The Rowdy Girls

"The Rowdy Girls" is probably close to what would have happened if Andy Sidaris had ever taken his "Playmates, breasts and guns" formula to the West. Unfortunately, it also suffers from the same pacing problems as most of Sidaris' films: it spends far too much time on showing the viewer how the characters get from point A to point B, which makes it feel slow and meandering. On the plus side, Shannon Tweed, at age 43, is still in great shape, and newcomer Deanna Brooks is wonderful - sweet, feisty, curvy and sexy. There is also Julie Strain as an over-the-top villainess....oh, and a singing narrator who appears from time to time ("she wanted to get out of that bordello, and meet a nice fellow"). The film could have been much better, but Tweed and Brooks still make it worthy of a lukewarm recommendation. (**)

This is not going to win an Oscar, we all know that. However, as a B-movie, I do find it quite watchable. At least it has a plot and I like the fact that the makers of this film don't take itself so seriously and sometimes even make fun of the story or characters themselves (e.g. they have this cowboy singing in front of the camera time by time to tell the storyline). That makes the film more fun to watch. Some people might find the nudity not explicit enough, especially because of the names like Shannon Tweed or Julie Strain are featured in this film. Since Shannon Tweed co-produced this film herself, I believe this is how they intended to make the film: not making a softporn flick full of nonsense sex scenes but a comedy with a bit nudity instead. The acting in general is better as compared to other B-movies. I like Richie Varga who played the Sheriff's brother in the movie. He is such a hunk but is very adorable as well. He deserves to have more film roles in the future.

Frankly, I don't like westerns very much. If I did purchase the DVD version of "Rowdy Girls", it was for Shannon Tweed, Julie Strain and the Troma sticker on the DVD.

For the Troma part, Lloyd Kaufman is executive producer and Troma just distribute the movie. Some kind of participation but not the kind of things you expect in a Troma movie. So "Rowdy Girls" isn't particularly violent. It's a western, of course there are gunshots, even dead people but it's not explicit such as in "Toxic Avenger" for instance.

"Rowdy Girls" is less than a hour and a half, so it's going quick, has enjoyable scenes with nudity (even though, as mentioned above, it's not explicit) and humor. It makes a good movie to rent and enjoy on a Saturday night.

This was typical for a Shannon Tweed movie in that the basic components were several beautiful naked women, frequently love scenes, a little bit of a story line, and some acting.

On the other hand, this one did stand out with the utilization of a guitar-strumming narrator, and use of some old-fashioned text narrative, which added a tongue-in-cheek flavor.

With a good, judicious use of humor (particularly in one of the early love scenes), this could definitely be classified as a mellow-drama, which I consider a strong point in its favor - it didn't take itself seriously!

I wish the producers had rented a real western stage coach instead of using a covered wagon since a good part of this plot was to rob a stage coach ... what were they thinking ... doing things on the cheap doesn't always save money ...apparently horses were at a premium as well ... get rid of that awful guitar strummer and singer ....so much for being a western