Very well executed

Too much of everything

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

"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

The inner-city, prone to violence, crime, drugs, even sex. The top gang that rules the area are the Silver Daggers. With them are their female counterparts, the Dagger Debs lead by Lace (Robbie Lee). One day, they meet a loner name Maggie (Joanne Nail), who holds her own. After a night in juvenile hall, Maggie joins the ranks and gains the trust of Lace. However, Lace's friend Patch is suspicious of Maggie. As Maggie began to to know the ways of the Dagger Debs, she makes a move on Lace's boyfriend Dominic (Asher Brauner), who would not take the role of a father when he hears about Lace's pregnancy. More to it, Maggie would take in the reins of leading the Dagger Debs following a failed ambush at a roller rink. The men are ousted by Maggie, and they go form the Dagger Debs, to the Jezebels. They even join a militant gang to help boost the power of the group. When Lace re cooperates from her attack, she joins the group, only to suspect Maggie as a traitor. I like the scene where Lace beats up Maggie, and tortures her by sticking a cigarette butt in her bellybutton. Then came the showdown. Classic scene. The gang gains a new leader, while Patch is left behind. Goes to show there is no loyalty among gangs. Power shifts, and questionable leadership can destroy an organization. The Jezebels have not only ousted the men, but Lace as well, without her knowledge. They consider her a weak link in the gang. 4 out of 5 stars.

For whatever reason, Quentin Tarantino feels that Switchblade Sisters is Jack Hill's best film. And while I found a lot to enjoy in the movie, it doesn't come close in my mind to equaling some of Hill's other films like Spider Baby or the movies he made with Pam Grier. Not that any of Hill's films are set in reality as most of us understand it, but Switchblade Sisters is just too unrealistic for me rate among his best. The problem is with the casting decisions. The girl gang members aren't threatening. Why would anyone be threatened by Robbie Lee's Lace? She comes off more as a Girl Scout on her way to sell cookies than a vicious would-be killer. The other girls, from the too soft Donut to the too pretty Maggie, were no more convincing. The guys fair no better. Being stupid is not the same as being tough.I did, however, enjoy the over-the-top plot and action sequences. The final battle between the two gangs, the skating rink scene, and Maggie stealing Crabs' medallion were all cheesy highlights of the film for me. But my absolute favorite moment comes at the very end of the film. That speech Maggie makes to the cops as they are dragging her off to jail is incredible. Yeah, sure, it's as unrealistic as the cast, but it's a lot of fun. You don't hear dialogue like this just every day – "No, let me give you some advice, cop. 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!" Awesome stuff!

Switchblade Sisters, apart of the more or less dozen films in Tarantino's Rolling Thunder pictures collection (re-released exploitation flicks and foreign films), was worth the watch for a past midnight time of viewing. It might even be Jack Hill's most entertaining movie (though I haven't seen Coffy in a while). There are really a few things that he gets really right, amid the obvious camp that comes with a movie like this. He uses some tough, interesting B-actresses for the parts of the Debs-turned-Jezebelles, with Robbie Lee and Joanne Nail and Monica Gayle as the main three ladies of the bunch all turning in cool, un-restrained performances (one thing they don't lack, aside from some sex appeal, is spunk).Another thing that makes the film really work is that, more often than not (which was also the case with Hill's Pam Grier pictures) is that it's very, very funny. Sometimes it was just by some unexpected stuff (the guy in the elevator early in the film, or stuff during the climactic battle in the streets), or just by some of the creative dialog. But really what helped make the film work for me was that it had a great marriage of 'exploitation' ideals (just look at the prison scenes) with spots of realism, or at least things that seem realistic in the Roger Corman school of writing.These may be larger-than-life character, but that's part of the fun in it, that it's an action fantasy where we can root for the rough, take-no-prisoners gals of action, who also aren't completely in-human. Hill, who has mentioned in interviews how part of his film-making comes from being a musician, knows the rhythms of scenes and dialog (as stupid as it can get at times), and even has a little style to show off amid the patently 70's times. That, in the end, it's really a lot of fun helps out during some of the more 'dramatic' parts. And what an awesome last line!