This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Following in the genre-setting footsteps of Jack Hill's The Big Doll House (1971), Sweet Sugar is a formulaic Women in Prison movie from Werewolves on Wheels (1971) director Michel Levesque. Busty prostitute Sugar (Phyllis Davis) is set up for marijuana possession by a corrupt politician, and is thrown into a Costa Rican prison. She is given the opportunity to be moved to the sugar plantation in exchange for a confession, where she meets the various feisty inmates, including Simone (Ella Edwards). Amongst the male guards, there is hustler Max (Albert Cole) who is trying to get his young friend Ric (James Houghton) laid, and the tyrannical and sadistic Burgos (Cliff Osmond), all overlooked by the creepy Dr. John (Angus Duncan). The girls' hopes are raised upon the arrival of voodoo priest Mojo (Timothy Brown), who uses his powers in black magic to help set them free.If you're a fan of WiP movies, then Sweet Sugar, if anything, ticks all the boxes. We have shower scenes, boobs (naturally), topless flogging, ketchup-red blood, rapey guards, a filming location where filming is cheap, torture, a sassy black chick, and explosions. Where it stands out is in the sheer insanity of certain scenes, namely Angus Duncan's ridiculously over-the-top Dr. John, who performs orgasm torture experiments on his subjects, and some drugged angry cats. Duncan camps it up so ludicrously that the mundanity of the rest of the film becomes redundant enough to get some enjoyment out of it. Davis has the chesty charm of a Russ Meyer lead (and also starred in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)), but she's no Pam Grier, and the film's quirkiness soon wears thin, as it plods from one familiar scene to the next. It's not quite as dull as most WiP movies, but it's still a pretty bad film that offers nothing new to the genre.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Here's one of my favorite Women In Prison flicks. Hell Fire On Ice aka Sweet Sugar was directed by the genius who brought us Werewolves On Wheels. And after viewing both multiple times, over the years, I'd say Sweet Sugar is as good of a Women In Prison flick as the other one is a Werewolf/Biker flick. In other words, this movie rocks! Hell Fire On Ice is a touching, thought-provoking, often humorous look into the troubled life of a head-strong hooker named Sugar. After being set up by a corrupt politician, and instead of going to prison, our lovely heroine ends up serving 2 years at a Costa Rican, sugar cane plantation. The feisty Sugar isn't above a little back-breaking labor, beatings, and other forms of cruelty, but what she's about to find out is that the guy that runs the place, the sadistic Dr. John, subjects the prisoners to cruel medical experiments. Sooner or later, it might be wise for sweet Sugar to make friends with some of these ornery gals, and break out of this hell hole. And to think. All this just for marijuana possession! Silly dialogue, Over-the -top performances, and stupid humor make Hell Fire On Ice a riot. Just like every other Women In Prison flick I've come across, Hell Fire On Ice offers enough comical bickering and random nudity to go around. A trashy good time. Not necessarily one of my all-time favorite B-movies or anything like that, but well worth at least one viewing, that is, if chicks & schlock is what you like. And if you're all about chicks behind bars, you'll be needing to see Women's Prison Massacre asap. Perhaps a double-feature is in order. To my knowledge, there's still no DVD available, so I hope you have a vcr! 5/10

One of a slew of Women In Prison (WIP) exploitation flicks hurriedly lensed after Jack Hill's hugely successful "The Big Doll House" mopped up at the box office for Roger Corman. This one's fairly typical of the subgenre, delivering the WIP formula of nudity and sadism in well measured doses. It's only notable features are an early writing effort by Stephanie "Terminal Island" Rothman and a truly over-the-top performance by Angus Duncan. He plays Dr. John, the demented warden of the sugar cane plantation to which Phyllis Davis is sentenced, with a hammy verve rarely seen today. Also slightly notable is the 'cat tossing' scene which, IMOHO, wins the all-time award for "Worst Abuse of an Animal to Set Up A Stupid Visual Pun." Otherwise, "Sweet Sugar" is pretty much every WIP flick you've ever seen.

Throw-away film with some fun topless shots of Ms. Davis. She fits a certain zaftig sexuality that was popular in T&A films of the '70s, and this one will meet your expectations if that's what you're after. The dialog is nonsense, but that's part of the format, really. Have fun, and don't let anyone make you explain your pleasures.