The Rowdy Girls

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Western	Main Menu Animation & Audio Menu Audio Featurette - *Brand New Sound Of Troma* Featurette - *The Secrets Of Troma* Featurette - *Radiation March* Featurette - *Hotel Room PSA* Studio Tour - *Tromatic Interactivity* VHS Introduction Introduction Photo Gallery Trailer - *The Chosen One: Legend Of The Raven* Trailer - *The Toxic Avenger*
Rating
Year Released	1998
Running Time	88:31 Minutes (Not 90 Minutes as per packaging)
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region	1,2,3,4,5,6	Director	Steve Nevius
Studio Distributor	Lloyd Kaufman Productions Tribe Enterprises	Starring	Shannon Tweed Julie Strain Deanna Brooks
Case	Soft Brackley	Starring	Shannon Tweed Julie Strain Deanna Brooks
RPI	?	Music	Mark Adams Richard Ziegler

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English (Dolby Digital 2.0, 224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement	No
Original Aspect Ratio	?1.37:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	?	Smoking	Yes
Subtitles	None	Annoying Product Placement	No
Subtitles	None	Action In or After Credits	No

Plot Synopsis

Numerous entries in the Western sub-genre we know and love called the "how the West was really won" style have come and gone over the years, and a recent fixture has been those that show various groups of women roughing it up in Colonial America. There's the good ones (The Quick And The Dead), the bad ones (Bad Girls), and then there's the Troma-style Women Of The West film, The Rowdy Girls. Oddly enough for a Troma Entertainment production, there is a plot beyond an excuse to get the leads to disrobe as frequently as possible, although I can't help but think the film might have been better if there wasn't. Not that the story is bad in and of itself, but it really gets in the way of the much-desired nudity that the audience will really be watching it for. So sit back, relax, grab a can of beer and a box of popcorn, then indulge in a Western that is set in a time and place where, to quote the theme song by Mark Adams, "men are dumb as dirt".

Velvet (Shannon Tweed) works in a whorehouse and is visited by a man who wishes she was his girl, who goes by the name of Cole (Rick Williams). After tying Cole to the bed, then knocking him out after he gets loose and points a gun at her, she catches a wagon while posing as a nun. Sara (Deanna Brooks) is about to be given in an arranged wedding to a groom she does not care for, and would give anything to escape to San Francisco. When the wagon they are on is robbed by Mick (Julie Strain), they find themselves prisoners of her gang. Adding to the bizarre triangle is Deputy Joe Pepper (Richie Varga), whose Sheriff brother, Sam (Todd Eckert), is murdered during the course of Mick and her gang robbing the wagon. Along the way, we see numerous gratuitous shots of women in various stages of undress, numerous instances of corny dialogue, and ridiculous gunfights.

The Internet Movie Database and twenty-one of its users would have you believe that this is a better film than The Chosen One, with a rating of four out of ten, but I actually found The Rowdy Girls to be the lesser film where entertainment value was concerned. I cannot exactly describe why, but I'm willing to hazard a guess that it has something to do with there being a touch more dialogue than was really necessary. It is no coincidence that two of the three leads have posed for Playboy magazine (Shannon Tweed and Deanna Brooks) while the other has posed for Penthouse. Come to think of it, even one of the producers, India Allen, has disrobed for Playboy (she was a Playmate of the year in 1988). If that doesn't give you a good idea of the sort of content you can expect from this soft porn in Western clothing, I don't know what will.

One packaging error that must be mentioned here is that Richie Varga is erroneously credited as Laszlo Varga on the back cover. Why this is the case, I don't know, but it did make hunting down actor's names a little more confusing than was needed.

Transfer Quality

Video

The video transfer of this film is good, overall, but not great. The transfer is presented Full Frame, and it is obviously not 16x9 enhanced. I believe that this is the way in which it was intended to be presented by the makers, but I would appreciate any definitive clarification.

The transfer is very sharp for the most part, but not quite as sharp as one would expect for such a recent film. The shadow detail is poor, and numerous night-time sequences require a lot of effort to make out who is doing or saying what. Thankfully, there was no low-level noise to add to the problem.

The colour saturation in this transfer is much more vibrant in comparison to The Chosen One, with plenty of different shades of colour to be found in the dirt and greenery. There are no signs of bleeding or misregistration at any time. Occasionally, there would be a washout of the colours due to too much light shining into the camera lens, but this is definitely the fault of the production crew rather than anyone involved in the transfer process.

MPEG artefacts consisted of the occasional dose of motion compensation, usually in the background during panning shots. This artefact was relatively easy to dismiss since it only really affected backgrounds when viewed at normal speed, and I only caught it because I repeatedly rewound over an affected point in the film. Film-to-video artefacts were not a problem in this transfer, partly due to the lack of opportunities for aliasing. Film artefacts consisted of numerous nicks and scratches on the picture, but the only such artefact that I found to be worthy of specific notation was a white fleck in the lower middle of the picture at 27:58.

