Quentin Tarantino may mine cinematic gold out of homages to yesteryear's trashploitation cinema, but few others can pull it off. Co-helmers Paul Ragsdale and Angelica De Alba’s Streets of Vengeance re-creates "erotic" action-thriller sleaze that was typical of direct-to-video B-Hollywood back when VHS reigned. The film is bumpered as a mock-airing on a SoCal local-TV weekend late show (hosted by a bikini-clad girl). The plot concerns a murderous male-supremacist cult targeting San Francisco's hottest strippers and bosomy nudie models. A would-be target, "feminist" sex starlet Mila (Delawna McKinney), rallies her fellow demi-monde into becoming thong-lingerie vigilantes. Many ‘80s-retro notes are hit, including Casio-like synth music, Miami-Vice-style cinematography, pay phones, bad continuity, community-theater acting, fake gore, and topless shower/clubbing/lesbian fondling montages that come out of nowhere. Yet there is also anachronistic modern slang, online video, and digital technology. Featuring a bevy of past/present adult-movie actresses, this wannabe cult film is not recommended. (C. Cassady)
Streets of Vengeance
Olive, 101 min., not rated, DVD: $19.99, Blu-ray: $24.99 Volume 33, Issue 6
Streets of Vengeance
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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