Best movie of this year hands down!

I love this movie so much

Nice effects though.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

BIG BAD MAMA is an outrageously cheesy 1930s-era crime comedy from producer Roger Corman; think of it as an over-the-top riff on BONNIE & CLYDE and you'll be right. The slick, speedy storyline involves Angie Dickinson as the titular character, a machine gun-toting criminal who, along with her teenage daughters, wreaks havoc throughout rural Texas. Other notable additions to the cast include Dick Miller as a dedicated lawman, Tom Skerritt as a wildman, and the great William Shatner as a shady character who falls in with the outlaws. The film is very much an exploitation picture, with a simple plot, lots of action and movement, and plenty of nudity from the female cast members. It builds up to an insanely violent climax that attempts to go one better than BONNIE & CLYDE and succeeds admirably.

Although it is very campy and a little silly, the plot is fairly strong and the acting, while not Academy Award material, was still very entertaining and good. But the highlight for me was the frontal nude scenes with Susan Sennet. What a beautiful young woman and what a fantastic body! If the US economy were in half as good a shape, we'd all be millionaires! She is not only very attractive but a very capable actress and I'd like to see her in more serious parts and films. I've followed her career for many years, and she keeps on getting better and better. Again, BIG BAD MAMA may not be Oscar caliber but it is a very entertaining film and will keep your attention and interest throughout the entire film; get in on DVD today!

Crashing cars, splatter guns, sex and nudity—whatever else about Roger Corman, he never made a boring movie, and this one seldom lets up. Take Wilma (Dickinson) and her two hormonal daughters. When they're not sticking a .45 in some moneyman's hapless face, they're stripping down for extra-curricular action. Lucky Skerritt and Shatner, except Skerritt's strictly low-class, while Shatner's a little short in the guts department. But Wilma's got high-class aspirations. So, being a hardscrabble, rural woman, she robs folks out in the open instead of behind boardroom doors.But note the people she robs. All are pillars of what the counter-cultural 70's would call the "establishment". There's the huckstering preacher, the mortgage bankers, the boozy American Legion, and finally the wealthy snobs who think they are the "better people". In fact, their talk about not taxing the better people sounds almost contemporary. Note too that it's the high-class pretender Shatner who double-crosses the others. Yes indeed, screenwriter Norton may have been blacklisted in the 50's, but the political echoes continueThere's no room here for nuance or lengthy dialog. These folks don't waste time talking when there's another bank to rob or another car to crash. It's strictly the fast life for Wilma and her brood. Note how Mom sabotages daughter Polly's wedding, saying Polly'll only wind up on a poor farm with a bunch of skinny kids. That's probably some insight into those bank-robbing desperadoes of the Dust Bowl '30's. And so, America's back-handed liking for up-front outlaws like Wilma and Co. gets another jazzy installment.

Big Bad Mama (1974) *** (out of 4) Angie Dickinson got the role of her career playing the title character, a Texas mother of two teenage girls (Susan Sennett, Robbie Lee) who grows tired of being poor and decides to turn to robbery. Along the way she picks up a couple different men (William Shatner, Tom Skerritt) as they head towards California to make it rich. If you're easily offended then this might not be the movie for you but if you like sex, bloody violence, nudity, threesomes with sisters, robberies and just about every other sinful thing in the world then BIG BAD MAMA is just the film for you. I don't think there's any question that this here is one of the greatest drive-in movies ever made and from the opening dialogue where Dickinson is wondering why her "angels" turned out so "wrong" the film just delivers one great thing after another. Of course, those expecting CITIZEN KANE are going to be disappointed but to this day I can't see why certain film buffs go into every movie expecting a masterpiece. Some movies need to win Oscars and others like this one just need to be entertaining. It's very clear that the writers, the director and producer Roger Corman wanted to throw just about everything into this film that they possibly could. One of the big selling points in having someone like Dickinson appear in a movie like this and her presence certainly adds a lot. I'm sure most of her fans will be downright shocked to see her appearing in several sex scenes and she's nude for three different scenes including one full frontal. In interviews she has said that she wanted to show off her body and it's easy to see why. Dickinson is so good in the role that you can't help but love her character and the toughness she brings to it. Both Sennett and Lee are good looking in their parts. Those expecting great performances are going to be disappointed but I think both actresses delivered just what the film needed in terms of good humor. Shatner and Skerritt are both very entertaining in their roles and Corman regular Dick Miller plays a nice part as well. Considering how low of a budget this movie had it's rather shocking to see how good the costumes are and the period detail is really terrific because you feel as if it's really the 1930s. Director Carver does a very good job at keeping everything going at a nice pace as the 82-minute running time goes by without a problem. BIG BAD MAMA didn't win any Oscars when it was released but all these years later the charm is still there and it certainly deserves its reputation as one of the best drive-in flicks of the era.