gavin6942 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?

Woodyanders Taking us on a deliriously wild, rowdy, and often enjoyable whirlwind journey of the extremely crazy and colorful history of Filipino exploitation cinema, this energetic documentary covers everything from war films to women-in-prison sleaze to blaxploitation fare and martial arts entries, with fun detours on John Ashley, Weng Weng, Cleopatra Wang, and the movies of such local talent as Eddie Romero, Cirio H. Santiago, and Bobby Suarez along with the expected plethora of tasty gratuitous distaff nudity (done in the name of advancing feminism and female empowerment in motion pictures -- yeah, right!), excessive graphic violence, mucho explosions (the flagrant disregard for safety is quite openly addressed), and cheesy (far from) special effects. Various actresses who include Laurie Rose, Jayne Kennedy, Margaret Markov, Celeste Yarnall, Andrea Cagan, Marlene Clark, Marrie Lee, and Gloria Hendry honestly discuss working under the most deplorable conditions imaginable in a strife-ridden country under martial law and ruled by a fascist dictatorship (ironically, several B-flicks short there are about revolutionaries attempting to overthrow said dictatorship and were made with the full cooperation of the oppressive government!), New World trailer editors Allan Arkush and Joe Dante reveal the cunning trick of inserting an exploding helicopter into a trailer in order to make a shoddy film look and seem better than it really was, R. Lee Ermey openly admits that "Apocalypse Now" is a grossly inaccurate depiction of Vietnam, Roger Corman confesses he made movies in the Philippines because it was cheap to crank 'em out there, and we hear about the peak of this trend in the 70's and its eventual inevitable decline in the 80's. Of course, we've got such grindhouse luminaries as Jack Hill, Sid Haig, Brian Trenchard-Smith, and Chris Mitchum on board to relate delightfully loopy anecdotes on their misadventures toiling away on movies in this wacky third world country, plus noted cinematic historians like Pete Tombs and Danny Peary throw in their cents in for good measure. Jamie Blanks' funky-grooving score hits the right-on happening spot while the numerous clips from outrageously trashy exploitation movies are a total schlocky hoot to watch. Essential viewing.

Red-Barracuda This is a very entertaining look at a specific time and place in the history of exploitation film-making. It documents the rather strange scenario where the Philippines became a hotbed of psychotronic cinema production between the 60's and early 80's. While I haven't seen more than two or three films that were made under these conditions, it didn't stop the film from being interesting and entertaining. In fact, like many similar documentaries Machete Maidens Unleashed! is most probably a lot more enjoyable than the films it features. Instead we get many, many clips from these crazy films, so it's difficult to get bored.The films themselves range from the schlock horror of the 60's, via the women-in-prison flicks of the 70's to the martial arts action films of the 80's. It takes the form of the talking heads format where many of the participants tell us about their experiences working in the field. And perhaps unsurprisingly very different rules applied in the Philippines. There's a lot of humour in the presentation. No one is under any illusions about the seriousness of the movies, yet you will no doubt come away from this and have two or three new films you want to seek out. And I suppose with all that in mind, Machete Maidens Unleashed! has done its job.

Guardia This documentary with it's (deliberately?) misleading title, gives viewers a brief overview of the Filipino cult cinema of the sixties, seventies and eighties. In a seemingly endless string of fragmented interviews (some of the edits so short that the subject's title is flashed for a fleeting moment), the film tries to draw an overview of this period of American/Filipino co-productions. Archival footage is interspersed here and there, and occasionally we are given context.Is it interesting? Yes, but as much as it is frustrating. For you will certainly find that the film never settles down from its opening moments. The pace of the film is that of one tempo, as if the editor was worried that we might lose interest, or as if the visual information was paramount and the factual information (something I'm more interested in than anecdotal) was a mere triviality. You will be bombarded with cuts and clips and cues for the duration of the film - it's an editing style borne from the free-to-air TV realm that transposes to the cinema with a terrible effect.Also, the relentless funk soundtrack (the staple to the C-Grade Grindhouse films) undermined the interviewees' comments, robbing them of any memorable moment and washing them altogether with the same colour. I can't help but relate the style of this documentary with American style 20-to-1 type shows, where the interviewees are there to provide colour to a proposed topic, not to provide any real insight. This is the films worst crime, for Filipino film-makers we are shown are outnumbered five-to-one by the Americans, yet the tiny grabs we are given with these eccentric characters were far more interesting and exotic.This film belongs on a commercial or pay TV network, but the limited audience and scope of the film will probably condemn it to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's schedule sometime in the near future. Wait for it then, for the cinema gives little to this difficult documentary.