ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Martin Bradley This glorious slice of seventies exploitation is reputed to be one of Quentin Tarantino's favourite films and it's easy to see why though even Tarantino would be hard-pressed to come up with anything this mad or this subversive; it even manages to bring Maoist politics into the mix. It also manages to transcend the 'so-bad-it's-good' concept to exist in a netherworld all of its own. As you might guess from the title, this is a feminist gang-movie with the boys taking very much a back seat. Of course, 'acting' is non-existent but director Jack Hill seems to relish his casts limitations, wracking everything up to a Spinal Tap 11. Okay, it's certainly not for everyone but for those who can take it this is perversely enjoyable.

Blake Peterson "You can beat us, chain us, lock us up. But we're gonna be back, understand? And when we do, cop, you better keep your ass off our turf, or we'll BLOW IT OFF! Ya dig? We're Jezebels, cop — remember that name. We'll be back!" Switchblade Sister Maggie (Joanne Nail) screams at a policeman. She is covered in blood, the survivor of a knife fight in which the other participant wasn't so lucky. She is perhaps too hysterical to realize that she's most likely going to die in prison — but it makes for a hell of a closing statement, and this film is all about statements, for crying out loud.This rabid speech falls at the end of Switchblade Sisters, coming in the wake of gang wars, rapes, roller rink shoot-outs, and gory revenge. For a sleazy Throwback Thursday, it's a deliciously laughable nightmare of low-budget tackiness; for an exploitation flick, it's a slow day. Certainly, it's an awful movie — all exploitation movies are awful, in fluctuating colors and shades, to be fair — but I can't say that Switchblade Sisters is in the same category of delectable trash like Danger: Diabolik or Coffy. It's just plain bad (though not in the ways most movies are).It follows Maggie, the new bad girl in town who joins the Dagger Debs after a violent meeting. The bond between Maggie and her cohorts grows tight in a snap, post-arrests and all, but things get messy rather quickly. The leader of the pack's (Robbie Lee) boyfriend (Asher Brauner) rapes Maggie, causing tension, and a rival group viciously attacks the Debs and their male duplicates seemingly out of nowhere. But who cares about plot here?Switchblade Sisters is a gut-busting assortment of atrocious writing, poor acting, and dreadful directing, but all those things are charms rather than obstacles. There's something stinkingly entertaining found in the one-liners ("Freeze, greaseball!"), the way the majority of the actresses like to speak through their gritted, yellowed teeth, how Jack Hill injects tacky life into even the most putrid of scenes. These aren't the reasons why Switchblade Sisters is a bad movie; it's bad because of its all too commonplace unseemliness.It touches on issues like gang rape and murder and sexism and miscarriage, but the tendency to only prick each item as a sort of prelude to the eventual bloody retribution is disconcerting. I'm not saying that bringing up these controversies is an unheard of thing; I'm saying that in a film as campy as Switchblade Sisters, topics so heavy can destroy a lovably shabby aesthetic. Most of the film is spent wounding itself — there is a simply godawful scene in which a traitor is tortured with a daringly placed cigarette — but it has its moments, even if the bad ones aren't so forgivable.The attractiveness of Switchblade Sisters is, ironically enough, purely accidental. It means to be badass, but the film is better when it's attempting to be serious and ends up going down the shitter. It's hard not to laugh at the actors, all of whom are so horrible it's as though they're trying to memorize their lines as they're reciting them, and it's difficult not to make fun of the "inadvertent" instances of nudity (the irresistible prison fight with the butch warden contains some ridiculous boob flashes that are more hilarious than titillating). Switchblade Sisters is pretty bad, but at least it's fun bad. The exploitation boom in the 1970s remains to be one of the best (and worst) eras in cinema; this film isn't a good example of one, but there's no denying how iconic it is in its vortex. (Funny, though, how the title of the film is never actually said in the film.)Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com

