Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy


Thank Mexico for one of cinema's great titles: WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY. The movie does have wrestling women and it does have an Aztec mummy.

Buxom lady wrestlers Loretta Venus (Lorena Velazquez) and Golden Ruby (Elizabeth Campbell) are back in this direct sequel to DOCTOR OF DOOM. It even recycles stock footage from DOCTOR OF DOOM, resulting in obvious continuity errors involving Velazquez’s changing hairstyles.

Also returning are Armando Silvestre and Chucho Salinas as Loretta’s and Ruby’s cop boyfriends. All four become embroiled in a deadly plot masterminded by an Oriental villain known as the Black Dragon (Mexican actor Ramon Bugarini), who’s leaving a trail of corpses in his pursuit of three pieces of a codex that legend says points toward a hidden Aztec treasure buried in the ruins. Guarding the treasure is a mummy that can transform into a vampire bat! Disappointingly, director Rene Cardona gives the mummy-bat less play than an amazing idea like that deserves.

Cardona and American distributor K. Gordon Murray’s trademark lunacy carries over from DOCTOR OF DOOM in its dialogue and fight scenes, but a wrestling match that goes on for what feels like forever and a mid-section flashback consisting of footage from an unrelated (bigger-budgeted) movie sink AZTEC MUMMY before it ever reaches its anticipated climax, which turns out to be not much of a battle at all. In other words, if you come to this movie looking for wrestling women to fight an Aztec mummy, you’re gonna be disappointed.

No comments: