The Lost Empire (1984; Jim Wynorski)

God, what a delightful kitchen sink movie. It is absolutely total nonsense with so many different genres thrown into a blender, a good sense of shlocky humor, a grand sense of adventure, a real eye for accentuating all of the sexy women in the cast, scraping every cent together despite every odd stacked against it: this is probably my favorite Jim Wynorski movie. I still hold out hope that some day I'll load up Tubi and "Sorority House Massacre II" will be on there. Sigh, alas, until then, at least we had this little itty bitty gem (well, maybe cubic zirconia, but I adore it anyway).

Look, this is very, very, very rough around the edges. This is clearly made by someone cherishing the chance to make his own movie...you can really tell it is made with love and enthusiasm. I felt energy in every frame even if you can see the puny budget pushed to the very limit. He has to use a matte painting for Dr. Sin Do's island fortress, the laser weapons and sets are obviously pulled together through some help from Corman's studio, and the costumes of the cult for Angus Scrimm's are black robes with a snake symbol that represents their order. Two "eyes" (glowing diamonds) if discovered together can give Dr. Sin Do (also going by Lee Chuck; nice bit of homage to Bruce and Norris) the ability to rule the world, equipped with a vaporizing laser. Oh, and Dr. Sin Do is actually a walking corpse wearing an Angus Scrimm human face mask, reminding me of Dr. Phibes. And, of course, the film has a guy in a gorilla costume...because why not?

I noticed others mention Charlie's Angels, Enter the Dragon, among other inspirations, and I do see all of that in the film...Wynorski clearly was plucking ideas from a lot of different genres. But Wynorski wasn't about to leave out a robot spider slowly crawling up Vincz's scantily clad body, Angela Aames (I had no idea that she died so young!) in the prison shower bathing off the mud from her naked body after a battle with Angelique Pettyjohn in the prison yard (who has a black leather bikini and whip!), and Raven De La Croix (in what many might consider a cringe, problematic role as a Native American warrior who often calls Vincz Kemosabe) overwhelmed by Scrimm's "magic smoke" to the point she wears his python while falling unconscious, later found on a platform as a guard sees her nude and doesn't realize she'll punch him out if he even tries to touch her.

What I liked about this particular Wynorski film is how his heroines just kick all kinds of ass while still remaining sexy and empowered. Yes, Wynorski's camera gazes passionately up the body of Aames while she showers, follows the spider as it moves up Vincz's body, and gets closeups of De La Croix's breasts several times before she leaps to action. Wynorski's film has her trio of heroines firing off arrows, delivering combative blows, and taking out all kinds of Scrimm's guards.

Tessier (I remember him from "The Deep") is fun as Scrimm's lead heavy, though I would have loved to see him more involved in the finale than he ultimately is, and Coufos as Vincz's beau she keeps punching in the nose accidentally. I LOVED the opening setpieces set in a Chinatown antiquities store (where Scrimm's men battle it out with police) and a school where Vincz, in leather jacket, black helmet, on a motorcycle, busts in on terrorists. This isn't just Parent, Gilbert, and Smith staring at us through the camera while in a Jacuzzi while touching each other...Wynorski really seemed inspired.