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Girls In Prison
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment // R // June 4, 2002
List Price: $14.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
"Girls in Prison" is one of Showtime's early 90's "Rebel Highway" series, which had several different filmmakers chosing their own one of American International Pictures corny drive-in pictures. While these pictures were likely campy classics, the Showtime remakes that I've seen don't really have the directors putting their own spin on these films. They take bad, but silly films and remake them as bad, but still silly films.
Director John McNaughton ("Wild Things")'s choice is to remake a 1956 picture by the same name. As badly acted, badly written, badly designed as this film is, it at least got something from me the other films in the series didn't - a laugh. The film is usually so terrible (often seemingly knowingly so) that the film does score a few chuckles. One scene that has a fight between two girls in the prison yard suddenly - and for no particular reason - turns into an all-out brawl between all the women.
The story - what little of one there is - revolves around Aggie O'Hanlon (Missy Crider), who is a talented singer-songwriter. Framed for the murder of a music agent so her song can be stolen, she ends up in jail along with Melba (Bahni Turpin), Carol (Ione Skye) and others. Even though Aggie's still in prison, she remains the target of those who planned the frame-up job.
The film's performances aren't very good, but at least the actors (even Anne Heche enters the picture later on) seem to occasionally have a sense of the kind of material that they're dealing with. There are several, over-the-top scenes that are awfully silly, but then the film heads back to something resembling a plot, where it goes from being bad and slightly amusing to simply bad. Yes, there are a couple of shower scenes, but they're pretty quick. While McNaughton's entry into the "Rebel Highway" series is the most entertaining of the series (which is saying very little), it still seems rather pointless to remake a bad cult movie into a bad, often silly one.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Girls in Prison" is presented in the film's original 1.33:1 full-frame aspect ratio, as it was during broadcast. I've now seen several of the "Rebel Highway" released on DVD (unfortunately) and this one really looked the best (which isn't saying a great deal) out of the ones I've viewed. Sharpness and detail were strong throughout, as the picture only had a few slightly soft spots.
In addition, some slight grain was visible in a few spots and I noticed a couple of specks on the print used. The only other problem was a few slight traces of pixelation were spotted. Colors remained well-rendered, looking vibrant and crisp, with no smearing.
SOUND: "Girls in Prison" is presented in Dolby 2.0. Dialogue and the terrible score are really all there is - both sound crisp and clear.
MENUS: Basic, non-animated main and sub-menus.
EXTRAS: "Sneak Peek" trailers for the other "Rebel Highway" titles.
Final Thoughts: When "Girls In Prison" doesn't take itself very seriously, it's at least somewhat amusing. Unfortunately, there aren't enough of those scenes to recommend the film. Disney's DVD offers decent audio/video quality and little in the way of supplements. Those seeking out a goofy bad film might want to try it as a rental, but I wouldn't recommend it otherwise.
"Girls in Prison" is one of Showtime's early 90's "Rebel Highway" series, which had several different filmmakers chosing their own one of American International Pictures corny drive-in pictures. While these pictures were likely campy classics, the Showtime remakes that I've seen don't really have the directors putting their own spin on these films. They take bad, but silly films and remake them as bad, but still silly films.
Director John McNaughton ("Wild Things")'s choice is to remake a 1956 picture by the same name. As badly acted, badly written, badly designed as this film is, it at least got something from me the other films in the series didn't - a laugh. The film is usually so terrible (often seemingly knowingly so) that the film does score a few chuckles. One scene that has a fight between two girls in the prison yard suddenly - and for no particular reason - turns into an all-out brawl between all the women.
The story - what little of one there is - revolves around Aggie O'Hanlon (Missy Crider), who is a talented singer-songwriter. Framed for the murder of a music agent so her song can be stolen, she ends up in jail along with Melba (Bahni Turpin), Carol (Ione Skye) and others. Even though Aggie's still in prison, she remains the target of those who planned the frame-up job.
The film's performances aren't very good, but at least the actors (even Anne Heche enters the picture later on) seem to occasionally have a sense of the kind of material that they're dealing with. There are several, over-the-top scenes that are awfully silly, but then the film heads back to something resembling a plot, where it goes from being bad and slightly amusing to simply bad. Yes, there are a couple of shower scenes, but they're pretty quick. While McNaughton's entry into the "Rebel Highway" series is the most entertaining of the series (which is saying very little), it still seems rather pointless to remake a bad cult movie into a bad, often silly one.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Girls in Prison" is presented in the film's original 1.33:1 full-frame aspect ratio, as it was during broadcast. I've now seen several of the "Rebel Highway" released on DVD (unfortunately) and this one really looked the best (which isn't saying a great deal) out of the ones I've viewed. Sharpness and detail were strong throughout, as the picture only had a few slightly soft spots.
In addition, some slight grain was visible in a few spots and I noticed a couple of specks on the print used. The only other problem was a few slight traces of pixelation were spotted. Colors remained well-rendered, looking vibrant and crisp, with no smearing.
SOUND: "Girls in Prison" is presented in Dolby 2.0. Dialogue and the terrible score are really all there is - both sound crisp and clear.
MENUS: Basic, non-animated main and sub-menus.
EXTRAS: "Sneak Peek" trailers for the other "Rebel Highway" titles.
Final Thoughts: When "Girls In Prison" doesn't take itself very seriously, it's at least somewhat amusing. Unfortunately, there aren't enough of those scenes to recommend the film. Disney's DVD offers decent audio/video quality and little in the way of supplements. Those seeking out a goofy bad film might want to try it as a rental, but I wouldn't recommend it otherwise.
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