I feel like Stephen Lee would, so while I check that out why don't we make this tonight's choice...
This low budget superhero movie was made for the "Roger Corman Presents" movie series on Showtime in the mid 90's. Joan Severance is fun as the overzealous police officer thrown off the force for police brutality. She then takes on the sexy Black Scorpion persona to more effectively fight crime using gadgets created by pal Garrett Morris. Of course, no sooner does a costumed hero appear than a costumed villain called Breathtaker shows up. Now life is like a big ol' comic book as Black Scorpion battles Breathtaker and his minions.
It's the obligatory origin story, so it's a little slow going in the first half, but it's still a fun watch. with a little cable nudity thrown in for good measure. If nothing else, you can join me in counting how many times Severance's thigh high boots go from high heeled to flat when she gets into an action scene.
Actually, the movie did well, so they didn't stop there - and that means we can turn this into a...
Let's Get Out of Here Triple Feature!
A couple of years later, this popped up:
The sequel is better for me - no lengthy origin sequences - just straight to the superhero stuff. Plus, the villains here - Stoney Jackson as a Joker pastiche called Gangster Prankster and Sherrie Rose as earthquake causing Aftershock - are more fun than the previous movie's Breathtaker. So this one gives even larger doses of sexy lingerie fighting and low budget special effects.
A couple of years after the second movie Corman put together a Black Scorpion TV series with Syuh Fyuh - it ran just the one season of 22 episodes. A year or two after that they cobbled a third movie out of two episodes...
Michelle Lintel is now Black Scorpion - she looks equally great in the costume so that's fine - and this one gets two fun villains too - Martin Kove as Firearm and in a nod to 60's Batman - Frank Gorshin as Clockwise. It's very obviously two TV episodes slapped together - they wrap up one villain and then the second pops up - but it's still fun.
I have all three movies on DVD, ready to spin at any time - even this very evening - if you want to come over in your variable heeled thigh high boots and watch them with me.
(I have the whole series on DVD too, just in case you really wanted to go nuts.)
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
Hi Craig
ReplyDeleteI've never seen these - but you've peaked my interest that's for sure.
Hope we might see something on them over at the Oak sometime!
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