ThiefHott Too much of everything

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

SnoopyStyle The Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty. California created Terminal Island from San Bruno Island to exile the death row inmates. Bobby killed his bank robbery posse. Lee Phillips blew up a bank. A.J. is a cop killer. Bunny Campbell killed her parents with an ice pick. Julian Dylan is a biker. Joy poisoned her husband. Dr. Norman Milford (Tom Selleck) committed a mercy killing. Roy Teale is a serial killer. Carmen is the new inmate sent to Terminal Island. Bobby rules the main camp with an iron fist and Monk (Roger E. Mosley) is his second in command. The women are used as sex slaves.I wanted to check this out after Selleck mentioned it on a late-night talk show. It's a violent low-budget exploitation T&A B-movie. There is a surprising number of hot babes serving death sentences. It's cheesy bad but it is almost watchable for its badness. The acting is generally weak and the overall filmmaking is poor. Selleck has a full beard. It doesn't keep my interest all the way to the end.

Uriah43 This movie takes place in the near future after a Supreme Court decision that has outlawed all capital punishment which leaves the state of California forced to subsidize the incarceration of murderous criminals for the rest of their lives. Rather than accept this enormous loss of revenue a solution is adopted which exiles all of them to an uninhabited island where they are forced to fend for themselves with no assistance from the outside except a boat which delivers a small amount of provisions every so often. It's during this time that a female prisoner named "Carmen" (Ena Hartman) is sentenced to spend the rest of her life on this island. When she gets there she discovers that the male population out-numbers the females by a ratio of over 10 to 1 and as a result the few women there are reduced to physical and sexual slavery. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this film had a pretty good premise to build upon and succeeds to a limited extent more or less. That said, while some of the scenarios weren't that realistic the actors performed adequately enough and the movie at least managed to keep my attention for the most part. Accordingly, I rate it as slightly above average.

Woodyanders Token distaff feminist 70's drive-in movie writer/director Stephanie ("Group Marriage," "The Student Nurses") Rothman's intriguing and intelligent social allegory on how the strong cruelly oppress and viciously lord it over the weak, here cunningly done under the guise of being your standard down'n'dirty grindhouse exploitation prison item. Two rival factions, one peaceful and egalitarian, the other brutish and dictatorial, battle it out for supremacy on a remote island penitentiary where society's most heinous and irredeemable criminals are permanently banished to rot out the rest of their lives (the basic premise definitely shares striking similarities to "Escape from New York"). The first-rate cast of familiar TV show and B-flick faces greatly enlivens this fun'n'funky favorite: "Lost in Space" cutie Marta Kristen in fine, feisty form (she also looks mighty tasty in a skimpy halter top and cut-off denim hot pants), statuesque eyeful Phyllis ("Sweet Sugar," "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls") Davis, Roger E. ("The Mack," "Hit Man") Mosley, Clyde ("'Gatorbait," "Bury Me An Angel") Ventura, the beauteous Barbara ("Seven," "Junior Bonner") Leigh, Albert ("The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant," "The Female Bunch") Cole, the ever-scummy James ("Planet of Dinosaurs," "The Candy Snatchers") Whitworth, and even a pre-"Magnum P.I." Tom Selleck as a nice guy doctor. Moreover, this film not only delivers the expected sex, nudity and violence (Davis' smoking hot skinny-dipping scene in particular is a luscious wonder to behold), but also plenty of meaty and provocative food for thought to chew on and digest as well. Hard to find, but definitely worth checking out if you're lucky enough to stumble across a rare copy of it.

David Goudsward Remember Escape From New York? Eight years previously, in 1973, Terminal Island did the exact same idea. Not nearly as well, but hey - being first count for something, too! TI is an exploitation film when being an exploitation film was cool. As such, it has certain shortcoming inherent to the genre, such as street talking tough black guy, the psychotic white chauvinist pig, and the heroic woman, overcoming oppression with sagacity and perserverence. I can live with those stereotypes, but I can't bear the background music leftover from a 1970's porn movie!Marta Kristen finally gets to play the part of an action hero - quite a leap from the laid back Judy Robinson role she is best known for. She fights and blows things up and knows how to create gunpowder from nature. Very cool.