FORMAT: DVD (REWATCH)
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
(As posted on March 31st, 2011)
Director Mark (A Polish Vampire in Burbank) Pirro’s demented horror comedy is kind of like a Troma version of The Running Man (which was also released the same year) centered around Richard Dawson instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Chuck Toedan is the host of the hit game show Live or Die in which death row convicts have a chance to go free by competing in outlandish games. Mostly though, they just wind up dying on the air. During one show, Toedan unknowingly kills a Mafia don on live TV and the Mob comes after him. When “the best hitman in the world” tries to kill Toedan, he has no choice but to make him a contestant on the show.
The first 20 minutes of this movie is priceless. If the flick had kept up the same comic energy for the next hour or so, it would’ve been a classic. The game show scenes and television commercials are great, but the movie gets extremely bogged down during the hitman subplot. Basically, whenever the flick switches away from the game show studio, feel free to get up, grab a beer, make a sandwich or whatever because you won’t be missing much.
Despite the patchy nature of the film, there are a couple of really funny scenes. I think my favorite moment was when they tie an electrode to a dude’s dick and have a hot gal (Debra Lamb) do a striptease in front of him. If he gets a boner, he’ll be electrocuted. After the dance, he survives but when the host places a hand on his bare shoulder, he gets a boner and is fried.
Hey, did you hear that? Do you know what that sound is? It’s the sound of you adding this movie to your Netflix Queue.
Sure, it’s not great or anything but Deathrow Gameshow is funny enough, short enough (under 80 minutes), and ‘80s enough (the hairstyles alone are worthwhile) to give this a look-see.
AKA: Death Game.
No comments:
Post a Comment