Art Vandelay This has the production values of a 70s TV show, except with more fake blood to splash around. It makes Chuck Norris's revisionist Vietnam movies seem like Saving Private Ryan by comparison. Everything and everyone is a badly acted cartoon. I bet they shot this whole movie in a week. There is one marginally compelling reason to watch this movie - Pam Grier's fabulous, um, everything except the Afro. Goodness she was fine.

tomgillespie2002 Going by the title alone, you would be forgiven if you mistook this passable exploitation flick as an entry into the blaxploitation genre. But Black Mama, White Mama combines two sub-genres from the grindhouse circuit - Women in Prison (WiP) and the Filipino action flick. No stranger to the ripe-for-exploiting and dirt-cheap Filipino wilderness, director Eddie Romero employs genre legend Pam Grier (although in 1973 she was only on the cusp of her 70's fame) as the titular black mama, Lee, and pretty, willowy blonde Margaret Markov (who would star with Grier the following year in The Arena) as the white mama, Karen.The two have just landed in a women's prison in the Philippines. Lee has been locked up for working as a harem girl, and finds herself in debt to gangster Vic Cheng (Vic Diaz). Karen is a revolutionary, working for Che Guevara-lookalike Ernesto (Zaldy Zshornack), helping to overthrow the corrupt Filippino government. After some early problems with a sadistic lesbian warden and being locked naked (obviously) in a hot box, Lee and Karen manage to escape after their transportation is attacked by Karen's revolutionary friends. But army reinforcements headed by the desperate Captain Cruz (Eddie Garcia) intervene and Lee and Karen find themselves on foot shackled at the wrist. Cruz is forced to turn to notorious cowboy criminal Ruben (Sid Haig) for assistance in locating the convicts, but Cheng's men are never far behind.If it sounds like there's a lot of going on here, that's because there kinda is. About half-way through, the film shifts focus to these three quarrelling groups and away from the sexy action of Grier and Markov. So it becomes a hail of paint-red blood and crappy explosions, rather than the mildly entertaining lesbian and shower scenes of the opening portion, and it's only when Sid Haig shows up that the film is given any character to get on board with (even though he's a bastard). Grier is always good value however, and although she was never the greatest actress - despite her impressive turn in Jackie Brown (1997) - she has a real charisma that led to her become the queen of blaxploitation with films such as Coffy (later the same year) and Foxy Brown (1974). Pretty dull stuff overall, but exploitation fans should certainly give it a go, if not for the opening 20 minutes alone.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

The_Void I'm a big fan of Jack Hill's pair of Pam Grier-lead women in prison flicks; The Big Doll House and The Big Bird Cage, and was hoping for something similar from this film seeing as it has similar people involved with it. It has to be said that Black Mama, White Mama is nowhere near as good as the earlier two films and also isn't as good as the plot summary would leave me to believe it is...but it is, at least, an entertaining exploitation effort. The film's central idea is really good and could easily have lead to a classic; but unfortunately the film adds in a number of side plots, and these unfortunately are not as interesting. We, of course, focus on a women's prison and in particular two prisoners that don't get on (one black, one white). Their superiors decide to ship them off to another prison; and for extra security, they are chained together. The white prisoner is involved with a revolution, and her friends attack the convoy carrying the prisoners en route, and the pair is able to escape. Now, chained together, they have to battle their way across the countryside.Naturally, the film has the same brash exploitation style (which includes a food fight and the obligatory shower scene) as Jack Hill's women in prison films; but it's clear that Eddie Romero is no Jack Hill, and it comes off looking more like an imitation than the real thing. Pam Grier once again gives a gritty turn as one half of the lead, and gets good back up from Margaret Markov; the other half. There's also a small role for Sid Haig, who plays a gangster. The parts of the film that focus on the prisoners are generally good and entertaining, and I'm sure this would have been a classic if the whole film focused on that idea. The side plot involving Sid Haig is not too bad and has some interesting moments; but the whole plot revolving around a revolution is frankly dull and I found it very hard to care for. The setting is rather nice (once again it's some banana republic) and there's some good location shots, at least. Overall, I would recommend this film to anyone that likes the work that Jack Hill did with Pam Grier; but don't go into it expecting anything on par.

MartinHafer This is one heck of a sleazy film. Like so many "women in chains" films, this one is chock full of lesbianism. However, unlike most prior films, which strongly implied this, BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA shows an awful lot of skin as a horny female prison guard leers at the women as they shower as well as has sex with one of the inmates. For the early 1970s, this is definitely a soft-core pornographic film--sort of like GIRLS GONE WILD GOES TO PRISON! It's also a bad rip-off of THE DEFIANT ONES, though in this case it's two hot females who hate each other who are chained together when they escape. Whereas the original film is considered a classic, this one can only be considered a classic example of bad taste. That's because there is no subtlety and the movie is just cheap--cheap thrills, cheap writing and very cheap acting.Pam Grier is the "black inmate with an attitude"--a lady who was set up and sent to prison on this hellish island. Margaret Markov is a revolutionary. When they escape, they both can't stand each other and have opposite goals. However, since it is cliché-driven, there's really no surprise in how the film ends--with their both becoming (gag me) friends.