Dan Franzen (dfranzen70) Are you looking for a trashy, earthy junky film? Switchblade Sisters promises to be a highly exploitative movie about a gritty girl gang, and it more than delivers on that promise. All of the indulgences of 1970s cinema are on florid display, from the earthy violence to the big, unkempt hair to those stereotypically bullhorn-loud outfits. This is no subtle film - it's brash trash.The plot's as straight as Cher's hair (then, anyway): the aforementioned gang, called the Dagger Debs (they're sort of the ladies' auxiliary of an all-male gang, the Daggers), harasses an innocent waif named Maggie. Maggie, though, kicks ass, so the girls decide (after the usual you-must-prove-yourself act) to accept her as their own. At least their leader, Lace (Robbie Lee) does. Her #1 cohort, Patch (Monica Gayle) has plenty of reservations about the new meat, probably because she's jealous about how much attention Maggie (Joanne Nail) is getting from Lace. And that might be because Patch wears - go on, guess - an eyepatch. Kind of makes her look badass, but I bet she's a little self conscious about it, too. Fun fact: Quentin Tarantino was such a huge fan of this film that he modeled the character of Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah) in the Kill Bill movies after Patch.Anyway, like even the most outrageous premises, one must not only suspend disbelief but expel it for the duration. All of the kids - who are indeed in their late teens or early twenties in real life - look like they're in their forties. Or maybe it's the hair. The Debs and the Daggers attend a high school where they rule the roost. I don't mean just stuff like taking nerds' lunch money. I mean gambling, prostitution, extortion, whatever it takes to get by, man. The principal, who's not really their pal despite his title, tells the head Dagger, Dominic (Asher Brauner) that Dom's chief gangster rival, Crabs (Chase Newhart) is transferring to the high school, and would Dom mind sharing a bit of the action? Ha, ha, it is to laugh, at both the proposition and Newhart's receding hairline. The Daggers try to play it cool but are attacked anyway by Crabs' gang. The big fight scene takes place in - no kidding - a roller skating rink, where members of both gangs zoom around the floor with the greatest of ease. That's when the good violence begins and things get messy, as in bloody, as in over the top.It's hard to call this a terrible film, because it is exactly what it pretends to be. There's nothing highbrow about this production. Even some of the acting is pretty good, although there aren't any "names" among the cast. An Afterschool Special, this ain't. But would you believe, according to writer-director Jack Hill, this is actually loosely based on Othello? You can see the resemblance if you squint hard or have a terrific imagination. Switchblade Sisters has a rough-and-ready title, hot young women, lots of guns and knives and other implements of destruction, an insane fashion sense, and a whole lot of things getting smashed up. This is the paragon of drive-in movies, and if you don't know what those are, ask your grandfather.

sol ****SPOILERS**** Movie about a girl street gang "The Jezebel's" who after wiping out all the street gangs in the city with an arsenal that can hold off the Red Army collapses in the end when it's two co-gang leaders blow the whole gang organization and all it's territorial holding over cute and handsome Dominic, Asher Brauner, the head of the gang "Silver Daggers" who the Jezebel's were part off. Lace, Bobbie Lee, The "Jezebel's" gang leader and Dominic's girlfriend feels that fellow gang member Maggie, Joanne Nail, is stealing "Dom" away from her. Maggie of course is innocent of what Lace suspects her of and actually rejected Dom's advances and the only "affair" she had with him was when he attacked and raped her. Crazed with jealously Lace sets up Dom, with the help of friend and gang member Patch, Monica Gayle, by telling his rival gang leader Crabbs, Chase Newheart, that "He's" being set up to be offed by Dom and Maggie at the local skating rink that Friday night. After Dom is shot down by the Crabbs gang Lace in her crazed state of mind plans, again with Patch, to silence Crabbs in order to keep him from spilling the goods about her and what she had to do with Dom's death and may well get to the bottom of it and exposes both Lace and Patch. This happens later when "The Jezebel's" with the help of the "Ghetto Gals" wipe out the entire Crabbs gang and when Crabbs is about to give himself up Patch shoots him down before he can talk. Soon after that in the clubhouse Lace accuses Maggie in that she was the one who sold out Dom but none of the "Jezebel's" believed her. Maggie and Lace then have it out in a bloody and deadly knife fight where Lace gets slashed to death and finally the police coming to the "rescue" raiding the gang clubhouse with everyone involved being sent up the river. Awful but entertaining movie with one of the most outrageous attempted prison rape scenes in a womens prison ever put on film. With the head of the guards, Mom Smackly, Kate Murtagh, getting worked over by the girls after she tried to examine Maggie to see if she had any social diseases. The street battle at the end of the movie with the Crabbs gang was as fierce and bloody as "The Battle of Berlin" with the cops out to lunch during the entire fighting. The girls in the movie were so unconvincing that it seem impossible for them to hold on to their assault weapons after they shot them off just from the recoil. Still the fight between Maggie and Lace did come off realistic but was spoiled by the police using the knife fight and death of Lace as an excuse to barge in when they couldn't find any reason to intervene when dozens of gang members were gunned down in the previous street fighting.