Terminal Island

This movie was fine, great, if you're a Tom Selleck fan. Personally, I like Phyllis Davis (who starred later in "Vegas" with the late Robert Urich). The "DVD" version; which is available from Canada, produced by Legacy Entertainment, is a "ripoff" (if you'll pardon an old slang word). It is cut for language, and other material, featuring Ms. Davis, and another actress (separate scenes, not together), involving nudity. I know, because a) I have a book called "The Bare Facts" by Craig Hosada, which reviews these scenes. b.) I have a tape called Famous T & A, I'm not making it up, which features an uncut/uncensored excerpt from the movie which shows what was cut. I am getting a VHS, used, from another place, from a different manufacturer, and hoping it hasn't been "cut". Although rated "R" originally, and even though it says it's been edited (which I didn't look to see, until after I viewed the movie; which if I had done, I'd have returned it) I feel I was cheated. So, this is a warning to any potential buyers. If editing doesn't bother you, then, by all means, buy it. In fact, I'm trying to resell my copy, as it was played once.

... doesn't really do anything interesting with the premiss, IMHO.

Escape From New York took a similar idea and did much more with it; there are also echoes of Lord of the Flies in what they *do* decide to do with the plot but, again, the latter did this better.

Also, despite it being cited as some sort of feminist allegory, the early nominal centre of the film (Carmen) gets rapidly sidelined once the women are freed from the main group, whereupon it's mainly two "guy gangs" - one nominally good, the other unambiguously bad - against each other, with lots of bad acting and cheap effects.

Not recommended.

The Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty. California created Terminal Island from San Bruno Island to exile the death row inmates. Bobby killed his bank robbery posse. Lee Phillips blew up a bank. A.J. is a cop killer. Bunny Campbell killed her parents with an ice pick. Julian Dylan is a biker. Joy poisoned her husband. Dr. Norman Milford (Tom Selleck) committed a mercy killing. Roy Teale is a serial killer. Carmen is the new inmate sent to Terminal Island. Bobby rules the main camp with an iron fist and Monk (Roger E. Mosley) is his second in command. The women are used as sex slaves.

I wanted to check this out after Selleck mentioned it on a late-night talk show. It's a violent low-budget exploitation T&A B-movie. There is a surprising number of hot babes serving death sentences. It's cheesy bad but it is almost watchable for its badness. The acting is generally weak and the overall filmmaking is poor. Selleck has a full beard. It doesn't keep my interest all the way to the end.

After the Supreme Court outlaws the death penalty, California circumvents the ruling by sending murderers to a secluded island, where they are declared 'legally dead' and expected to kill each other off. Four intrepid ladies spend some miserable time in the hierarchical sexist work camp on one side of the island, then run off to join the liberated comrades on the other side. There's some pretty big statements waiting to happen in there, and they come through loud 'n' brassy, but they are made in the firm confines of a rockin' 70s drive-in action movie. This is a co-ed prison flick on a cheaper set, with a great bunch of weirdo characters floating around and future Magnum P. I. cast members sweetening the pot. Smart and well made too.

For an exploitation flick that seems to make itself up as it goes, TERMINAL ISLAND begins creatively enough, much like the same years' WESTWORLD with random interviews about the title location...

In this case, based on the actual California death penalty being overturned (making The Manson Family eligible for parole soon after), random people are asked what they think of the prison island alternative, like ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK after while based on the infamous Devil's Island, where murderous convicts are left to their own devices...

Providing a terrifically intense/lovely lead actress in DAN AUGUST black secretary Ena Hartman, with enough blaxploitation/woman-in-prison Pam Grier-esque gusto to completely rule her own feature...

But a real life injury curbed her starring role... plus there are more men on the island, including a monotone, horribly misplaced Tom Selleck as a passive doctor and his future MAGNUM PI chopper pilot Roger E. Mosely, better suited as one of the bullying alpha-males using the women like sexual slaves...

But by the time this urgent plot-line develops, providing Hartman a dilemma she must overcome, quickly, she and other starlets... including spacey brunette Barbara Leigh and intense blondes Phyllis Davis and scene-stealer Marta Kristen (in the Roberta Collins-style tough girl role)... are rescued by black gentleman Don Marshall, leading into what what feels like another movie altogether...

Two actually, within two separate camps: the bad and the good, and neither really connect...

Although former Roger Corman collaborator Stephanie Rothman directs in an intense enough manner so that the survival sequences are partially intriguing...

Making TERMINAL ISLAND several half-decent islands to themselves - despite ultimately becoming atoll on the audience.