The Blowfish Blog

Manhunters

I won’t go so far as to say Manhunters is an out-and-out feminist movie, but the argument could be made. It features a foursome of ass-kicking female bounty hunters who don’t take crap from anybody, have great friendships with their teammates, and who still manage to lead complex emotional lives. Their characters are basically cliches — the tough leader, the sexy tomboy, the bad girl from the barrio, the wisecracking second-generation bounty hunter — but they breathe some individual life into the types, and have fun with the roles.

Director and performer Brad Armstrong made this movie as a vehicle for his girlfriend Jessica Drake, and she’s the heart of the film as the tough-as-nails leader of the team. Her character isn’t exactly original — she uses her tough exterior to hide her true emotions! — but she plays it well, and in her scene with Armstrong as a former lover, their real-life intimacy adds an extra dimension of tenderness to the scene. Kirsten Price plays the spunky tomboy with great aplomb, and her sex scenes have an endearing playfulness about them. There was no plausible way to make these characters have sex together, so the writer overcame that obstacle by making the obligatory all-girl orgy into a dream sequence, and it works very well (strap-on anal sex makes any movie better).

There’s a lot of scowling and emotional baggage, but there are some amusing comic scenes too, like when the team has to dress up and go to a nightclub to catch a drug dealer, much to the tomboy’s dismay. They handle their guns pretty well, and the fight scenes don’t look any worse than those you’d see in amateur theater. Overall it’s a very well made film with lots of good sex and a plot that’s easy to watch. Even the packaging is classy, and the number of extras and bonus features is staggering, spread out over two discs, including bonus sex scenes, an alternate ending, director’s and performers’ commentaries, bloopers, cast interviews, bonus features, numerous trailers, photo galleries, assorted easter eggs, and on and on. This one’s a great value.

• Manhunters

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, 14 March 2007 at 5:53 pm and is filed under Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.