A band of female pirates partake in a daring rescue mission to save one of their own from the vile clutches of vicious white slavers. Sounds like one hell of a solid and stirring premise, right? Well, alas, the potentially explosive potential of said premise never gets fully realized due to Cirio H. Santiago's flat direction, a rather blah and overly talky script by Cyril St. James, blandly staged action scenes, an often poky pace, surprisingly mild violence, and only a smidgen of gratuitous female nudity. The key problem is that Santiago never manages to acquire the hard sleazy edge needed to make this picture seriously smoke. Luckily, the attractive and animated female leads keep this one watchable: Jayne Kennedy as the classy Serena, Roseanne Katon as the sassy Anggie, Jeannie Bell as the sweet Kelly, and Tina Parks as the sharp-tongued Marcie. Tony Carreon makes for a suitably slimy villain as the scurvy and sadistic Monteiro. John Montgomery likewise breathes some much appreciated life into the otherwise fairly limp proceedings as treacherous rival pirate leader Turko. The ineptly staged martial arts fights with their obvious use of stunt doubles are good for a few hearty unintentional laughs. Fortunately, things pick up considerably in the eventful and exciting last third, but overall this movie sizes up as an okay diversion at best.
10 Reviews
Only the low budget to mark it lower.
mark.waltz25 January 2024
Warning: Spoilers
The most curvaceous pirates you've ever seen, in an experience they'll never forget. "Pirates? Like Errol Flynn?", one dumb onlooker says as they try to sell off what they've been carting, and they're reputation preceeds them. When the sister of one of them is kidnapped, they go undercover working on a coffee plantation which is really a front for human trafficking, and eventually, along with two other women they meet while "working", they escape into the jungle for more danger.
The acting by starred Jeannie Bell, Rosanne Katon, Trina Parks and Jayne Kennedy is sincere, and at least none of them come off as amateurish. The buxom females get to show off the goods while dealing with lecherous men and other deadly snakes of the reptilian kind.
The four main characters are generally pretty likeable although the slimy bad guys are cardboard figures. The print I saw was choppy and poor at the beginning but gradually improved as if the photographer used two different types of movie cameras. Lots of action, better dialog than I thought there would be, and some beautiful Philippino locations. One death is particularly gruesome.
The acting by starred Jeannie Bell, Rosanne Katon, Trina Parks and Jayne Kennedy is sincere, and at least none of them come off as amateurish. The buxom females get to show off the goods while dealing with lecherous men and other deadly snakes of the reptilian kind.
The four main characters are generally pretty likeable although the slimy bad guys are cardboard figures. The print I saw was choppy and poor at the beginning but gradually improved as if the photographer used two different types of movie cameras. Lots of action, better dialog than I thought there would be, and some beautiful Philippino locations. One death is particularly gruesome.
A mediocre addition to the grindhouse genre
kevin_robbins20 August 2023
The Muthers (1976) is a movie that is available on Shudder and Tubi. The storyline follows a group of female pirates whose captain's sister is imprisoned so they decide to get imprisoned themselves so they can rescue her. Can the ladies outsmart the prison guards and successfully escape the prison compound?
This movie is directed by Ciriaco Santiago (The Sisterhood) and stars Jeannie Bell (Mean Streets), Rosanne Katon (Motel Hell), Trina Parks (Diamonds are Forever), Jayne Kennedy (Fighting Mad) and Bert Olivar (Zuma).
The storyline for this was wild and a bit ridiculous. The acting was good enough and the cast was gorgeous. As any prison film from this era it has the shower scenes you'd expect. The props and settings were well selected and made the circumstances feel authentic but the attire didn't always align to the circumstances. The conclusion was straightforward and as you'd expect.
Overall, this was a mediocre addition to the grindhouse genre that I would score a 3.5/10 and recommend seeing once.
This movie is directed by Ciriaco Santiago (The Sisterhood) and stars Jeannie Bell (Mean Streets), Rosanne Katon (Motel Hell), Trina Parks (Diamonds are Forever), Jayne Kennedy (Fighting Mad) and Bert Olivar (Zuma).
The storyline for this was wild and a bit ridiculous. The acting was good enough and the cast was gorgeous. As any prison film from this era it has the shower scenes you'd expect. The props and settings were well selected and made the circumstances feel authentic but the attire didn't always align to the circumstances. The conclusion was straightforward and as you'd expect.
Overall, this was a mediocre addition to the grindhouse genre that I would score a 3.5/10 and recommend seeing once.
Rather Bad But Also Quite Entertaining
Michael_Elliott18 April 2018
The Muthers (1976)
** (out of 4)
Another insane film from director Cirio H. Santiago has a group of female pirates going into a brutal prison camp where they plan on rescuing the leader's sister who is being held captive.
