Let’s me start by saying that these are about 1000 miles away from what would be considered my type of film. In an effort to go out of my comfort zone, I have watched these three films and their extras for you all.
The films themselves here are all by Russ Meyer and go from one type of erotica/soft core to more and more sex that gets more explicit with each film while the stories get thinner and thinner. For the first film, the writing is decent, but the story is thin to say the last. The acting works decently while being very much of its time and genre. For the second film, the story adds a little bit and gets a bit crazier, but it’s still a thin excuse to show more skin than character arcs. The acting is again ok, not great, not bad, it just kinda is. Comes to the third film and it’s where things go almost full blown into hardcore territory. The story no longer matters, and everything is an excuse to see the ladies naked and to shows some epic merkins (or perhaps these were not merkins? Who knows…). This one gets extra points for not trying to pretend it’s anything it is not and just going for it.
With that being said, the acting here is just ok, the writing goes from decent to plain atrocious in some scenes, the dialogue isn’t there to be listened to, but everything is filmed decently well. Fans of Russ Meyer’s work and those who enjoy the genre should be well served by these three releases with uneven quality to the films. There is something to be said for the doors these films have opened in the film industry and for their historical value, but for those who aren’t into the genre, these will not change their minds.
Overall, this new edition of these three films will likely be for folks who are already fans of them and will likely leave anyone else rather cold on them. The quality of the transfers is good, and the extras are more than plentiful, so for fans, this is a must have.
In terms of extras, the more interesting ones here are the 1981 Censor Prologue for Vixen, David Del Valle’s The Sinister Image which has Yvette Vickers and Russ Meyer involved on the Vixen disc. On the Super Vixens disc, the archival commentary with Meyer and the interview with actor Charles Napier are the highlights. Finally, on the Beneath the Valley of the UltraVixens, the highlights are the interview with actress Kitten Natividad and the archival commentary with Russ Meyer.