Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good concept, poorly executed.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

A fast moving odyssey into the subterranean world of the rarely explored province of Filipino genre filmmaking.I love horror films and exploitation films and consider myself both a critic and historian (having now reviewed over 2000 films and written numerous articles). Yet, I must confess, I was not aware of the hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of films that were made in the Philippines. I knew about some of them, of course, but did not know just how huge the output was. Wow! This is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen on exploitation films (and I have seen my share). John Landis never disappoints, and some unusual suspects show up, too. R. Lee Ermey? Who knew?

After being left with an almost endless "must watch" list from watching Mark Hartley's fantastic doc about the Ozploitation film industry called Not Quite Hollywood,I was surprise to discover that a follow-up had been made about the Philippines film industry.The outline of the film:The documentary takes a look at the huge number of American and Australian B (and in Apocalypse Now's case A) movie film productions, that headed straight to the Philippines and made full use of the stunning locations and the super cheap labour (about $5 a day!.)At the same time,whilst all of the movie cameras were rolling,Ferdinand Marcos declared that the country was to enter martial law.View on the film:Although the opening of the film suggests that the doc is going to take a look at the Australian,US and Philippine films made during the era,I was sad to see,that with the exception of the always interesting Brian Trenchard-Smith, Ozploitation seems to have been completely left behind,so that the doc can instead focus on the US and Philippine film productions.Luckally the films that director Mark Hartley decided to focus turned out to some tremendous choices.For the first half,the film mainly focuses on the production of Blaxploitation movies,which along with allowing to show a number of the beautiful looking actresses being partly naked,also allows Hartley to show a number of thrilling action scenes that will have you rushing to grab a pen and paper right away.As the doc takes its focus from looking at "international" productions to mainly looking at the "local" Philippines productions,I feel that whilst this section of the doc offers a number of terrific production stories, (with the one about actor Weng Weng being a particularly fun and touching section)I feel that Hartley struggles to connect the movie productions and the social/political turmoil in the Philippines effect on the Philippine film industry in the same way that he had smartly done in Not Quite Hollywood.

I watched a couple of women-in-prison movies the other day. Both were made in the Philippines. This documentary goes behind the scenes to show why and how Roger Corman type films were made there. Cheap actors and lax safety rules made for an ideal situation for making low budget films.Blood, breasts, and beasts were the staples of films like Mad Doctor of Blood Island, Beast of Blood, The Big Doll House, Women in Cages, Black mama, White Mama,The Big Bird Cage, and the classic Vampire Hookers.We see stars like Pam Grier learning the craft in these cheap films. Part of a new wave of women as action heroes, which was new to moviegoers.The documentary was invaluable in understanding the background of filmmaking.

Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Entertaining documentary from Mark Harley discusses the making of countless exploitation films that were shot in the Phillippines. If you read up on the movie is really makes you think that it focuses in on those Phillipean exploitation movies but you're quickly going to realize that it's mainly about American productions that were shot there because producers could get such deals with rights, equipment and of course the jungle locations. Many famous faces like Joe Dante, Roger Corman, Dick Miller, John Landis, Sid Haig and Jack Hill are joined by some faces people haven't seen on screen for thirty-plus years (since they appeared in these movies). For the most part this is an incredibly entertaining film because the director does a great job at mixing in all the film clips with the countless comments being made. By the two-minute mark I actually had to pause the film so that I could get a pen and paper and keep track of some of the amazing clips that were being shown. Naturally, those who appreciate this type of cheap trash are the ones who are going to be the most entertained because once you've seen one of these pictures you're certainly not going to forget it and hearing some of the stories about the making of them are just priceless. Haig tells a hilarious bit about if you're in a strip club after midnight the owner would just lock you in (due to a law) and you'd have to stay there and party all night. Landis talks about the certain type of tolerance you had to have for these films. Many actresses who appeared nude in these films talk about how it made them feel powerful. Eddie Romero is the main focus from the actual Phillipean filmmakers and we get a few comments from him as well. Fans of exploitation are certainly going to enjoy seeing so many faces they recognize and this is certainly a great place to start if you're needing title recommendations.