CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

lost-in-limbo Peace Corps Carly and Melanie are leaving the African country Umlanga, but when they're pulled over by the authorities. The hitcher-hiker they picked up, happened to be carrying drugs. The two ladies are falsely convicted of smuggling drugs too. So the judge, sentences the pair to eleven years to the penitentiary known as Purgatory. When they get there, Carly soon discovers that showing fear and aggression is a big mistake and only backfires. The abuse going on behind the scenes sticks to the warden and the guards taking advantage of the inmates sexually. After their first encounter, Melanie cracks insistently. Carly becomes the warden's favourite and is forced to work in a brothel. While, her mother is doing her best to get her daughter out, despite finding it hard getting help from the American embassy.Tanya Roberts (who's basically wasted) is the main draw card to this highly dank, lewd and by-the-numbers women-in-prison exploitation fodder. Well there's plenty of leering shots on Tanya Roberts (who wears some skimpy outfits and naively whimpers a lot over her innocence), but it really does utilize the lustful sexual attraction that's brewing. However, while it's sordidly suggested, it falls mostly into the implied bracket. It's pretty weak and tame in what you see and there's very little sleaze and flesh. Too much jilted dialogues involving whining or long-winded speeches with political interference has a certain seriousness about it, which just drowns out the fun that could've been and only aggravates. It doesn't quite ignite until the last fifteen minutes, but even then the action is amateurishly staged and the final big bang (the usual break out with some explosions and sweet revenge) lacks zing. Obvious plotting in the material doesn't help the stuffy pacing either. The look of the film comes across like a jagged TV episode, but it cooks up a gritty, dour and harsh atmosphere despite not entirely illustrating it. Director Ami Artzi does an systematic job, but can succumb to lazy touches, just like the conclusion. Free-willed camera-work can get murky with one or two unusual handled POV shots and the broodingly over dramatic music score is totally mishandled. The voluptuously stunning Roberts has trouble holding the film together in the lead role, but however it's a gusty performance. Clare Marshall provides much added spark as the mother Ruth Arnold. The performances aren't terrible, just extremely plain and shell-like.A visually enticing Roberts and couple of unintentional chuckles can be found in this free-risk, below-average cheapjack "WIP" exploitation staple. Tanya Roberts' fans will eat it up, but I don't know about others.

gridoon Despite the initial set-up (2 American girls in a foreign - here African - country get arrested and sentenced to 11 years in jail for a crime they didn't commit), "Purgatory" is not really a Women-In-Prison film. It almost completely ignores the daily prison life of the women and focuses on one aspect only: their sexual exploitation. The warden has set up a prostitution ring and the prisoners are used to satisfy the needs of many high-paying customers. After 75 minutes of this repellent junk, we finally get to the escape part. "Purgatory" supposedly has serious intentions: there are even title cards telling us what date it is, and at the end another card telling us what happened to the surviving characters, as if this was based on a true story, even though at the end of the credits there is the usual "any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental" disclaimer. But it is technically rough, even amateurish at times, and although Tanya Roberts deserves credit for taking on a role that has her appear completely unglamorous, she's still too limited an actress to carry a movie by herself. (*)

herzogvon This truly crappy women-in-prison flick looks like a leftover from the 1970s. Like so many of that genre, it was shot in the Philippines. One difference; instead of a totally no-name cast, it has Tanya Roberts, the erstwhile Charlie's Angel. Hold your Oscar nominations, please.Though none exists, this movie could easily be subtitled, "Carly and Melanie Go to Africa and Get Gang Raped." That's pretty much the size of it. Sadly, poor Melanie drops out in the first twenty minutes, so that leaves Carly ( Roberts ) to fend for herself against a bunch of really yucky people. They're yucky, she's plucky. The outcome is predictable.Lots of people get killed along the way, not that anyone really cares. The biggest question remains: What is John Newland doing in this dreck? Yes, that's right; the same John Newland who hosted the Sci-Fi TV classic from the 1950s, "One Step Beyond". He's dead now, so it's impossible to ask him. One can only imagine that his last wish was to have his name deleted from the credits. That appears to have been granted.

S. J. Lewis Pick almost any "Women In Prison" movie where some young lovelies are unjustly thrown behind bars and then abused by the warden, the guards, the other prisoners....That's this movie. Still, it has a young, lovely and long-legged Tanya Roberts as one of the hapless prisoners. There's a little bit of nudity here and there, and a lot of explosions at the end. You've seen it before.