Pirromount Pictures | Buy at Pirromount | Review by Sinferno
When I heard of this title and saw the cover art shown at right I simply had to have it. So I found out who produced this thing (Pirromount) contacted a studio head and got a review copy. While it would take a true movie masterpiece to live up to the title, packaging and the usual premise-infused promise of DEATHROW GAMESHOW, this one isn't bad for a cheap little film (at least not as a free prize offered for promotional consideration).
In 1987 there is a popular TV program that is perhaps the ultimate con game – the controversial game show "Live or Die". Hosted by none other than Chuck Toedan, all the "Live or Die" contestants are convicted death row inmates playing for a chance at freedom (a pardon). Yet, as you can imagine from the title, this show is not all fun and games. Should these poor exploited contestants lose the "physical challenge", they are immediately executed in front of the studio audience in a manner that is both heartless and, more often than not, hokey. You see, DEATHROW GAMESHOW is a comedy, so you should expect about the same production values and blood-lust as a Saturday Night Live skit.
But Chuck Toedan is so much more than a hollow, exploitative opportunistic shill of a man. He is also a womanizing, hateful exploiter of humankind in his private life as well, especially when it comes to women. This causes him to run afoul of a feminist advocate named Gloria Sternvirgin (Robyn Blithe) who heads the organization W.A.A.M.A.F. or Women Against Anything Men Are For. And while Gloria and Chuck become immediate enemies, they must later become close, even working together in order to survive when a dangerous mobster's elderly mother is mistaken for a death row inmate and is accidentally killed on the show.
As is always the case in movies about a deadly game, the host of said deadly attraction is eventually forced to play for his very life, but because Chuck is more idiotic than evil, we don't feel cheated when he somehow prevails. The best way to describe this film is to imagine the Weird Al film UHF (about a low-budget public access TV statio)n combined with THE RUNNING MAN. Naturally, the implications about violence and murder are always sheathed in humor and sight gags, yet there is no larger social commentary about the evils of television in society, except perhaps about how profanely stupid and evil game shows have become (and perhaps always were).
As someone who owns every movie about people or persons making elaborate sport out of premeditated murder for private or public enjoyment – from THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (1932) to GAMER (2009) – I can honestly say that the biggest contribution of DEATHROW GAMESHOW to the genre of "Death Game" (featuring poor hapless bastards as unwilling players) is that this is the first time the premise has been attempted as a comedy. Budget sets, bargain-basement special effects and some basic slapstick humor are harnessed for the enjoyment of you, the real-life studio audience. The captivating thing here wasn't the executions of the condemned but the chemistry between Toedan and Sternvirgin.
Now the hard part, I can't assign a price to this and neither can Pirromount. Because the rights to this film have already been sold to another studio, this film can only be yours as a free gift with the purchase of other Pirromount products. Further reviews of pirromount films will be coming, so only you can decide for yourself if DEATHROW is worth playing...
| Yucko/Neato Factor: Awesomely snarky title and box art title suggest a film that is much better than actually exists. Seriously, try saying "Deathrow Gameshow" to yourself aloud without smiling wickedly. I simply couldn't do it, until I actually saw it. |
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| Production Values: Cheap production values and review disk arrived two to a CD case with Magic marker labeling. |
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| Realism: If it was, it just wouldn't be funny anymore. |
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| Value for Price: Not applicable. |
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| Plot: A cute little love story clad in unconvincing scenes of murder. |
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