User Reviews

Hot '80s chicks galore (though Raven is a bit beyond my taste, except for her bosom of course), and a lot of funny stuff going on, especially in the effects (robotspider for instance) and some very, very cheesy one-liners. There's a few fun and silly action scenes plus a fair amount of cleavage and even more here and there (1 prison catfight included!). Even some of the settings / backdrops were okay to look at. The acting... well, let's not call it that and just think of the ladies. This is just the kind of stuff I want to see when I'm really not up for paying attention to an actual good movie, too late at night.

Now, for the rating; dare I give it 6 out of 10, because I simply had a fun time with it? Well, 5 should be enough.

After officer Rob Wolfe is killed trying to stop a gang of ninjas from robbing a jewelery store, his sister, Angel Wolfe, vows to avenge his death.

Her investigation leads her to the mysterious Dr. Sin Do, who is in league with an undead wizard named Lee Chuck.

The doctor is holding a martial arts tournament on a secret island fortress, so Angel, after rounding up some of her martial-artist friends, enters the tournament in the hopes of finding Sin Do and Lee Chuck and bringing them to justice......

What do you want from an exploitation movie? Almost everything that you get in this film. It's as if the makers have decided to remake the story of Enter The Dragon, and have taken all of the martial art elements of the film, and placed Sci-Fi elements in there instead. With added magic, as one of the characters is literally summoned from a fire.

And one ends up having a mud bath fight with a dominatrix whilst in prison.

And it gets more and more bizarre as the film goes on. Angel gathers a group of rag tag fighters, who can scoop Balsa wood in half, so they can fight in a tournament led by The Tall Man from Phantasm, and the Bolo character is played by a guy who wears braces and false eyebrows when he wishes to. Oh, and there is a guy with exceptional har and moustache who tries to save the day!! Don't worry!! Angel and her crew are on the case.

Of course it's rubbish, but it's so much fun, you cannot help but to be drawn in by it. It you likes post apocalyptic action films from the eighties, with ample ladies and bad martial arts, then this is for you.

It's pretty amazing stuff.....

A trio of rough'n'tumble gals take on evil genius Dr. Sin Do (robustly essayed with lip-smacking hammy brio by Angus Scrimm) on the baddie's remote island fortress. The ladies must prevent Sin Do from finding three sacred jewels that will give him the power necessary to rule the world. Writer/director Jim Wynorski relates the immensely entertaining story at a brisk pace, maintains an engaging lighthearted tone throughout, stages the action scenes with rip-roaring aplomb, and further spices things up with amusing touches of pleasing campy humor. Better still, there's also a vicious catfight, a yummy shower scene, a deadly laser cannon that resembles a maleficent phallus, and, naturally, a satisfying smattering of tasty distaff nudity. The lively and appealing performances by the game and gorgeous female leads gives this picture an extra kick in the pants: Melanie Vincz as tough cop Angel Wolfe, Raven De La Croix as the formidable Whitestar, and Angela Aames as the feisty Heather McClure. Veteran villainous character actor Robert Tessier snarls it up nicely as Sin Do's fearsome henchman Koro while Paul Coufos makes a favorable impression as Wolfe's amiable partner Rick Stanton. Popping up in nifty bits as Linda Shayne as the doomed Cindy Blake, Angelique Pettyjohn as mean top con Whiplash (yep, this movie makes a welcome and refreshing detour into chicks-in-chains exploitation territory), and Kenneth Tobey as the gruff Captain Hendry. Jacques Haitkin's crisp widescreen cinematography provides a splashy and colorful live action comic book look. Alan Howarth's throbbing and syncopated synthesizer score does the pulsating John Carpenterish trick. A super fun Grade B flick.

I'm always saying I'm not a fan of Jim Wynorski's movies and then find myself realizing that yes, I like several of his films.

The director may have flunked out of film school, but he turned an introduction to Roger Corman into a career and a chance to write scripts, starting with one of my favorite Corman science fiction films, Forbidden World, and moving on to Sorceress, Screwballs, Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time and so many more.

This is the movie that he started directing with, also making Chopping Mall, Deathstalker II, Big Bad Mama II, Sorority House Massacre II and III, Return of the Swamp Thing and 976-EVIL II, which is another film of his that yes, I admit that I enjoy. I even like his Cinemax After Dark movies like the Body Chemistry sequels and stuff like Munchie.

So alright. I like his movies. I've learned something. I can even respect that he's gone the way of most horror directors of my youth, alternating between children's movies like A Doggone Christmas and A Doggone Hollywood with the softcore stuff he's known for, SyFy-style creature movies and weird stuff like Sharkansas Women's Prison Massacre.

