Chuck Toedan (cheerfully played to smarmy perfection by John McCafferty) hosts "Live or Die," a blithely twisted TV gameshow in which deathrow inmates are given a chance to either beat the executioner or at least win some nice prizes for their loved ones. Not surprisingly, Chuck has amassed a sizable number of enemies who include a bunch of bumbling Italian mobsters who want him dead. Will Chuck continue hosting his controversial program or will he see the error of his ways and call it quits before it's too late? Writer/director Mark Pirro milks the deliciously tasteless premise for every last shameless laugh he can get and joyfully wallows in an often uproarious sense of crude'n'stupid no-brainer black humor that's impossible to either resist or dislike. The game no-name cast attack their juicy broadly caricatured parts with infectiously lip-smacking enthusiasm: McCafferty revels in Chuck's sleazy charm, Robyn Blythe has a ball as uptight censor Gloria Sternvirgin, Beano almost steals the whole movie with his outrageously hammy portrayal of fierce, loutish, disgusting hit-man Luigi Pappalardo, Darwyn Carson makes a favorable impression as Chuck's perky secretary Trudy, and Paul Farbman nerds it up to a sidesplitting extreme as moronic wannabe contestant Dinko. Better still, Pirro offers a generous sprinkling of yummy female nudity: the luscious Esther Elise bares her beautiful body as an annoying fawning groupie and the delectable Debra Lamb as sexy hostess Shanna Shallow performs a sizzling striptease number. Craig Bassuk's fairly polished cinematography, the funky, syncopated theme song, and the bouncy score by Gregg Gross all further add to the considerable campy merriment of this absolute gut-busting dopey riot.
Review of Deathrow Gameshow
