Girls in Prison (1994)

Very well executed

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

this movie was not that bad. for some reason it kept me interested just enough to watch all the way though. I would not say there is a lot of bad acting, the actors did not have anything to work with. If the script was written better and the movie was more serious, it could've have been great. a remake of the movie would not be a bad thing if you had the right people doing it. there are a few actresses that do shine through out the movie. also the detective guy is great but the script just is not up to par. some parts of the movie will make you laugh because it does not portray live as it really is. there are a few scenes when the cops just stand there while a girl is swinging around a knife. I don't think so. not in my world that would happen. save this movie for a raining day and enjoy what you can.

I don't know why I bought this DVD, possibly because it was inexpensive, but, having bought it, I felt compelled to see it through. Well, come to think of it, maybe I bought it see Anne Heche take a nude shower. Everyone needs reassurance from time to time that he's not a person of the opposite sex trapped in the wrong body, although, admittedly, any judgment made on the basis of a response to Anne Heche in the nude is problematic.I can't imagine which audience this was aimed at. There are a couple of shots that are actually in jokes. Every time one of our heroines is sentenced to a prison term there is a whirling newspaper that finally stops and tells us things like, MELBA GETS LIFE IN PRISON! Okay, that is some retro stuff and elicits a smile from the viewer who's familiar with old movie techniques. The problem is that the people who "get" the joke will have a really difficult time sitting through the rest of this seriocomic garbage. And the sorts of minds that enjoy the story of imprisoned girls screaming and rioting are unlikely to be familiar with spinning newspapers from the old black-and-white movies of the 1930s.You want a hint of what passes for the plot? Aggie -- Melissa Lahlita Crider -- is framed for the murder of a pop music entrepreneur and imprisoned for life. The music man was, in fact, stabbed sixteen times by Heche, who made off with Aggie's sure-fire pop music hit, "Endless Sleep." Aggie acquires a private eye to locate the real killer, not knowing that Heche is the miscreant. Heche hires a "hit girl" to off Aggie in prison. When that fails, Heche disguises herself and arranges for a short term in the same slams, so she can eliminate the noisome Aggie herself. It all goes wrong for Heche. Aggie is released and returns to the prison later to sing "Endless Sleep" for the cheering inmates, while the viewer shakes off that urge to snooze.It was written, evidently, by Sam Fuller and there's no question that the movie has the kind of zip we associate with his name. The performances are deliberate parodies of real performances although sometimes, as in the case of Melissa Lahlita Crider, it's hard to tell because only the rudiments of a performance are on display. Heche certainly knows what she's doing but I'm not sure about the rest, except for Nestor Serrano as a crime figure who is pure prosciutto. It's a marvelous experience, watching him run off at the hands.This brief assessment may be a little confusing, so I'll end with one example of what you might expect to see. Melba, played by Bahni Turpin, as in "Where do they get these names?", is a nice girl who is driven mad by a newscaster on television. She runs to the studio, is introduced to the man while on the air, produces a hidden hammer and whacks him repeatedly on the skull. The studio erupts. And a nameless woman rushes up to the camera, her palms against her cheeks, and screams directly into the lens for a long time. We can practically hear Edvard Munch moaning in his casket, "I didn't mean to do it!"

A film doesn't have to be good to be entertaining and GIRLS IN PRISON is a case in point . The intelligence of the script starts and ends with a discussion of The Korean War " It's supposed to be a police action " " Yeah ? Then why the hell didn't they send cops " Which is dialogue that will be forever synonymous with Samuel Fuller who used the line in another film set around The Korean War . But after this exchange strange things start happening where we're shown live footage for the battlefront , something that didn't happen till 'Nam . The McCarthy witch hunts are alluded to but somehow feel overblown and false while someone refers to an ashtray that was given to him by " The King " . What in 1952 ? Maybe he meant the King of England ?I won't go into too much detail but in a contrived series of events a teenage girl called Aggie O'Hanlon finds herself serving a life sentence for a crime she didn't commit , and it's essential for anyone wanting to enjoy this TVM that they turn off their brain because there's plenty of things that don't make sense . For example a couple of inmates called Melba and Carol promise to protect Aggie . It's never revealed why they do this . Obviously being lesbian lovers it's very easy to jump to the conclusion that they want to involve the sweet and innocent Aggie in female love games but this isn't their motive at all because there is never any explanation for their motive , the audience just have to accept this without question . The audience have to accept a lot of things that defy credibility as the plot twists and turns but I have to confess I felt very involved in all this , yeah I know melodramatic and far fetched doesn't even begin to describe this movie but it is enjoyable thanks to the good looking cast ( Yes there is some T&A ) and some impressive pastal coloured cinematography from Jean De Segonzac

May contain slight spoilersThe cop tells Melba "You have five seconds to drop your weapon and live", Carol's father stares with wide eyes and repeats "are you a communist?" afer being attacked by a mob of morons, and when the private detective offers to help the innocent girl, he states "I'll strip her naked, tie her up, take her to the woods, then starve her until she confeses." There was nothing wrong with script, but only Anne Heche seemed to realize that this movie should be played for laughs. I might have been able to not take this movie seriously if everyone involved had giving a good example. Instead, this was one of the longest 82 minutes I have sat through in quite some time. Do not believe the back of the case, which boast of great bad girl performances and steamy shower scenes, there are no bad girls and the shower scenes appear to have been filmed by a blind, fourteen year old boy. The girls are very nice to look at, but only Anne Heche distinguishes herself. She is surprisingly attractive with long black hair and she gives a pleasantly off performance.