FILM REVIEWS

Prison A-Go-Go!

Reviewed By

Tristan Sinns

Prison A-Go-Go is far from a flawless film. Actually, it may be rather insulting to many subsets of the population, including men, women, and zombies. But is it entertaining? Hell, yeah.

Written and directed as parody and homage to the film genre known as WIP (Women In Prison) films, Prison A-Go-Go is chock full of sight gags and goofs. Far from setting a boundary for its humor, the film steps into the bizarre and absurd in a struggle to raise a chuckle out of you.

The story is oddball enough. Young, pretty, and occasionally flatulent, Janie is pursuit of the mysterious disappearance of her sister Callisto. Her rescue mission forces her to commit murder in order to break into a Phillipines prison camp where she believes her sister is being kept. There she makes various alliances, including a wayward ninja that became trapped in the prison after trying to break in for "Sushi Saturday", as she works to unravel the bizarre plot that has made her sister an unwilling captive. The plot (and, trust me, this isn't much of a "spoiler") revolves around a mad scientist's attempts to discover a cure for the common cure, attempts that involve torture, genetic manipulation, and DNA splicing of thorny animals with humans.

The comedy throughout the film is absurd and extreme, and it does break into the realm, at least on occasion, of "actually funny". Think "Airplane" for style. One of the more notable features is the invention of the "shower clock", which is a timer set in the lower right hand corner of the screen that ticks off the seconds until the next shower scene. But don't let that mislead you; surprisingly for the film's WIP influences the nudity is really kept to a relative minimum. Beyond that, we have a long string of sight gags one right after the other, including an inmate who can stash nearly any object up her ass, pouty and effeminate prison guards, crazy people, mud wrestling, vomit, a prison warden who looks like he walked off the set of Office Space, and a decent showing of arterial spray gore.

This is far from a classic in any genre, but Prison A-Go-Go doesn't look like its trying to be one. This is a silly movie, unpretentious slapstick comedy. Fans of slapstick will very likely get a chuckle out of the film, while those who require a more clever approach for a laugh may find themselves cringing. Decide which group you fall in and act as appropriate!