Prison-a-Go-Go! (2003) User Reviews

A lot of stupidest to it makes it an awesome homage to women-in-prison movies.

[subxerogravity · 4/10 · 2 July 2015]

The title itself should give you an idea of how campy this film is going to be. Prison-A-Go-go! Completely lives up to the cameo by Troma's Lloyd kaufman.

A strange parody of woman in prison films, a woman gets herself incarcerated in order to find her roommate who gets kidnapped and sent to a prison in the Philippines (Ironic in the 70s, women in prison films took place the Philippines to save money, now they take place right here in America… to save money).

In prison, the girls go up against a newly hired early 20 something warden who just needed a job that did not require a drug test, and a mad scientist who looks to do weird experiments on the ladies. Plus a few more oddly place surprises that goes with the outrageousness of the film and only increases the hystericalness.

Prison-A-Go-Go! Lives up to every stereotype in the book, from inserted needlessly shower scenes (woman and men), homosexual guards (just the male ones) participating in rape (or rather being raped by the prisoners), and the torturing of prisoners with ear flips and tickling. It even has an elaborate prison escape plan. The only thing it does not have is a Pam Grier-like black girl that appeared in the first batch of women in prison movies.

Join the cult following and see this one.

The way they should make films that never should have been made

[liudragon · 1 August 2004]

There's no reason at all for a film like "Prison-A-Go-Go!" to exist. Let's just be thankful that it does. It's pure fun and exploitation. Not a single raison d'etre to worry about and not much of a plot so you can keep your mind on vacation and just sit back and enjoy the raucous goings on. Whenever Mary Woronov is in the cast you have to sit up and take notice. A little longer in the tooth than you might remember from "Eating Raoul" or "Rock-n-Roll High School", she remains the premiere female thesp of high comic villainary. If you thought Rhonda Shear's career disappeared when she was replaced by Gilbert Gottfried on television, "Prison-A-Go-Go" will surely remind you why she used to keep you up all night. Lots of pretty girls, lots of gratuitous scenes, lots of laughs. You may not find this on your local vid store shelf but pick up a copy somewhere whenever you can smoke one out.

Should be outlawed

[gridoon2024 · 2/10 · 29 May 2010]

In a short interview included in the DVD extras of "Prison A-Go-Go!", the very young director comes across as a pleasant guy who is also very knowledgeable about B-movies, and especially Women-In-Prison films. However, the fact that you LOVE movies does not necessarily mean that you should MAKE movies. "Prison A-Go-Go!" plays like a very bad Troma flick - and speaking of Troma, Lloyd Kaufman does not belong in front of the camera, he can barely keep a straight face at his own (embarrassingly unfunny) jokes. Mary Woronov, the other big "name" of the cast, appears only in the first 5 minutes. The film has zero production values, taste, and, most importantly, laughs (the "shower clock" is a good idea on paper, except that all the shower scenes are some of the most uninspiring I've ever seen), but some of the girls are cute, so I'll give it 0.5 out of 4 stars. If you do get the DVD, look for the Q&A sessions with Roger Corman and Mary Woronov among the extra features.

Prison-a-go-go is both fun and funny

[reverendmojorising · 8/10 · 18 August 2005]

In my mind Prison-a-go-go represents what movies should be. It is a movie that entertains viewers because of its plot and content as opposed to trying to dazzle us with eye-candy special effects. It also shows that a entertaining movie can be created without a large budget. Prison-a-go-go has it all, evil scientists, a mean bitchy prison warden, Lloyd Kaufman, ninjas, and most important. . .shower scenes. Keep in mind Prison-a-go-go is not intended to be a women-in-prison movie, but is intended to poke fun at 60s/70s women-in-prison movies. The movie features Rhonda "up-all-night" Shear and Mary Woronov in prominent roles and a small appearance by Lloyd Kaufman. In addition to the movie, the DVD features some great bonus footage. The director Barak Epstein gives a great pool-side interview and also very entertaining info in the director's commentary version of the movie.

