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.

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.

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.

*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.