One of Earth's last fertile men in a post-apocalyptic world, a rogue named Sam Hell (Rowdy Roddy Piper) is captured by a government now run by Medtech, a group of women intent of repopulating the country with the the aid of the few remaining fertile men and women. Sam is however soon enlisted on another mission, to aid in the rescue of a group of fertile women now slaves to a dangerous group of mutant frogmen, huge froglike humanoids created in the nuclear war's aftermath, in a town fittingly called Frogtown.
For me, Rowdy Roddy Piper's performance saves this movie. He adds just the right amount of humor and macho suave to the mix, a nice reaction to this new seemingly ultra-feminist society, creating an enjoyable amount of fun, romantic tension between leads Piper and Sandahl Bergman. Bergman is beautiful and her charms are used to good effect here although she's a bit too thin here for my personal liking. I also quite enjoyed Cec Verrell's performance as Centinella, the female soldier enlisted to aid Hell and Bergman's Nurse Spangle, who actually gets to perform the film's only major nude scene. The Frogmen too prove fun at times especially Commander Toty and Bull who both have some great lines to deliver here and there.
Listening to the director's commentary on the Anchor Bay DVD explains a lot as to why this film doesn't ever quite live up to one's expectations...once the studio at New World Pictures started pouring more money into it, studio execs wanted to have too much say so we never got to see a four armed Commander Toty do battle with Rowdy Roddy Piper nor did we see the Frogmen with the leaping ability originally envisioned for them. As described, these elements sure sound like they would have improved the movie quite a bit as the movie biggest flaw is it never ever delivers quite enough action and in many ways thanks to low budget could not adequately pull off all it's trying to deliver. Overall there's far too many scenes of our heroes driving and walking from place to place and nowhere near enough action featuring the Frogmen. I did like the Frogtank scenes where it does battle with the pink Medtech van but the finale with Piper and Toty tends to bring to mind Captain Kirk battling the Gorn in Star Trek's "Arena". Still I like this and find it fun. "Hey, you try making love in a hostile, mutant environment, see how you like it." -Sam Hell
**1/2 out of *****
I've only seen this movie once-and it was a long time ago. I think I've seen the sequel a couple of times and I remember liking them. I miss the Saturdays we local station would play B-Movies in the afternnon. Now a days we get infomercials, syndicated Sci-Fi shows, and reruns of Law and Order.
Its on the list of B moive DVDs I want to get once I clear some more space of my shelves.
I had this on VHS at one point. From some reason, it makes a good double bill with Chopper Chicks in Zombietown.
Quote from: Torgo on April 11, 2008, 10:25:24 PM
I had this on VHS at one point. From some reason, it makes a good double bill with Chopper Chicks in Zombietown.
What about Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang? http://www.amazon.com/Jacob-Meets-Hooded-Return-Frogtown/dp/B00067Z2KU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1207997560&sr=8-2 (http://www.amazon.com/Jacob-Meets-Hooded-Return-Frogtown/dp/B00067Z2KU/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1207997560&sr=8-2)