The Philippines was the home to some of the craziest movies ever made and this here pretty much lives up to that. The country was used by various low-budget producers who wanted to deliver the kind of goods that you'd find in an American film but of course one advantage here was the fact that they could shoot in a jungle location. THE MUTHERS is a pretty bad movie if you want to be technical about it but at the same time there are enough wild and crazy moments to keep it entertaining.
Again, if you're looking for some sort of quality or art film then it's best you stay far away from this picture but if you just want some trashy fun then pull up a chair and enjoy. The film benefits from having a variety of very beautiful women and yes they quite often take their clothes off. As you'd expect from any women-in-prison film, there's a shower sequence with the ladies showing off all their goods as well as catfights and other things you'd expect.
The cast is led by the one and only Jeannie Bell who had also appeared in blaxploitation films like TNT JACKSON, THREE THE HARD WAY and the notorious THE KLANSMAN. She's certainly the highlight of the picture and turns in a nice performance in the lead. The rest of the cast were entertaining enough for what they were asked to do and the characters are at least interesting enough.
THE MUTHERS isn't a good film or a classic but if you enjoy these types of low-budget films then there's enough here to make it worth watching.
** (out of 4)
Another insane film from director Cirio H. Santiago has a group of female pirates going into a brutal prison camp where they plan on rescuing the leader's sister who is being held captive.
The Philippines was the home to some of the craziest movies ever made and this here pretty much lives up to that. The country was used by various low-budget producers who wanted to deliver the kind of goods that you'd find in an American film but of course one advantage here was the fact that they could shoot in a jungle location. THE MUTHERS is a pretty bad movie if you want to be technical about it but at the same time there are enough wild and crazy moments to keep it entertaining.
Again, if you're looking for some sort of quality or art film then it's best you stay far away from this picture but if you just want some trashy fun then pull up a chair and enjoy. The film benefits from having a variety of very beautiful women and yes they quite often take their clothes off. As you'd expect from any women-in-prison film, there's a shower sequence with the ladies showing off all their goods as well as catfights and other things you'd expect.
The cast is led by the one and only Jeannie Bell who had also appeared in blaxploitation films like TNT JACKSON, THREE THE HARD WAY and the notorious THE KLANSMAN. She's certainly the highlight of the picture and turns in a nice performance in the lead. The rest of the cast were entertaining enough for what they were asked to do and the characters are at least interesting enough.
THE MUTHERS isn't a good film or a classic but if you enjoy these types of low-budget films then there's enough here to make it worth watching.
So Bad
atlasmb12 November 2016
The title of this film might give you a clue to its poor quality. This is the kind of B film that one might expect to find in the worst drive-in theaters.
The main characters are some beautiful black women who use poorly simulated martial arts to gain revenge on men who treat them like property, often white men.
The dialogue is atrocious, the production values cheap, the acting amateurish, and the background music sounds like someone used a cassette player to tape instrumental sections of other films and then (almost randomly) used them in this film.
This is Blaxploitation at its worst. It is demeaning to its audience, because the quality is so bad and it assumes the viewer is less sophisticated than a seventh grader. This film is so bad it would be laughable if not for its blatantly racist and misogynistic undertones.
The main characters are some beautiful black women who use poorly simulated martial arts to gain revenge on men who treat them like property, often white men.
The dialogue is atrocious, the production values cheap, the acting amateurish, and the background music sounds like someone used a cassette player to tape instrumental sections of other films and then (almost randomly) used them in this film.
This is Blaxploitation at its worst. It is demeaning to its audience, because the quality is so bad and it assumes the viewer is less sophisticated than a seventh grader. This film is so bad it would be laughable if not for its blatantly racist and misogynistic undertones.
A Blaxploitation / WIP combo!
alansmithee0415 April 2004
Filipino auteur and Roger Corman collaborator Cirio H. Santiago lensed, wrote (as Leonard Hermes) and produced this odd combination of blaxploitation action pic and chicks-in-chains quickie.
Janine "TNT Jackson" Bell stars as half of a modern day pirate duo who, along with savage sista Rosanne Katon, must rescue Janine's sister from the clutches of evil coffee plantation owner Tony Carreon. Along the way they meet sportscaster-turned-actress Jayne Kennedy, who turns up as Carreon's mistress, and Trina "Thumper" Parks, who plays the head prisoner in Carreon's jive java jail.
Really, this one is for WIP fans only. Trust me on this.
