TV host Chuck Toedan is harrassed by moral activist Gloria Sternvirgin (Robyn Blythe) and receives death threats from hitman Luigi Pappalardo (Beano), who isn't happy that mafia boss Spumoni (Mark Lasky) was an unlucky contestant on Toedan's controversial gameshow Live or Die.
The thing with black comedy is that, for it to work, it doesn't just have to be in dubious taste, it needs to be funny as well. That's where Deathrow Gameshow gets it wrong: the premise is delightfully deviant -- prisoners on death row are given a last chance by participating in a game show where the prize is either freedom or immediate execution - but the humour is puerile at best and performed by a largely untalented cast.
The film's star, John McCafferty, might look like a cross between Jim Carrey and Martin Short, but he hasn't a fraction of either's comedic timing, and his co-stars are equally as untalented, with a special shout-out to Beano, whose character is so repugnant that it's impossible to find him amusing.
The film's low-point is a crazy dream sequence that is presented like a movie (complete with credits), which is absolutely dreadful. The only good moments in the whole mess come from Debra Lamb as Toedan's glamorous assistant Shanna Shallow, who performs a striptease, and from Blythe, who briefly gets topless.
Released by Crown international, who also gave us the equally dire My Mum's a Werewolf, which was written by Deathrow Gameshow's writer/director Mark Pirro.
The thing with black comedy is that, for it to work, it doesn't just have to be in dubious taste, it needs to be funny as well. That's where Deathrow Gameshow gets it wrong: the premise is delightfully deviant -- prisoners on death row are given a last chance by participating in a game show where the prize is either freedom or immediate execution - but the humour is puerile at best and performed by a largely untalented cast.
The film's star, John McCafferty, might look like a cross between Jim Carrey and Martin Short, but he hasn't a fraction of either's comedic timing, and his co-stars are equally as untalented, with a special shout-out to Beano, whose character is so repugnant that it's impossible to find him amusing.
The film's low-point is a crazy dream sequence that is presented like a movie (complete with credits), which is absolutely dreadful. The only good moments in the whole mess come from Debra Lamb as Toedan's glamorous assistant Shanna Shallow, who performs a striptease, and from Blythe, who briefly gets topless.
Released by Crown international, who also gave us the equally dire My Mum's a Werewolf, which was written by Deathrow Gameshow's writer/director Mark Pirro.