Hard Hunted

Andy Sidaris movies are hard to differentiate. They all seem to follow the exact same template – action movies starring a host of playmates as ass-kicking special agents who are also not slow to remove their tops. Hard Hunted is more of the same. The success of the films in my eyes is always down to the women. The action movie element of the film is as rubbish as it always is in a Sidaris film. There's copious amounts of gun-play, fights and exploding helicopters but it's always very third rate thrills. In Hard Hunted the story revolves around the whereabouts of a small jade Buddha statuette that contains a nuclear trigger. The villain – played by Roger Moore's son – is after it and the babes try to prevent him from getting hold of it. And that's all you really need to know.

The girls are very nice to be fair. There are seven of them and they all find a reason to take their top off at some point. Every one of them is gorgeous to be perfectly honest but special mention should go to Ava Cadell and Becky Mullen, who play respectively, well, Ava and Becky. As a T&A film Hard Hunted is a success, as an action adventure it's completely lifeless.

Seventh in the "Bullets & Babes" series, has Lil Sidaris taking the directorial efforts off his daddy's hands. However it seems he doesn't have the directorial expertise that his father had pretty much honed by the time and the film suffers from it. Yea all the ingredients are there in spades, but there's something missing in this installment and it just didn't seem as fun as previous ones in the series. The plot be it what it may, has the L.E.T.H.A.L. chicks dealing with a nuclear trigger and averting tragedy once again or some such silly thing. Plots Commantary; Behind the scenes featurettes on "Hard Hunted" & "Return to don't really matter in these films. I loathed the singing (yes singing) portions of the film.

Eye Candy: Cynthia Brimhall, Ava Cadell, Carolyn Liu, Becky Mullen, Mika Quintard, Dona Speir, Donna Hamilton, Roberta Vasquez all get topless

My Grade: D

DVD Extras: Introduction with Andy and Julie Strain; Director's Savage Beach"; Joe Bob Briggs Interview; footage of an all nude Julie Smith; Production Stills; Sndy Sidaris filmography; web-links; Theatrical Trailer; and Trailers for 11 other Sidaris films

Easter Egg: an extra 23 seconds of all nude Julie Smith can be found hidden in the third Trailers menu

Of course, you could pretty much take any other Andy Sidaris movie, cut it apart, move around the generic chases, gun fights and explosions, add a few minutes of explanatory dialogue and presto! A sequel. This is pretty much how I felt about this follow-up to Do Or Die. It's really the same movie, except here Cynthia, Dona and Roberta wear slightly different outfits (which they strip off just as frequently), and are now hunting the bad guys rather than being themselves hunted. This time around, the minions of crime kingpin Kane (no longer played by Pat Morita, who was busy making better movies) are trying to deliver a nuclear trigger to terrorists, or some such nonsense. I forget and anyway who watches these things for the story lines?

It's all tedious crap, of course, but then every Sidaris movie plays like a low rent T&A version of Chips or some other bad 70s TV action show, but with worse acting and dialogue, and shoddier action sequences and explosion effects. Nevertheless, he knows what his audience wants: bouncy Playmates showing off a lot of skin while shooting it out with bad guys, and he delivers the goods. You have to give the guy credit for truth in advertising if nothing else.

Deep down inside, Andy Sidaris has his heart in the right place. He is one of the few American directors who seem to like - and take seriously - the "gorgeous women in action roles" genre. Too bad he doesn't have the talent to back up his ideas. His three obsessions in "Hard Hunted" are girls, guns and various means of transportation: about half of this movie is taken up by BORING scenes of people travelling by plane, helicopter, car or boat. The whole film seems somehow lacking in energy, as if Sidaris and everyone else involved was simply going through the motions. The only real pleasure is seeing the beautiful Roberta Vasquez in action mode - she has more to do here than in "Do or Die". (*)

Well, this was the first Andy Sidaris movie I ever saw, and after seeing it I want more! This is a very underrated movie.. I can't see how anyone could dislike this one. Sure, the people who made this movie aren't big artists, but they know how to make a fun and entertaining movie.

I would compare this movie to the new Charlies Angels film, except this has 7 girls, and they all get naked! Theres lots of explosions and gunplay, sure, the lack of budget shows in them badly but that adds to the fun.

Although Dona Speir is top billed in the movie, Brimhall, Vasquez and Mullen are the hottest of the bunch. Oddly the only girl who is not so well endowed gets killed early in the film...

I would recommend Hard Hunted for everyone, at least to those who watch something like Temptation Island just to see boobies. This is much more fun than that, I promise.