Prison-a-go-go is a refreshing break from the big-budget schlock that is peddled to us by Hollywood. Check it out !

Great Fun

[dhufford · 7/10 · 8 August 2005]

If you take this movie for what it is worth, it is actually quite fun. It was meant to make fun of the classic 70's prison movies. It does that in spades. This movie isn't meant to be some deep, great blockbuster. If you go into it thinking that, you will get burned. However, if your looking for a mildly amusing, gratuitous nudity filled movie to waste a couple of hours, then this is for you. The acting is quite poor, but thats to be expected out of a no-budget movie. The sound is also atrocious, but that may have just been the copy I was watching. I especially liked the countdown clock that informs viewers of when the next shower scene will take place. The product placement was brilliant. Besides, there just aren't enough movies about mad doctors turning hot women into porcupines.

not as bad as it sounds

[romerozombie101 · 8/10 · 6 March 2006]

if you go into this movie expecting a masterpiece.. your surely going to be let down.. but come on.. you can freakin tell by the name alone that its going to be a over the top, fun, boobalicous little film. Which it is! Sure its doesn't have the best FX or the best acting.. or the best anything for the sake of argument. But its very entertaining and hilarious. there's a scene where this ninja tells another one to look up.. and he proceeds to karate chop him in the throat. Come on people, don't read into indie movies that are made just to entertain.

If your going to see this, watch out for the shower scene timer.. thats right there's a little clock that counts down to the next shower scene.. you will be be completely caught off guard of what happens in one of them.

Make your own entertainment

[benjamindlevin · 10/10 · 10 June 2007]

I am giving Prison-A-GO-GO a rating of ten stars. It is not because I believe it to be a perfect movie or even one of the best that I have seen, but simply because it deserves to be noticed. It also deserves more than the measly 3 stars (which it is at now).

I am a fan of Troma films and EI independents and Tempe. . . so, I have seen a lot of one star worthy films. . . this is not one. When I first saw this movie, I went in with a completely open mind. Rhonda Shear is in it, yes. Mary Woronov is in it, yes. But, it also has ninjas and zombies and Borscht. It has howler monkeys and gay prison guards a food fight and a pussy glam-goth band. It has a shower scene countdown clock, a porcupine girl. . . and JOLT! Also, a fat chick wrestling a really fake looking snake. . . one of my favorite scenes.

This is not one of the greatest films ever made. But, what this film is (to me, at least) is a very enjoyable way to pass the time. I have seen this scads of times now. . . I have the movie memorized, I can watch it with my back to the screen now and tell you every facial expression and movement. . . when someone is picking their nose even.

I love this film and show it to everyone I can. Most seem do like it, because it is entertaining and goofy and is not to be taken seriously at all. Sometimes movies like this are a great break from the more serious stuff we are pelted with so often.

I love independent cinema. I love Prison-A-Go-Go.

Funny as hell!

[sgcim · 10/10 · 23 December 2006]

Unfortunately, I missed the first few minutes of this film, so I can't comment on the beginning (I came in on the scene where she can't kill the baby), but the rest of the film is hilarious.

All the WIP clichés were there- A woman looking for her sister in jail getting arrested on purpose.

The leering jail guard, The butch bully, the cafeteria fight scene, the shower scenes, the big escape scene towards the end, the mad doctor experimenting on the inmates, I completely missed Mary Wuronov's character, but I assume she played the tough dyke warden, etc....

The young guy as the new warden was great, as well as the crazy prison doctor and the Barbra Streisand-type inmate. The punk band scene was a pisser, and there's a lot of jazz in the score featuring a baritone sax (like "I Want To Live" with Susan Hayward and Gerry Mulligan on the soundtrack?).

I don't think a total spoof of WIP flicks has been done before, but there have been a lot of partial spoofs. Hopefully this director will do more of the same.