But if every movie Wynorski made was like The Lost Empire? He'd probably be one of my favorite directors.

We start in Chinatown, where three masked intruders try to steal the glowing eye of a statue. Everyone dies in the battle except for one cop who barely makes it. And then, the next day, terrorists take over a school before Inspector Angel Wolfe (Melanie Vincz, Hunk) takes out everyone, which almost includes a fed named Rick Stanton (Paul Coufos, 976-EVIL II). Luckily, she stops in time for him to survive and then, as is customary in police and federal working relationships, they aardvark.

When they wake up the next morning, Angel and Rick learn that her brother Rob (Bill Thornbury, Jody from Phantasm!) was the police officer who survived the jewelry store shootout. In the hospital, he hands her a throwing star and says, "The Devil exists and the Eye knows where." Instead of being freaked out, Rick launches into exposition mode to tell us all about Lee Chuck (when I realized this was Angus Scrimm, I lost my mind), a man who has become immortal yet must give Satan a new soul every day.

Keep in mind that we are about fifteen minutes into this movie and we've already had a job versus ninja battle, terrorists fighting a lone cop, a sex scene and an occult backstory. I already was head over heels for this one.

When Angel examines the crime scene, one of the glowing eyes makes its way into her purse - all on its own - before Inspector Charles Chang (Art Hern, Simon King of the Witches) goes into even more exposition, explaining the Eyes of Avatar, two jewels that the Dragon-God blessed with the power to rule the world. He tells her that Lee Chuck is real, has one of the eyes and has joined up with the cult of Dr. Sin Do (also Angus Scrimm!).

With her brother dying from his wounds, Angel decides that she must destroy Sin Do, who has begun recruiting an army of terrorists, including Anthony Kiedis' dad Blackie Dammit and Angel Pettijohn as Whiplash. So she does what any of us would. No, she doesn't file the paperwork to get a task force and multiple police and federal units involved. She instead learns that Dr. Do - no relation to Mr. Do, although both have castles - only accepts groups of female soldiers in threes. And that means that she has to bring in her old friend, the Native American supersoldier Whitestar (Raven De La Croix, perhaps the greatest of all Russ Meyer's women next to Tura Satana; she was also the associate producer, costume designer and animal handler of this movie while doing all of her own stunts) and Heather (Angela Aames, Fairy Tales, H.O.T.S.), a convict who she promises to parole - how does she have that power? - if she helps like some nascent version of the Suicide Squad.

Whatever. Logic be damned, the ladies are off for Golgotha, Dr. Do's castle fortress, where more ninja battles and a cast that includes Robert Tessier (who was one of the four members of Stunts Unlimited along with Hal Needham, Glenn R. Wilder and Ronnie Rondell Jr.), Linda Shayne (Miss Salmon from Humanoids from the Deep who would go on to direct Purple People Eater), Kenneth Tobey (who was in so many movies, like the original The Thing, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, The Howling and more), Anny Gaybis (who was in a movie with one of my favorite titles, Wam Bam Thank You Spaceman!) and Tommy Rettig (Jeff Miller from the Lassie series and the star of one of the strangest movies to ever escape Hollywood, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T) await.

I mean, this movie is so close to being in the same continuity as Big Trouble In Little China that Alan Howarth did the music for it. I'll go ever further and say that thanks to Blackie Dammit being in it, it might even be in the same universe as 9 Deaths of the Ninja. It's a total blast, a movie that is somehow the answer to the unasked question, "What if Russ Meyer directed Enter the Dragon?"

This is definitely the movie to put on if you're down. I mean, how can you be sad after watching a movie where Angus Scrimm's bad guy character has a giant snake and can survive losing his head, much less one that features a prison shower flashback just to prove that one of the heroines was in jail at one point and hints that Raven De La Croix has supernatural powers? We're going to have to go through a black hole and out the other side to create new stars to come up with how many I'd give this movie.

Have you ever watched something and thought it was simultaneously the best and worst thing ever? Well, 1984's sexploitation B-movie is just that. Objectively speaking, this isn't too good... but it's also absolutely awesome.

It's basically a cheesy martial arts movie featuring several (stunning) women with (very) large breasts on a quest to save the world from a quintessentially evil villain operating from his classic island fortress of evil.

But the film doesn't take itself seriously, is amusingly overacted at some points and the whole thing is just... so much fun. It's like the perfect 80s B-movie you just watch for fun. 100% recommend to anyone who wants to enjoy life for 90 minutes.

Also, Raven de la Croix. She alone is worth viewing this film for.