Janine "TNT Jackson" Bell stars as half of a modern day pirate duo who, along with savage sista Rosanne Katon, must rescue Janine's sister from the clutches of evil coffee plantation owner Tony Carreon. Along the way they meet sportscaster-turned-actress Jayne Kennedy, who turns up as Carreon's mistress, and Trina "Thumper" Parks, who plays the head prisoner in Carreon's jive java jail.
Really, this one is for WIP fans only. Trust me on this.
Muther ****n' Crapola
ArtVandelayImporterExporter4 June 2017
Warning: Spoilers
This movie reminds me of the episodes of Magnum P.I where they'd be flashing back to Magnum, Rick and TC in Vietnam, where Thomas and Rick in really bad cammo makeup would be hustling through the heavy brush of Honolulu with TC hovering overhead in his chopper. Similar 15-cent production values. Same cardboard-cutout SE Asians. Same ridiculously bad hand-to-hand combat. Same generic music. I assume when people went to the Drive-In in the 70s they watched the feature film then furiously made out while this junk was on the screen. I can't imagine anyone actually paying actually hard-earned currency to see this in a theatre. Not even in 1970s Times Square. I give it 2 stars for the shower scene. Two beautiful firm black stars.
Like Watching a Trainwreck in Slow Motion
Uriah4323 May 2022
This film essentially begins with a female pirate by the name of "Kelly" (Jeannie Bell) being told that her younger sister has been kidnapped and subsequently used as slave labor by a man named "Monteiro" (Tony Carreon) who owns a large coffee plantation somewhere in the South Seas. So, not being able to count on government intervention, both Kelly and her trusted colleague "Anggie" (Rosanne Katon) decide to allow themselves to be captured with the intention of finding her sister and then escaping. What they don't count on, however, is how difficult escape will be to achieve. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that watching this movie was similar to observing a trainwreck in slow motion. You know it's bad but you can't avert your eyes from it. Having said that, I'm not sure which was worse-the action scenes or the overall acting. As a matter of fact, about the only positive attribute was the inclusion of several attractive actresses with Rosanne Katon and Jayne Kennedy (as "Serena") probably standing out the most, in my opinion. Even so, none of these young ladies could have possibly saved this film and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.
Bland and generic exploitation...
paul_haakonsen18 April 2024
Needless to say that I had never actually heard about the 1976 movie titled "The Muthers" prior to stumbling upon it by random chance here in 2024. And of course I opted to sit down and watch the movie, on account of it being a movie that I hadn't already seen.
Of course I had no particular expectations to the movie, as I had no idea what I was in for here.
Writers Cirio H. Santiago and Cyril St. James put together a pretty straightforward script here, though the storyline was bland and generic. If you've seen one exploitation movie before, then you know what you're in for here and also what you're getting. So yeah, the writers didn't exactly impress me with the storyline they concocted for this movie.
I wasn't familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list. The acting performances in the movie were a bag of mixed nuts, because some of the performances were rather wooden and rigid, whereas other performances were actually fair enough when taking into consideration the type of movie that "The Muthers" is.
The fight scenes throughout the movie are pretty stages and looks laughable most of the time. And I will say that the poorly choreographed and executed fight scenes in "The Muthers" actually makes is worthwhile sitting through 83 minutes of an otherwise bland storyline.
"The Muthers" is not a movie that entertained me much. And it definitely is not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. But I am sure that for fans of the exploitation genre, then "The Muthers" is a good movie.
My rating of director Cirio H. Santiago's 1976 movie "The Muthers" lands on a three out of ten stars.
Of course I had no particular expectations to the movie, as I had no idea what I was in for here.
Writers Cirio H. Santiago and Cyril St. James put together a pretty straightforward script here, though the storyline was bland and generic. If you've seen one exploitation movie before, then you know what you're in for here and also what you're getting. So yeah, the writers didn't exactly impress me with the storyline they concocted for this movie.
I wasn't familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list. The acting performances in the movie were a bag of mixed nuts, because some of the performances were rather wooden and rigid, whereas other performances were actually fair enough when taking into consideration the type of movie that "The Muthers" is.
The fight scenes throughout the movie are pretty stages and looks laughable most of the time. And I will say that the poorly choreographed and executed fight scenes in "The Muthers" actually makes is worthwhile sitting through 83 minutes of an otherwise bland storyline.
"The Muthers" is not a movie that entertained me much. And it definitely is not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. But I am sure that for fans of the exploitation genre, then "The Muthers" is a good movie.
My rating of director Cirio H. Santiago's 1976 movie "The Muthers" lands on a three out of ten stars.
