Good start, but then it gets ruined

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

From story authors Jonathan Demme & Joe Viola, screenwriter H.R. Christian, and the prolific Eddie Romero, comes this diverting Filipino chase movie that puts an exploitative spin on the premise of "The Defiant Ones".It starts out as your average women in prison flick, with blonde revolutionary Karen Brent (Margaret Markov) and black prostitute Lee Daniels (Pam Grier) meeting. While escorted away from the prison, they are shackled together. They soon make their break for freedom, often arguing over methodology and directions but coming to rely on each other and even care for each other.Director Romero makes this a pretty lively affair, and it's worth noting that things take on a rather tongue in cheek tone at times. The ample humour helps to make this quite easy to watch, with Pams' frequent co-star Sid Haig given a meaty role which he plays with relish: a flamboyant, horny, loud talking dude in a cowboy costume. Romeros' pacing is effective, and the action scenes are fairly intense; there are some brief bursts of bloody violence. The location shooting is excellent, and the supporting cast features some familiar faces from Filipino exploitation cinema: Eddie Garcia, Alfonso Carvajal, Bruno Punzalan, and the always welcome Vic Diaz, who's a hoot as an oily crime lord. Sexy Lynn Borden has the role of a lustful prison guard. Stars Markov and Grier look fantastic and get some great chemistry going.The true highlight of the movie definitely has to be the sequence where Markov and Grier masquerade as nuns; it provides the biggest laughs. But it must be said that Romero knows how to get down to business, delivering delectable nudity in the obligatory shower scene that occurs no more than four minutes into the movie.All in all, this is solid entertainment that should please fans of the A.I.P. drive-in flicks of the 1970s.Seven out of 10.

Pam Grier is in this but I would call this movie still more exploitation than blaxploitation really.It's a movie filled with some (unconvincing) violence and random nudity and sex. So obviously this is a exploitation flick alright. Now, I have no problem with some nudity and sex in a movie but problem with exploitation flicks is often being that those moments are very random and add nothing at all to the movie its story. It instead slows it more often down because it often focuses heavily on those moments and make them overlong.The first half of the movie is pretty much being a lesbian prison exploitation flick, with attractive female prisoners walking around in tight and short outfits and with female guards, who do more than just eye them. The second half is totally different however. It is way more random than its first half and you would think that the movie would start to focus on the two female prisoners who escaped but are still being chained together but the movie focuses more on the different groups chasing them. And there are a whole bunch of people after them, which perhaps sounds pretty cool but instead more works out as being unnecessary and overly complicated. It's as if the movie tried too hard to create some depth to its story and characters but it really doesn't work out too interestingly.Of course it's being a pretty cheap made and looking movie. Does also prevents from anything in the movie to ever work out above the level of decent. Nothing special about the movie its settings, directing or acting but it all serves its purpose well enough and make this still a watchable movie.Yes, the movie is being regardless of everything still a pretty entertaining one to watch, like often is the case with '70's exploitation pieces. Even though the story is being very random, it still is what makes the movie a fun one to watch because so much random insanity is going on in it. Lots of moments and characters don't even serve a purpose in the movie, once you start thinking about them but you should never think too much about anything going on when watching an exploitation flick in the first place.Enjoyable enough for what it is.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Black Mama, White Mama (1973) ** (out of 4)Silly if mildly entertaining rip-off of THE DEFIANT ONES only with females. Pam Grier plays the black girl and Margaret Markov is the white one, they hate each other but must come together to escape prison and eventually go on the run trying to do get done what they need to live peaceful. This film was shot in the Philippines by a director known for creating some low-budget horror films including MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND and BRIDES OF BLOOD. He brings a nice atmosphere to the film as he obviously knows the land very well and the Philippine settings really add a lot to the movie. With that said, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that they didn't achieve a tad bit more considering some the camp talent they had involved here. For starters, both Grier and Markov fit into their roles very nicely. Both look extremely sexy and they work well off of one another even if neither one gives what one would call a good performance. We also have Sid Haig playing a bounty hunter and he adds some additional entertaining especially in one scene where he goes up to a father and takes his two daughters into a bedroom. The film has been labeled as a blaxploiation pic but that's really not true as Grier is the only black member in the entire cast. The racial elements from the original film have pretty much been taken out and the main reason the two hate one another is that Markov was willing to sleep with a female guard to get off work detail! Future Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme was credited with co-writing the story that the screenplay was based on and one would have thought a little more imagination would have gone into everything. We get a few nods to the original film and one to COOL HAND Luke but the screenplay and story really don't add anything fresh or original. The movie does feature non-stop nudity and we get the shower scene with all the female prisoners. I think the film would have done a lot better had it gone for more instead of trying to simply tell a bad story. The nudity is fine, the cast is fun but in the end there's just not enough here to make this a complete entertainment. It was a nice touch having Grier in white panties and Markov in white.

The plot for Black Mama White Mama, revolves around two female inmates, at a women's prison in the Phillipines. One Black, and one White. These two women, are thrown together in the prison. Pam Grier is Lee Daniels Lee is incarcerated in the hellish women's prison, for dancing as a harem girl. Lee's boyfriend owes her part of his profits, from his drug-dealing activities. Lee is mainly interested in breaking out of the prison to get hold of her beau's drug money, so that she can leave the Phillipines and assume a better life. Margaret Markov plays Karen Brent, a white women from a privileged background, who is also a revolutionary. Karen has joined a group of revolutionaries, determined to change the corrupt Phillipino political system. She's captured by Phillipino authorities, and held as a political prisoner.The story-line takes-off, when Karen and Lee break out of the prison they were in together. The two of them also happened to be chained together at the wrist. As they flee, they also fight with each other, because they have different goals to pursue. Naturally, they hate being chained together. But they also realize that they must put aside their differences, to help each other survive while they evade capture.If this film seems very similar to The Big Bird Cage, it's because much of the cast in the two films is the same, as well as their location in the Phillipines. Roger Corman, has always had a consistent stable of actors, that he used in all of his 70s B movies. Besides Pam Grier, Sid Haig, Roberta Collins, Claudia Jennings, Betty Anne Rees, and William Smith, were also among the many actors that were frequently cast, in Corman's AIP films.Like The Big Bird Cage, Black Mama White Mama, relies on too much gory violence to be palatable. Pam Grier conveys her usual tough chick persona in this film, and shows her competence as a female action heroine. Margaret Markov is less effect, in her portrayal of the revolutionary Karen. She just seems to fragile and well-coiffed, to be a dedicated political guerrilla. Except for Sid Haig, as the colorful Ruben, the rest of the cast is forgettable.This film has little entertainment value, unless excessive, heinous acts of violence are your thing. Only the performances by Pam Grier and Sig Haig, make this film worth watching.