It came as no surprise to see Troma head honcho Lloyd Kaufmann popping up in Herschell Gordon Lewis's comedy splatter pic The Uh-oh Show, both film-makers sharing a similar sense of humour and displaying a lack of boundaries when it comes to taste. Unfortunately, they also share the same uncanny ability to churn out complete and utter drivel, and The Uh-oh Show is no exception.
The film centres around a cable TV quiz show in which contestants literally risk life and limb to win—answer a question correctly and they are rewarded with a fabulous prize, get the question wrong and a spin of a wheel decides which body part is to be unceremoniously removed by the show's resident maniac Radial Saw Rex (Broward 'Eclipse' Holsey). When her boyfriend becomes a contestant and promptly disappears, TV reporter Jill Burton (Nevada Caldwell) investigates the show, and discovers that no-one is a winner.
Although The Uh-oh Show seems to be intended as a wry swipe at network TV's use of violence to boost ratings (pot, kettle?), Lewis's execution is way too ham-fisted to work as effective satire; the script is dreadful, the direction uninspired, the zany humour and cartoonish violence can be considered puerile at best (characters continue to talk even after being dismembered!), and, although Caldwell puts in a reasonable performance (for a Lewis film, at least), the majority of the cast are as lousy as I expected.
3.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 4 for the excess of gore, which is always messy and occasionally even looks half decent.
The film centres around a cable TV quiz show in which contestants literally risk life and limb to win—answer a question correctly and they are rewarded with a fabulous prize, get the question wrong and a spin of a wheel decides which body part is to be unceremoniously removed by the show's resident maniac Radial Saw Rex (Broward 'Eclipse' Holsey). When her boyfriend becomes a contestant and promptly disappears, TV reporter Jill Burton (Nevada Caldwell) investigates the show, and discovers that no-one is a winner.
Although The Uh-oh Show seems to be intended as a wry swipe at network TV's use of violence to boost ratings (pot, kettle?), Lewis's execution is way too ham-fisted to work as effective satire; the script is dreadful, the direction uninspired, the zany humour and cartoonish violence can be considered puerile at best (characters continue to talk even after being dismembered!), and, although Caldwell puts in a reasonable performance (for a Lewis film, at least), the majority of the cast are as lousy as I expected.
3.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 4 for the excess of gore, which is always messy and occasionally even looks half decent.