Bad Girls Behind Bars (Blue Underground Boxed Set) DVD Review

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The 'women in prison' sub-genre goes back as far as the 1930s, but it wasn't until Jess Franco's 99 Women (1969) that the template changed. A formula was established that was to be followed for many years – and many films – to come. Innocent girls thrown into a depraved hell hole of a prison, often in a stifling foreign climate, only to be tortured and seduced in equal measure by both guards and fellow prisoners. Sadistic wardens (often times female) would treat their guests of the state like slaves, and many WIP films involve prostitution or trafficking sub-plots. Toss in plenty of bare/sweaty/soapy female flesh, prison riots, escape plans, and cruel injustices resolved with furious vengeance, and you've got the essentials of the genre.

The locations would change (islands, jungles, Los Angeles, East Germany, etc), and the tone would shift (action fest, sexploitation, Naziploitation etc), but common themes remained true across the board. Repetitive, perhaps, certainly sleazy, these films fought with sexual politics head-on. Simultaneously exploiting attractive women while also unleashing them to seek their bloody satisfaction; there are few good men in the WIP arena. These are the sort of movies in which, when the women do wear clothes, they might as well not have bothered as their breasts always find a way to get maximum screen time. Bombastic, low budget, sometimes shocking, occasionally grotesque, it's a wild-eyed world of hot bodies, cold steel, burning passions and animalistic insanity.

Read on to discover the delirious depravities of 99 Women, Women Behind Bars, Bare Behind Bars, Sadomania, and Amazon Jail.

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Pentuple Bill Mini Musings: 40s, Fields, Valleys, Bars, and Jurors...

This Is 40:
What's it about?
The 'sort of sequel' to Knocked Up, centred on previous side-characters Pete and Debbie, and their friends and family.
Who would I recognise in it?
Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, John Lithgow, Albert Brooks, Megan Fox, Jason Segel, and more Apatow chums.
Great/Good/Alright/Shite?
Apatow drifted into overlong and self-indulgent territory with Funny People, which was very funny very frequently, but which was decidedly too long and lacked a sense of propulsion. Similarly, This Is 40 is missing any real sense of narrative drive - it's more like a series of sketches featuring the same characters each time - and while, again, there's an awful lot of funny moments throughout, you can't help but feel that at 134 minutes, Apatow's been allowed to indulge himself simply because he makes money. He may be very successful, and very funny, but that's no excuse to throw away narrative purpose and on-point storytelling.

The real miss-step with the film, however, is the lifestyle of Pete & Debbie's family. They apparently have financial worries - Debbie's store is only breaking even, while Pete's indie record label is sinking fast - but they live in a vast house, drive two flash cars, can indulge themselves with personal fitness trainers, nights out, and even a weekend at a fancy hotel retreat (literally right after bemoaning their money problems) - and then there's all the expensive stuff they own. It's bizarre for them to then tighten their belts by taking their kids' iPods, iPads, and iMacs (already paid for) off of them, and limiting the WiFi use (again, already paid for).

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