Fantastic
garyldibert28 January 2013
This picture, released in movie theaters in November 1976 starring the gorgeous and tall Jayne Kennedy as Serena, Jeannie Bell as Kelly, Playboy Playmate Rosanne Keaton as Anggie, Trina Parks as Marcie, Tony Carreon as Montiero, and John Montgomery as Turko.
Summary: The picture opens on the seas as the mothers are riding in a boat when they come across a boatload of people. The Muthers are nothing more then you are modern Pirates they go along and rob people from the seas and the ocean. Kelly tells Anggie to stand by with the gun, as the rest of the crew gets ready to go aboard. Anggie fires the gun as the people on board hit the desks as the rest of the Pirates climb a board and takes anything and everything they can get there hands on. That evening the Muthers take there boat and there very hot goods to a local harbor where they pond them off cash and supplies. While at this harbor they see there number one nemesis Turko trying to soften up some of the local government. Therefore, the next day the girls decide to attack Turko because Anggie and Kelly were getting bored. At first Turko stand his ground but is later scattered along with the rest of his men as the Muthers bring in the boat with the high power guns. So after the Muthers get back to camp Kelly is told that her younger sister Sandy has run of again her parents want Kelly to go find her. So Anggie and Kelly go looking for Sandy in a local village where they end fighting for there survival because some men don't understand what the word no means. Meanwhile, back at Kelly camp where there parents live it is attacked by Turko who's trying to find out where Kelly is. The next day as the girls are talking about what there next move is a man approaches them from the Justice Department. The man tells Kelly that a man that calls himself Montiero that has Sandy on an Island called Get out If You Can. Montiero runs the Island as a prison camp for women kidnapped her sister, and he also has as his own Serena. Now the girls have found there way on this Island and they question are they ever going to find there way off? Now a few thoughts of my own about this picture.
My Thoughts: This Movie reminded me of two others The Big Bird Cage and Terminal Island. This movie was good because it kept my interest through out the entire movie. Jeannie Bell and Rosanne Katon were very good in their roles as the leaders to the Muthers. Trina Parks was also very good as her role as Marcie who became the Muthers friends once they were in camp. I thought that Tony Carreon did a good job as the fat pig who ran the Island and kept the girls as slaves. Now for the real reason I bought this and that was Jayne Kennedy. She did fantastic job playing the role of Serena and she was gorgeous in anything she wore. Therefore, on the fact that Jayne Kennedy was the leading woman and because of her beauty I give this movie 10 weasel stars and you can buy this movie on Amazon.com
Summary: The picture opens on the seas as the mothers are riding in a boat when they come across a boatload of people. The Muthers are nothing more then you are modern Pirates they go along and rob people from the seas and the ocean. Kelly tells Anggie to stand by with the gun, as the rest of the crew gets ready to go aboard. Anggie fires the gun as the people on board hit the desks as the rest of the Pirates climb a board and takes anything and everything they can get there hands on. That evening the Muthers take there boat and there very hot goods to a local harbor where they pond them off cash and supplies. While at this harbor they see there number one nemesis Turko trying to soften up some of the local government. Therefore, the next day the girls decide to attack Turko because Anggie and Kelly were getting bored. At first Turko stand his ground but is later scattered along with the rest of his men as the Muthers bring in the boat with the high power guns. So after the Muthers get back to camp Kelly is told that her younger sister Sandy has run of again her parents want Kelly to go find her. So Anggie and Kelly go looking for Sandy in a local village where they end fighting for there survival because some men don't understand what the word no means. Meanwhile, back at Kelly camp where there parents live it is attacked by Turko who's trying to find out where Kelly is. The next day as the girls are talking about what there next move is a man approaches them from the Justice Department. The man tells Kelly that a man that calls himself Montiero that has Sandy on an Island called Get out If You Can. Montiero runs the Island as a prison camp for women kidnapped her sister, and he also has as his own Serena. Now the girls have found there way on this Island and they question are they ever going to find there way off? Now a few thoughts of my own about this picture.
My Thoughts: This Movie reminded me of two others The Big Bird Cage and Terminal Island. This movie was good because it kept my interest through out the entire movie. Jeannie Bell and Rosanne Katon were very good in their roles as the leaders to the Muthers. Trina Parks was also very good as her role as Marcie who became the Muthers friends once they were in camp. I thought that Tony Carreon did a good job as the fat pig who ran the Island and kept the girls as slaves. Now for the real reason I bought this and that was Jayne Kennedy. She did fantastic job playing the role of Serena and she was gorgeous in anything she wore. Therefore, on the fact that Jayne Kennedy was the leading woman and because of her beauty I give this movie 10 weasel stars and you can buy this movie on Amazon.com
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