Close the prison

[Dr. Gore · 21 August 2005]

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*

One of the extras on the "Prison a Go Go" DVD is an interview with the director. It has him sitting by a pool at a Hollywood motel talking about the making of this movie. During the interview, he constantly brings up the lack of money involved and how he really was trying to make fun of 70's schlock women in prison flicks. He also half heartedly apologized for the low quality of his gratuitous shower scenes because of the lack of funding. All I can say is that I'm glad I saw this interview before writing this comment. If I hadn't, I would be taking a baseball bat to this DVD and bashing it into a thousand pieces.

"Prison a Go Go" starts out with one of those pretentious "A film by…" credits as if anyone knows who in the heck this guy is. Within two seconds, I knew this movie was going to derail. "Prison a Go Go" is not a woman's prison movie. It has no interest in woman's prison movies. No self respecting director would take the time to film himself (!) in a woman's prison movie. This movie is attempting to be funny by using and abusing various B-movie genres such as the mad scientist who works in a woman's prison and is attacked by ninja's genre. If I had laughed more than once, I might have enjoyed this movie. Instead, I gritted my teeth as one lame joke after another fell flat.

One of the recurring jokes is that it puts a "Shower clock" in the lower right hand side of the screen to show you when the next ladies showering scene will be. This was added in so guys could just fast forward to the next shower scene. This would have been interesting if the shower scenes were worth fast forwarding to! I say, with the full authority that comes with watching a lot of women's prison flicks, that these shower scenes were pathetic. One of the main reasons I rented this movie was to see Rhonda Shear getting clean in the shower. Oh she's taking a shower all right, but they film her from the neck up! What? Why!? They can't even get their main character to get topless for them! NOOOOO!!! It makes no sense! Why did they bother making a woman's prison flick? The girls who do get topless flash on the screen for a second and it was a second too long. It's a good thing the director apologized for the lack of showering quality in the interview or I would have gladly destroyed this movie.

"Prison a Go Go" is not an exploitation flick. It's just an excuse for a bunch of Grade A film geeks to get together and make a stupid movie that only they will laugh at. Here's some good advice. Woman's prison movies are not to be ridiculed and scoffed at. There are to be treasured and revered as the perfect vehicles of exploitation that they are. If you're a woman's prison fan, don't see this. It will only hurt you. You can't laugh at the lack of nudity in the prison shower scenes. Gratuitous shower scenes are not the same without gratuitous naked breasts.

Amusing send-up of the chicks-in-chains exploitation genre

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 9 December 2014]

Sweet goody goody two shoes Janie (a perky and appealing portrayal by Laurie Watton) goes to the worst prison in the Philippines to find her missing sister Callista (very fetching tall drink of water Lauren Graham). While incarcerated at this brutal women's penitentiary Janie meets a colorful array of female felons, discovers that mad scientist Dr. Hurtrider (wildly overplayed with deliciously hammy relish by Travis Willingham) is using the inmates as guinea pigs for his nefarious experiments, and, naturally, finds time to take a lot of showers.

Director Barak Epstein, who also co-wrote the cheerfully inane script with Mike Wiebe, keeps the enjoyably silly story moving along at a zippy pace, maintains an amiable blithely kitschy tongue-in-cheek tone throughout (the running gags about an on-screen shower time clock and blatant product place in particular are quite inspired), and delivers plenty of over-the-top gore along with the expected tasty gratuitous distaff nudity. Moreover, Epstein certainly covers all the pleasingly trashy babes-behind-bars bases: We've got flesh-eating zombies, sadistic guards, nude gals in the shower, a catfight in the mud, a gaggle of bored ninjas who are desperate for action, and a climactic breakout. The enthusiastic cast have a ball with the wacky material, with especially spirited contributions from Rhonda Shear as friendly and horny top con Jackpot, Lloyd Kaufman as sleazy guard Liebowitz, Louisa Lawless as the crazy Cross Eye, Tina Parker as the flatulent Breezy, and Wiebe as the hopeless nerdy warden Wilbur Thorn. Mary Woronov has a funny bit as the ruthless Dyanne She-Bitch Slutface. Ilram Choi almost steals the whole show with his uproarious turn as an overzealous ninja. A real hoot.