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The Arena (aka Naked Warriors)

The Arena (aka Naked Warriors)

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great movie
Review: After seeing the best movie of my life, Gladiator, I had to find other titles of similiar interest. The Arena seemed too good to be true, and I'd much rather see women fight than men.

The story starts out with women of different backgrounds (a priestess, a dancer, etc.) who are caught and sold into slavery. An argument between two of the girls leads into a catfight in the food room, where in turn all of the girls get into a huge food fight. Ceaser is informed of the trouble and gets mad at the mess. His advisor says if they can fight like this, maybe they can fight in the arena as gladiators. (The crowd have been asking for something new)

The story line continues as the women are trained and then pitted against eachother. (The fights are superb in this movie, especially judging that the movie is almost 30 years old!)

Finally the women turn the fight from eachother towards the fight for freedom, against the Romans. They battle roman soldiers in the Arena and fight for they're escape.

Eventually they find a tunnel that leads out of the city and find they're freedom.

A very good movie, it isn't the best I have seen, but I'd easily give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A must-be for Pam Grier-Fans
Review: Every Pam Grier-Fan must have seen this film. The story is nothing special, but there are some nude-scenes worthseen. There is a shower scene with Pam Grier, in which she shows her pubic hair. If you are not interested in that scene, forget about the film!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Classic Grier
Review: I would only recommend this film
because it is an interesting alternative
to the usual scenery in which we are
accustomed to seeing Pam Grier.

Otherwise, it's stock 70's female exploitation,
in which Pam Grier led the pack. Very little plot:
exotic women are kidnapped from foreign locales and
are trained in the arena, where they put on spectacles
for eager, bloodthirsty onlookers. In the end, the fittest
of the fittest, Grier and Markov, are forced to fight each
other. Fight or die, one or both. In the end, they both
rebel and race for freedom while pursued by the emperor's
soldiers.
Not much else to it.
Even nudity isn't a plus here.

It was not until this film
that I noticed how extremely BEAUTIFUL
Margret Markov is. Whatever happened to her?

I think this film is worth the time, but I don't
think you'd want to buy it, unless you like the
idea of having an entire section of your DVD rack
for once-viewed movies that will never again see daylight.
This would be one of them.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: TERRIBLE MOVIE
Review: If you expect to see lots of action...forget it. If you expect to see a great plot...forget it. If you expect to see lots of nudity...definitely forget it,because there's hardly any at all.Trust me,do not get this movie!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not the greatest Grier...
Review: If you're looking for a funky sleazy flick like Coffy you've come to the wrong place, as although this sand & sandals "epic" has it's fair quota of sleaze it's just not up to the Jack Hill standards.

Grier is great, as always, and Margret Markov gives good gladiator as well, but the film really starts to sag in the second half when it can't make it's mind up if it wants to be a tounge in cheek catfight movie or a serious Ben Hur style epic.

Good...but not good enough - thumbs sideways.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not the greatest Grier...
Review: If you're looking for a funky sleazy flick like Coffy you've come to the wrong place, as although this sand & sandals "epic" has it's fair quota of sleaze it's just not up to the Jack Hill standards.

Grier is great, as always, and Margret Markov gives good gladiator as well, but the film really starts to sag in the second half when it can't make it's mind up if it wants to be a tounge in cheek catfight movie or a serious Ben Hur style epic.

Good...but not good enough - thumbs sideways.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Piggy Romans Vs. Gorgeous Women
Review: mild nudity, average xploitation for this ultimately boring flick in which miss pam grier shines over the top as usual# only reccomended if you're a die hard fan of miss grier or italian pervy miss rosalba neri here under her americanized name sara bay-shut up or i'll get you whipped## markov's character speech about freedom STINKS-for the men to fight and die is natural but the women...?!!! not only her speech is awfully jawdropping but when escaping the arena she leaves with no help the girl being ravaged by group of piggy romans, now that's what i call mercy!!! joe DANTE is the credited EDITOR

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very entertaining B movie
Review: This is Roger Corman's version of Gladiator and Caligula rolled into one, years before them! And it's not bad, either. Beautiful slave girls must fight to the death in the arena in ancient Rome as a novelty for the jaded Romans. The gladiator girls learn to fight and then use their skills to revolt and escape. Sort of a feminist take on Spartacus.

And the production values belie the usual low-budget restrictions. The costumes, sets, props, and fight scenes are good, and Pam Grier, in her pre-Coffy star-making role, is feisty, pugnacious, and naked, too. Her nude scene, in fact, got a top 3-star rating in Craig Hosoda's The Bare Facts video guide!

The bonus features on this DVD include not one, but two Leonard Maltin-Roger Corman interviews, but neither of them is about this movie in particular! There's the movie trailer, trailers of several other Corman films, a chapter index, booklet, and a few mini- biographies of cast and crew. The image quality is good.

Unfortunately, though, the movie is in full screen format when it would have really benefited from the widescreen treatment. All in all, not quite what it should have been, but still worth it to all us diehard Corman/Grier/ancient Rome fans! MORITURI SALUTAMUS!

"O Cæsar, Morituri Salutamus!"

"O Cæsar, we who are about to die Salute you!" was the gladiators' cry In the arena, standing face to face With death and with the Roman populace.

--Longfellow

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Gladiator-babes in ancient Rome!
Review: This is Roger Corman's version of Gladiator and Caligula rolled into one, years before them! And it's not bad, either. Beautiful slave girls must fight to the death in the arena in ancient Rome as a novelty for the jaded Romans. The gladiator girls learn to fight and then use their skills to revolt and escape. Sort of a feminist take on Spartacus.

And the production values belie the usual low-budget restrictions. The costumes, sets, props, and fight scenes are good, and Pam Grier, in her pre-Coffy star-making role, is feisty, pugnacious, and naked, too. Her nude scene, in fact, got a top 3-star rating in Craig Hosoda's The Bare Facts video guide!

The bonus features on this DVD include not one, but two Leonard Maltin-Roger Corman interviews, but neither of them is about this movie in particular! There's the movie trailer, trailers of several other Corman films, a chapter index, booklet, and a few mini- biographies of cast and crew. The image quality is good.

Unfortunately, though, the movie is in full screen format when it would have really benefited from the widescreen treatment. All in all, not quite what it should have been, but still worth it to all us diehard Corman/Grier/ancient Rome fans! MORITURI SALUTAMUS!

"O Cæsar, Morituri Salutamus!"

"O Cæsar, we who are about to die Salute you!" was the gladiators' cry In the arena, standing face to face With death and with the Roman populace.

--Longfellow

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very entertaining B movie
Review: This movie will take you back to the 70's, when one would go to action double features in second run movie theaters such as the Ambassador in San Juan. It's basically the standard Roger Corman "women in prison" formula but set in Roman times. But it's still a lot of fun. Pam Grier is, as usual, amazing. And she has two really good nude scenes which should really please fans. The action sequences are pretty good for this kind of movie. It would have been great to have some commentary by Pam Grier, but, all in all, it's a great movie to sit back, grab some popcorn, have a couple of beers and have a great time.


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