have a ball with the wacky material, with especially spirited contributions from Rhonda Shear as friendly and horny top con Jackpot, Lloyd Kaufman as sleazy guard Liebowitz, Louisa Lawless as the crazy Cross Eye, Tina Parker as the flatulent Breezy, and Wiebe as the hopeless nerdy warden Wilbur Thorn. Mary Woronov has a funny bit as the ruthless Dyanne She-Bitch Slutface. Ilram Choi almost steals the whole show with his uproarious turn as an overzealous ninja. A real hoot.
sgcim
Unfortunately, I missed the first few minutes of this film, so I can't comment on the beginning (I came in on the scene where she can't kill the baby), but the rest of the film is hilarious.All the WIP clichés were there- A woman looking for her sister in jail getting arrested on purpose.The leering jail guard, The butch bully, the cafeteria fight scene, the shower scenes, the big escape scene towards the end, the mad doctor experimenting on the inmates, I completely missed Mary Wuronov's character, but I assume she played the tough dyke warden, etc.... The young guy as the new warden was great, as well as the crazy prison doctor and the Barbra Streisand-type inmate. The punk band scene was a pisser, and there's a lot of jazz in the score featuring a baritone sax (like "I Want To Live" with Susan Hayward and Gerry Mulligan on the soundtrack?).I don't think a total spoof of WIP flicks has been done before, but there have been a lot of partial spoofs. Hopefully this director will do more of the same.
romerozombie101
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.
Dr. Gore
*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.
