Memorable, crazy movie

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Strangely, this cheapo effort from Crown International Pictures seems to have got plenty of air time on UK TV channels over the years. I remember when Bravo used to show it all the time at the turn of the millennium, and now Talking Pictures TV have picked it up as part of their Crown package. I guess the title is what sells it, but the film doesn't match.Whichever way you look at it, this has to be the worst Crown picture of all, and they made a lot of dross over the years. DEATHROW GAMESHOW paints picture of a mildly futuristic society in which the masses turn in to see contestants in life-or-death games. THE RUNNING MAN is clearly the film that's being ripped off here, but it's not even close to the quality of that cheesy Schwarzenegger action flick.Instead DEATHROW GAMESHOW is a bore, devoid of laughs and incident. A number of prisoners take part in tasks they can't possibly win, and then the deaths are usually cut away from. This is bargain basement stuff, with appallingly over the top acting and not one ounce of wit in the script stakes. Yes, there's a little obvious satire, but when most of the laughs come from reaction shots of a fat guy eating spaghetti or the crude name-calling of the host then you know you're in trouble. This really is hopeless and I can think of few films worse or indeed less funny.

Deathrow Gameshow is one of the later films released by b-movie producers Crown International Films. Despite being a satirical comedy, this is unfortunately one seriously stupid movie. Set in the near future, it centres on a slick and unlikable television presenter who is the host of a game-show called 'Live or Die' where death row inmates compete to try and avoid execution, failure results in them being killed live on air.At best, this one is amusing on rare occasions but is mainly very lame indeed. It relies far too much on gross 'humour' such as a close up of a man messily eating spaghetti, and the parody material is really pretty marginalised by the end. What is so unfortunate is that the basic idea underpinning the movie is relatively good, if unoriginal. They just didn't write a good script for it at all sadly and the very low budget obviously didn't help either in transferring the reasonable concept to the screen. There were also some very annoying acting performances too which, suffice to say, hardly helped matters. Pretty rubbish on the whole.

Chuck Toedan (cheerfully played to smarmy perfection by John McCafferty) hosts "Live or Die," a blithely twisted TV gameshow in which deathrow inmates are given a chance to either beat the executioner or at least win some nice prizes for their loved ones. Not surprisingly, Chuck has amassed a sizable number of enemies who include a bunch of bumbling Italian mobsters who want him dead. Will Chuck continue hosting his controversial program or will he see the error of his ways and call it quits before it's too late? Writer/director Mark Pirro milks the deliciously tasteless premise for every last shameless laugh he can get and joyfully wallows in an often uproarious sense of crude'n'stupid no-brainer black humor that's impossible to either resist or dislike. The game no-name cast attack their juicy broadly caricatured parts with infectiously lip-smacking enthusiasm: McCafferty revels in Chuck's sleazy charm, Robyn Blythe has a ball as uptight censor Gloria Sternvirgin, Beano almost steals the whole movie with his outrageously hammy portrayal of fierce, loutish, disgusting hit-man Luigi Pappalardo, Darwyn Carson makes a favorable impression as Chuck's perky secretary Trudy, and Paul Farbman nerds it up to a sidesplitting extreme as moronic wannabe contestant Dinko. Better still, Pirro offers a generous sprinkling of yummy female nudity: the luscious Esther Elise bares her beautiful body as an annoying fawning groupie and the delectable Debra Lamb as sexy hostess Shanna Shallow performs a sizzling striptease number. Craig Bassuk's fairly polished cinematography, the funky, syncopated theme song, and the bouncy score by Gregg Gross all further add to the considerable campy merriment of this absolute gut-busting dopey riot.

Deathrow Gameshow will never win any awards, it will never reach a mainstream audience, and probably in the great scheme of things, it will be forgotten.But in a way, it doesn't deserve its fate. Deathrow Gameshow is a funny movie. Granted, it isn't constantly hilarious, and it is downright stupid, but if you want to watch a movie just to have a good time, this is the movie for you. This film was made way before its time, with its style of humor more adjacent to There's Something About Mary or Kingpin then anything out of the 80's nice-nice comedies. Deathrow Gameshow for this reason will always be a classic. There is no other movie that I have ever seen that you can have more fun watching in a group setting.The Plot deals with Chuck Toedan, the host of Live or Die, a show where death-row inmates are allowed to compete for their lives ***And some fabulous prizes!!!*** It seems that Chuck has finally had enough of hosting the show and dealing with death threats(he once killed a mob boss in a "very disrespectful manner.") The story is filled with hilarious dialogue both intentional and unintentional, and some inspired acting. Watch it if only for the dream sequence, which is one of the most hilarious and memorable scenes that I have ever seen. It gets 1/10 stars for intelligence, but 10/10 for humor, which is all that really matters. Enjoy, I always do.