Big Bad Mama II

Angie Dickinson was outstanding in this very comical, drama as (Wilma McClotchie) and her boy crazy daughters Danielle Briseboise(Billy Jean) and Julie McCullough(Polly). Robert Culp (Daryl Pearson) was a reporter who covered the wild and crazy bank robbers all over the countryside. Daryl even watched the daughters go skinny dipping in one scene and nearly had his head blown completely off. Angie Dickinson had lots of sparks and romance with Culp and nothing was left to your imagination. This film was a 4th of July fireworks with everything burning up in the END! This is a classic film for Angie Dickinson fans, a must see if you missed it.

My review was written in October 1987 after a screening in Parkchester, the Bronx.

"Big Bad Mama II" isw a very embarrassing followup to the 1974 Angie Dickinson drive-in hit. Currently in regional theatrical release, cheapie was advertised to open at three Manhattan sites but bumped to bookings in the other boroughs only.

As with producer Roger Corman's novel redoing of hsi "Jackson County Jail" as a "parallel world" sequel called "Outside Chance", "Mama II" is not a sequel to the original pi. Only Dickinson encores, as Wilma McClatchie, a gun-toting, tough-talking 1930s gangster in the mode of Ma Barker and Bonnie Parker. Her sexy daughters (Susan Sennett and Robbie Lee in the 1974 film; Danielle Brisebois and Julie McCullogh currently) are left fatherless in a prolog wherein villain Bruce Glover has their dad killed and the family evicted from their homestead.

Dickinson vows to get Glover, who is running for governor of Texas. She kidnaps his son (Jeff Yahger) and inducts him into her family band of bank robbers. Pic at this point becomes virtually plotless, with a hapless Robert Culp along for the ride as a Philadelphia reporter out to exploit the outlaws' story (and romance Dickinson). An action montage of footage from the first film is used to suggest scope and save money.l When not straining for idiotic "socially redeeming value" in having Dickinson show solidarity with striking miners and Hoovertown denizens, pic is one long rehash with endless machine gun fire, exploding squibs and period car chases.

Ita main thrust is to provide some skin for those successors to the drive-in: home video and paycable. Big surprise is that former tv child star of "Archie Bunker's Place", Danielle Brisebois, goes topless in a requisite frolic in a pond with sis McCullogh and in the process handily proves to have a better body than the former Playboy centerfold model. Dickinson has a nude bed scene with Culp, but is obviously subbed for b a body double this time.

The Peter Principle has former Corman publicis and writer for "Castle of Frankenstein" magazine Jim Wynorski directing this mess, which falls into the "no retakes" school of cinema. Actors' readings suffer accordingly and sense of ripoff is underscored by Chuck Cirino's music which draws heavily (and without credit) upon the work of Ennio Morricone, particularly his "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" score. Idiotic ending features Dickinson in a white wig in 1987 with great-granddaughter Willie (played by Kelli Maroney) to carry on the family tradition.

You watch this film because of the attractive women, not because you expect The Godfather', 'Bonnie and Clyde', or even 'Scarface.' Angie looks great (although she may be body doubled during her sex scene with Culp), and McCullough and Brisbois are barely clothed throughout, thank you very much. Otherwise, this is a clumsily written, directed and acted pile of junk. The action scenes are some of the worst staged for the screen, with Glover, Culp and others standing around, unconcerned, as explosions go off and bullets fly around them. Cops fire endless rounds at Angie and her girls in their jalopy and neither the car or the girls are ever scratched. Plotwise, we've got Dickinson and her girls shooting up cops and blasting their way out of banks then racing off... but the cops never follow. In fact, nobody seems to be after these brazen criminals except Culp, the reporter. The cops are apparently stumped, but Culp finds them without any effort, time and time again. It's all so obviously stupid, and the leads know it. Culp and Dickinson treat the film like a 'Smokey & The Bandit' lark with barely suppressed laughter in many of their scenes. But, once again, you're here for the feminine pulchritude.

When their home is repossessed, Wilma McClatchie's husband is killed and she and her two nubile young daughters set out to rob anything belonging to the owner of the bank concerned.

First of all, being a Jim Wynorski movie, you have to have low expectations. But even for him, this is rather a dud. Not his worst, but far from his best. Second, you have to wonder why Angie Dickinson would agree to this. Being in the first one was "slumming it", so this is practically an insult. Though surprisingly for a Wynorski film, this may have less nudity than the original.

And then there is the strange overt political message. Maybe I missed it, but I don't recall the talk about Hoover shanties and the rich against the poor in the first film. This time it is really blunt, not even cleverly worked in. What exactly is the point?

Angie Dickenson is back, and this time she's old. She does look good in a bubblebath, though, and her daughters have a skinny-dip.

This sequel to a film that ripped-off one film(BLOODY MAMA), which in turn was a rip-off of another flick(BONNIE AND CLYDE).

Needless to say, BIG BAD MAMA II is a watered-down affair. And Robert Culp looks embarrassed. It's a time-killer, with the emphasis on "kill".