Audio

There is only the one soundtrack on this DVD: the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 2.0, without surround-encoding. This is rather interesting since the disc is encoded for all Regions and uses the PAL format, which generally tends to necessitate the presence of at least one dub, at least in the marketing vernacular of the major distributors, anyway.

The dialogue of this film was clear and easy to understand at all times, as were the vocals during some of Mark Adams' music. There were no perceptible problems with audio sync.

The music in this film is credited to Mark Adams, with production being credited to Richard Ziegler. To quote the credits, the music is performed by Mark Adams (guitar, harmonica, vocals), Jesse Jay Harris (banjo, guitar, bass), Yusi Wenger (flamenco guitar), Jim Goodall (drums), and Richard Ziegler (Jews harp). The music helps build the atmosphere of the film to a point where it really does become a case of Playboy magazine meeting the Wild West, so full marks go to the musicians.

The surround channels were not used at all by this soundtrack, which is something of a pity since the music could have used a little more channel separation, but it is forgivable. The subwoofer was frequently present to support gunshots, horses' footsteps, and various other bass-heavy sound effects, in spite of not being specifically called upon to do so. Overall, you can't ask for much better from a straight stereo soundtrack.

Extras

Studio Tour - Tromatic Interactivity

Featuring an introduction by Lloyd Kaufman, this interactive tour consists of several featurettes detailing what goes on in the Troma Entertainment studios. Each featurette is presented Full Frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. Be warned that one of these featurettes succeeded in ruining my ability to eat dinner, and I am sure that others will have the same effect for other viewers.

Featurette - Brand New Sound Of Troma

A 114-second collection of snippets from other Troma films, set to a Motörhead song that I am not familiar with. In other words, this is the same featurette that was labelled Aroma Du Troma on the Chosen One DVD, with a different name on this disc. Still, it makes a nice music video in comparison to what other "artists" of the present era have been shovelling out. It is presented in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, and it is not 16x9 Enhanced.

Featurette - The Secrets Of Troma

The same seventy-five second ad spot for Lloyd Kaufman's autobiography as was found on The Chosen One, merely presented in the menu with a different heading. It is presented Full Frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. A little consistency in labelling these extras would be appreciated.

Featurette - Hotel Room PSA

This 224-second Public Service Announcement is presented Full Frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. It is afflicted by severe vertical wobble, making it very hard on the eyes. Thankfully, the content is very easy on the eyes.

VHS Introduction

A twenty-five second introduction filmed for the VHS release of the film, featuring producer India Allen, and an almost-naked Julie Strain. It is presented Full Frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, and is quite amusing to watch.

Introduction

A forty second introduction filmed for the DVD release of the film, also featuring producer India Allen, and a more almost-naked Julie Strain. It is presented Full Frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, and is even more amusing to watch.

Featurette - Radiation March

Clocking in at fifty-four seconds, this is a Full Frame, Dolby Digital 2.0 display of just how bizarre Troma Entertainment can be. The oddest anti-pollution ad spot I've seen in my entire life, which is saying quite a lot.

Photo Gallery

A collection of unannotated stills from the production of the film. It would help the entertainment value of this extra a great deal if there were some kind of notation to let us know exactly what we're looking at.

Trailer - The Chosen One: Legend Of The Raven

Presented Full Frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, this 151-second trailer is essentially the same sort of ridiculous crap you'd expect from any other Troma trailer. As seems to be customary for Troma trailers, it is of poor shadow detail and mediocre resolution.

Trailer - The Toxic Avenger

This 191-second trailer is presented Full Frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. It suffers from poor shadow detail and low resolution, but it provides a good source of laughter.

R4 vs R1

There are two versions of this film available on DVD in Region 1: the R-rated cut, and the unrated cut. Information about either release is somewhat scarce, so I was once again forced to take an online retailer's word for it. The difference between the two Region 1 versions appears to be a few minutes of nudity, as the extras appear to be identical.

The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

DVD-ROM content

Both Region 1 versions of this disc miss out on;

Featurette - Brand New Sound Of Troma
Featurette - The Secrets Of Troma
Featurette - Radiation March
Featurette - Hotel Room PSA
Studio Tour - Tromatic Interactivity
VHS Introduction
Introduction
Photo Gallery
Trailer - The Chosen One: Legend Of The Raven
Trailer - The Toxic Avenger

While I cannot confirm that this information is entirely accurate, it appears that the only thing we're missing out on is DVD-ROM material of unknown quality. It's probably better to stick with the local release.

Summary

The Rowdy Girls is a reasonable Western in true Troma style, but it could have used a little more graphic violence and nudity.

The video transfer is good, save for poor shadow detail.

The audio quality is good.

The extras are numerous and mostly enjoyable.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment

DVD	Toshiba SD-2109, using S-video output
Display	Samsung CS-823AMF (80 cm) in 16:9 and 4:3 modes, calibrated using the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder	Built In (Amplifier)
Amplification	Sony STR-DE835, calibrated using the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials.
Speakers	Yamaha NS-45 Front Speakers, Yamaha NS-90 Rear Speakers, Yamaha NS-C120 Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Active Subwoofer