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Released by: Severin Films/Intervision Picture Corp.
Released on: June 25th, 2021.
Director: Mark Savage
Cast: Robin Brennan, Colin Savage, Peter Beitans, Nene Powell, Simon Wood
Year: 2000
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The Masturbating Gunman - Movie Review:
The Masturbating Gunman, also known as Masked Avenger Versus Ultra-Villain In The Lair Of The Naked Bikini, was directed by Mark Savage in 2000. The film is a pretty insane low-budget exploitation picture clearly inspired by Japanese pink and roman porno cinema.
The story revolves around a masked hero (Robin Brennan) who has some rather unorthodox methods of cracking the cases he works - he sniffs women's panties and loves to bust heads using his martial arts skills! He's also able to kill people by ejaculating acidic semen. This is a problem because he's constantly masturbating anytime a woman walks by, that is, when he isn't gutting people and ripping out their innards.
When a dastardly German national named Helmut Gunta (Peter Breitans) kidnaps a nun named Sister Mary van Hottin (Nene Powell) hoping to take her as his virgin bride, it's up to our hero to save her. He'll have to go up against Gunta's army of hired, and well-armed, goons and use all manner of kink and perversion, with some help from Mary, to get out of this alive…. but Gunta is no fool, and he knows that if he surrounds our hero with a bunch of hotties that he won't be able to save Mary because he'll be too busy pulling his pud.
Every bit as ridiculous as it sounds, this is an amusing low-budget trash-fest that moves at a quick pace and amusing, a completely nonsensical mix of gratuitous sleaze and cheeky humor. Savage has always had a knack for stretching his budgets and he does a good job of that here. The production values for this shot-on-video picture are pretty solid, he makes good use of some nice sets and locations, finds decent costuming for his performers and makes sure that everything is properly framed at nicely composed.
Clearly not a film meant to be taken in the least bit seriously, the cast of The Masturbating Gunman (which is mercifully much easier to type than Masked Avenger Versus Ultra-Villain In The Lair Of The Naked Bikini!) are clearly in on the joke. Their performances are deliberately weird, but completely in keeping with the spirit of the movie. Brennan plays his absurd role pretty straight and the movie is better for it, while Nene Powell is well-cast as an attractive nun and does fine work here. Peter Breitans does a great job of chewing just enough of the scenery to steal a few scenes.
Overall, this one is pretty damn fun.
The Masturbating Gunman - Blu-ray Review:
The Masturbating Gunman comes to region free Blu-ray from Severin in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen. This looks like the low budget late nineties/early two-thousands-era SOV production that it is, but the transfer, which takes up 21.6GBs of space on a 25GB disc, looks fine for what it is. This doesn't offer the same level of detail that something shot on modern digital video equipment could provide but its' more than watchable even if the limitations of the source material are sometimes obvious. There's some compression seemingly baked into the source, but colors look quite nice.
The 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo track in the film's native English sounds good. Optional English SDH subtitles are also provided. Dialogue is pretty easy to follow and the levels are balanced well enough. No problems here.
The main extra on the disc is an audio commentary with writer/director Mark Savage moderated by David Gregory for Severin Films. It's a reasonably scene-specific talk with Savage talking quite candidly about some of the locations that were used for specific scenes, how he went about casting the picture, casting his brother in the film as Henry and their background making Super 8mm films together in their younger days. He also covers where some of the ideas that the film deals with came from, putting together some of the effects set pieces, the influence of Japanese films like Assault! Jack The Ripper as well as the pink and roman porno movies overall, different titles that the film has gone under, working with a local priest to secure some resources needed (he blessed the film!) and plenty more. Savage is never at a loss for words here and he and Gregory, who have known one another for a long time, have a very good vibe going throughout the talk.
The disc also contains an archival Making-Of Featurette that clocks in at just under a half an hour. It's an amusing video diary of sorts that gives viewers a pretty candid look at what it was like onset. We see Savage dealing with his cast and crew, get a general feel for what it was like during the making of the movie. We get to see various people enjoy craft services, we get a look at a few of the key scenes being staged and the camera angles composed, see Savage giving direction to his actors, see some of the gore effects being done and plenty more.
On top of that we also get a four-minute alternate opening sequence, menus and chapter selection options.
Note that this review is based on a test disc so we can't comment on any packaging or inserts.
The Masturbating Gunman - The Final Word:
The Masturbating Gunman is as crazy as it sounds, it's a wildly entertaining slice of sleaze with some fun performances and pretty unforgettable set pieces. The Blu-ray release won't win transfer of the year but it presents this previously very tough film to find in decent shape and with some quality extra features as well.
Click on the images below for full sized The Masturbating Gunman Blu-ray screen caps!
