SYNOPSICS
Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010) is a English movie. Mark Hartley has directed this movie. Roger Corman,John Landis,Pete Tombs,Mark Holcomb are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2010. Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010) is considered one of the best Documentary,History movie in India and around the world.
Karate-kicking midgets! Paper-mache monsters! Busty babes with blades! Filipino genre films of the '70s and '80s had it all. Boasting cheap labour, exotic scenery and non-existent health and safety regulations, the Philippines was a dreamland for exploitation filmmakers whose renegade productions were soon engulfing drive-in screens around the globe like a tidal schlock-wave! At last, the all-too-often overlooked world of drive-in filler from Manilla gets the Mark Hartley (NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD) treatment in Machete Maidens Unleashed! This is the ultimate insiders' account of a faraway backlot where stunt men came cheap, plot was obsolete and the make-up guy was packing heat! Machete Maidens Unleashed! features interviews with cult movie icons Roger Corman, Joe Dante, John Landis, Sid Haig, Eddie Romero and a large assembly of cast, crew and critics, each with a jaw-dropping story to tell about filmmaking with no budget, no scruples, no boundaries and - more often than not - no clothes....
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Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010) Reviews
Once upon a time in the Philippines...
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.
An enjoyable celebration of trash.
This film is a documentary that celebrates trash cinema--specifically, the terribly cheesy American films made in the Philippines in the 60s and early 70s. Why did they go to this country? Simple--it was dirt cheap! So, cheap film makers like Roger Corman and Eddie Romero went there to create tons of terrible films--and the filmmakers knew it was going to be bad. There was no pretense--the films featured silly monsters, women in prison and the like. And, the films had tons of action, violence and boobies. Ultimately, however, there actually was a GOOD movie made there ("Apocalypse Now") and soon after this, the industry came to a halt due to violence and revolution...and ultimately the fall of the Marcos regime. So is all this worth seeing and celebrating? Well, it depends on you. If you occasionally LIKE to see a terrible film (such as "Black Mama, White Mama"), then you'll like seeing the documentary (that's me!). You'll relive trashy but fun films or get ideas for movies to rent (though only about half the ones mentioned in the film are available from Netflix). But, if you are sane, you'll probably just wonder why anyone would want to remember these terrible films! Overall, however, the film is worth seeing if you are the type who can appreciate it--and I sure did. Just beware...the film is violent and infused with breasts!
Opens the Door on a Largely Unknown Facet of Horror History
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?
Not Quite Hollywood...Part 2!
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.
fascinating and revealing documentary
MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED is Mark Hartley's follow up his fabulous documentary Not Quite Hollywood, which explored the resurgence of the Australian film industry in the 1970's and its history of exploitation and genre films. His new documentary looks at the prolific film industry of the Philippines and its shameless B-grade exploitation films of the '60's and '70's. The industry churned out a succession of cheap, low budget horror flicks that were aimed squarely at the American drive-in audiences. The film makers had liberty to make whatever they wanted, so long as they contained the three essential Bs – breasts, beasts, and blood. And canny American producers like Roger Corman were quick to capitalize on the cheap labour source to make a series of women in prison movies as well as low budget action movies. The Indonesian army was even willing to supply equipment and personnel, especially useful in staging large-scale action scenes! And no look at film making in the Philippines would be complete without a few anecdotes about the horrendous experience of Francis Ford Coppola while making his epic folly Apocalypse Now. Hartley's film includes lots of clips from these B-grade shockers; as well fascinating and revealing interviews with directors like John Landis, Joe Dante, and even Corman himself, and some of the stars of those films. While fast-paced and entertaining enough, the material here is not as strong as Not Quite Hollywood, nor are the films referred to as familiar to audiences. Nonetheless, Machete Maidens Unleashed has more than enough of the three Bs to entertain and amuse.