Leofwine_draca Having taken a break from his poorly-made horror films of the late 1960s, Filipino director Eddie Romero here treats us to one of those popular '70s exploitation movies, which depict multi-national women as ass-kicking heroines. This cheaply-shot, competently-made movie is a lot of fun for fans of such genre films. I would, however, only recommend this to people who are acutely aware of the many flaws of the Filipino exploitation movie; namely their lack of effects, their sometimes poor pacing, and of course bad acting everywhere you look. But fear not, as SAVAGE SISTERS is actually one of Romero's better movies and contains a wealth of action and incident to keep things moving nicely along.The plot is pretty lightweight and consists of the basic "hunt for stolen gold" storyline overused so much over the years, with all the expected double-crossing, gender humour, and guys acting badly in silly costumes you would expect. Heck, they even throw in a prison scenario to appease W.I.P. fans. SAVAGE SISTERS is a pretty sexy film but tends to tease rather than bombard the viewer with explicit shots, exemplified by the unfinished strip-tease in a bar (a scene that goes on forever but gets nowhere!). It is a violent film but not very gory at all, aside from a couple of cheaply amusing effects shots.The leading cast members are attractive enough girls but good performances are few and far between. The only semi-professional turn comes from Gloria Hendry, who excels in her clichéd role of the sassy, dominating woman who doesn't take nonsense from any man! Romero regular John Ashley lurks around the scenery as W.P. Billingsley (?!) but instead of being the hero as usual he's instead a swarthy, sweating anti-hero for a change with a fine line in sexism and double-crossing. All of the usual Filipino character actors can be spotted fleshing out minor roles here, particularly the omnipotent Vic Diaz who really seems to be enjoying himself as a one-eyed bandit. Even cult favourite Sid Haig shows his face beneath a bushy beard as an overacting terrorist. With lots of action, gun battles, explosions, and car chases, SAVAGE SISTERS can hardly be called high art but it is pretty entertaining for what its worth.

Johann I caught this little biscuit over winter break from school. I've been a huge fan of 70's exploitation fare, and decided that my film diet needed a good injection of cheese, so I sat down to watch it. The plot is pretty basic, three very different women (an Asian revolutionary, a black bad-ass, and a rich white girl) team up to track down a desperado (an over the top performance by Sid Haig) who has one million dollars stolen from a corrupt third world dictatorship. The Asian girl and white girl are involved in a revolution (for very different reasons) and the black girl was a torture expert used by the government, but she switched sides to get the cash. Along the way, they meet up with a scumbag wheeler-dealer (John Ashley) who wants the cash for himself and are chased by an incompetent army captain trying to make a name for himself.The plot is pretty standard cookie cutter exploitation fare, and it obviously was made on a budget, but it isn't without its charm. The jokes that they pull off, although extremely campy, actually are kind of amusing. The girls give solid performances and John Ashley seems to be having a good time playing the used car salesman type, but the real winner here is Sid Haig. I wouldn't say Sid is the only thing this picture has going for it, but he's obviously enjoying his role and gives a fantastic performance.Recommended for anyone who likes the women in prison genre (even though there is no nudity in this one).

Wizard-8 You have to give credit to this Filipino actioner for at least trying something different, and that's with making the movie more or less a comedy. However, the comedy is so lazy, so uninspired, and so utterly unfunny that sitting through the movie is more painful than had it kept the comedy out! (Also, the comedy sometimes has a mean-streak in it, giving some scenes a bitter taste.)It's not that the movie is just bad with its comedy, it's also badly made. The "action" is poorly choreographed, and the mayhem has the intensity of seeing a group of people running by you. As well, there is some unbelievably slipshod editing; characters suddenly appear (or disappear) with no explanation as to how they got there or where they went. Added with a prologue that suspiciously looks like it was filmed and added in at the last minute, there seems to have been some problems during the shooting, or that they were frantically trying to save the movie in the editing room.Oh yeah, don't let the "R" rating fool you. The rating seems to be more for several utterances of the "ultimate" four-letter words. The action isn't graphic, the sex happens off-screen or just out of camera range, and I don't think there's one instance of actual nudity by the ladies. You have to ask yourself why if they were headed for an "R" rating with the language, why they didn't use the opportunity to spice things up.

Infofreak 'Savage Sisters' comes from the same period as the Jack Hill led Filipino "chicks in chains" flicks of the early 70s ( see 'The Big Doll House' and 'The Big Bird Cage' for the best of the genre). Hill wasn't involved in this one mind you, the director is Eddie Romero, also responsible for the classic 'Black Mama, White Mama', who also appears in a supporting role as Captain Morales. The three aforementioned movies all co-starred blaxploitation icon Pam Grier. Grier isn't along for the ride in 'Savage Sisters', the Grier role is taken by Gloria Hendry ('Live And Let Die', 'Black Belt Jones'), and while the prison side of things isn't as important as the others in the series, fans of them will really dig this one. As always, while filmed in the Philippines, the movie is set in some unnamed Banana Republic. General Balthasar (Leopoldo Salcedo) plans on smuggling one million dollars US out of the country. A group of local revolutionaries plan on stealing the money and form an uneasy alliance with some bandits, led by the wily Malavael (the legendary Sid Haig, a regular in these kinds of movies), and his bumbling sidekick One-Eye (Vic Diaz, another familiar face). Malavael not surprisingly double crosses the revolutionaries and makes of with the cash. Meanwhile Jo Turner (Cheri Caffaro) and Mai Ling (Rosanna Ortiz), each with varying commitment to the Revolution, are captured before they can rendezvous with their comrades, who include Turner's lover. While in prison they are interrogated by tough hooker turned cop Lynn Jackson (Hendry). She is later convinced by the shady W.P. Billingsley (John Ashley, who also co-produced) to break the two women out of prison and help them track down Malavael, with the secret intention of getting hold of the cool million for themselves. However, Billingsley's plan of betrayal may not go exactly as planned as Jackson begins to bond with her "savage sisters" on the jungle journey. Newcomers to these kinds of movies may not enjoy this as those more familiar with their style and approach, but I enjoyed 'Savage Sisters' a great deal, and think it deserves to be much better known than it currently is. A tough and cool movie with plenty of fun and thrills.