Andy Sidaris had an interesting career trajectory. After winning a bunch of Emmys for directing sports television and pioneering the “Honey Shot” — you know, where the camera does that zoom-ins of cheerleaders and pretty girls in the stands at sporting events — he up and moves to Hawaii to start his own production imprint, Malibu Bay Films, focused on writing and directing action flicks starring Playboy Playmates, Playgirl models, and Penthouse Pets that were video store staples in the ’90s. Mill Creek has been dealing these films out a few at a time on Blu-ray; in all there a total of 12 entries in the Bullets, Bombs, and Babes Series, with this month seeing the release of Picasso Trigger (1988) and Savage Beach (1989).
Picasso Trigger is the third installment of the Triple B film series and begins with the assassination of namesake evil agent Picasso Trigger. In this entry the crime boss Salazar is trying to take out our jacuzzi-loving L.E.T.H.A.L. agents, with some characters from previous films showing up as targets. Switching up the settings and taking place in Las Vegas, when the assassination attempts on Donna (Dona Speir), Taryn (Hope Marie Carlton), and L.G. don’t go as planned, they gather together who’s left of the team to take out Salazar before he manages to eliminate the entire L.E.T.H.A.L. team. Of the four that have been released so far thanks to Mill Creek, Picasso is by far the weakest of the films, and it doesn’t feel like Sidaris had quite locked his formula for these films down yet. This film is a spy thriller that gets tangled up in its own subterfuge as it tries to be smarter than it is and ultimately falls flat.
Next up is Savage Beach, which has our favorite cargo pilots/L.E.T.H.A.L. ladies Donna and Taryn charged by the fourth incarnation of Abilene with an emergency medicine run in a storm to a hospital full of orphans. After completing their mission their plane is struck by lightning, frying their instruments and causing them to make an emergency landing on what they think is a deserted island. This drops them in the middle of several factions all after a cache of lost Filipino gold that was stolen by Japanese and lost at sea during World War 2. It’s a gold hunt movie with a rather convoluted plot that does just what it’s supposed to with Andy Sidaris at the helm. It’s got plenty of skin, as you would expect, and it’s a pretty fun watch as long as you don’t think too much about the film’s plot. This entry’s probably most notable for featuring stuntman/professional bad guy extraordinaire Al Leong, who’s been in everything from Bill and Ted to Die Hard.
Both films come with stunningly new crisp HD transfers with the special features from the previous DVD release ported forward. This is very apparent since Sidaris spends much of them hawking the other DVDs in the series in his usual fashion by having the star of Return to Savage Beach drop her top while he gives his sales pitch. To be honest it’s easy to get lost in the more gratuitous and superficial aspects of these films, while most of the package here accentuates those aspects. But it’s the commentaries that shed some real light on Sidaris, his actual process, and the thought that goes into making these films. This really allows you to not only see the ingenuity that went into these slick looking microbudget productions, but how well aware Sidaris is of what he is doing and how he uses it to his advantage. Sidaris is very well spoken and isn’t afraid to point out the gratuitous nature of the films, but is also very quick to remind the viewer of the clear delineation between curating a fun playful vibe and not falling into more lascivious territory.
I am going to have to say Savage Beach was my favorite; it definitely had the more coherent narrative of the pair. But I do tend to prefer the films in this series that center on female protagonists, because they feel a bit less sleazy when all is said and done. Keeping that in mind, these films do star predominately nude models, so your mileage may vary since these films do sometimes suffer due to poor performances, which also can be fascinating in their own right. But overall they are cheesy action fun that will give younger viewers a brief glimpse into a bygone subgenre that was solely created to spare its renter the task of having to trudge into the video store’s back room for a bit of titillation. I will give Sidaris credit for putting stuntmen at the forefront in leading roles, even if it was to save money rather than to feature these unsung heroes of cinema.
