Diagonaldi Very well executed

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

pointyfilippa The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Sam Panico If I were writing this review at any time other than 4:40 AM and had more than two hours sleep in the past two days, I wouldn't be full of hyperbole, pacing through my house, mumbling to myself things like, "Savage Streets is the greatest movie ever made!" and "Why did they make any more movies after this?"I often discuss movies with my dad and I often describe ones I love as "a piece of crap, but an entertaining piece of crap." Was I more lucid, that's probably how I'd describe this film. But seriously, this movie has everything you want to watch in the middle of the night. It is unapologetically 1980's exploitation filmmaking, a roughie that would never hit the scream today, small or large.Imagine if Pat Benetar's "Love is a Battlefield" lasted for 93 minutes. Also, imagine if Pat didn't use dance to defeat the rival gang, but instead had a crossbow. That is the best summation of this movie that I can give you.Brenda (Linda Blair, and if I have to tell you what other films Linda has been in, you can never read our site again) and her deaf-mute sister Heather (Linnea Quigley, the only scream queen I know who put out a workout tape) are wild in the streets with their gang the Satins, looking at Playgirl Magazine while dressed as only folks in the 80's could dress. They keep getting into scuffles with a gang called the Scars, ending with the girls stealing and trashing the gang's car. Jake, their leader, vows revenge after Brena goes even further by scratching his face.Well, he and the gang waste no time. While Brenda is fighting another girl in a locker room brouhaha, the gang isolates her sister and rapes her. You may notice that the gang seems to be more interested in touching one another than touching her sister. Two of them even embrace one another and kiss. These are the kinds of things that you will unexpectantly see in this film. It's one that rapidly switches tone, going for the darkness of man on woman crime to a wacky scene where the students put drawings of penises on a health room chart. It is a movie that will change that tone on a dime, ensuring that you are never ready for what happens next.The Scars up the ante by killing Brenda's soon to be married and pregnant friend Francine (Lisa Freeman, Back to the Future). There's a Pretty Woman like scene of the girl trying on her wedding dress while everyone watches and again, you aren't ready for the tonal 180 when the gang throws her off a viaduct.Meanwhile, policing all of this insanity at the high school is John Vernon as Principal Underwood. He seems like he is barely containing himself from killing every child that is in his educational system.Earlier in the film, Brenda and her girl gang notice bear traps are on sale. This seems like something that totally makes no sense. Not so. Because when Brenda hunts down the Scars, she uses one of those traps to kill one of the gang members by snapping it onto his neck. Then she takes a crossbow after the rest of the gang.Sure, Jake escapes. But he really should have stopped when he could have. Brenda douses him in paint and sets him ablaze, just in time for a cop to pull up and watch the guy die. What school do these girls go to?All of the girls visit Francine's grave and Brenda comments, "At least we set things right." Her friend Stevie earnestly looks at her and says, "No Brenda. You set things right." I almost set my couch on fire in pure joy.Danny Steinman has few movies on his resume but between Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, a film I described as "the scummiest, vilest Friday of them all," as well as The Unseen and this film. And now I'm sad, because I wish he made a hundred movies, ninety-nine of them being sequels to Savage Streets. It also has uncredited direction from Tom DeSimone, who crossed over from porn to make movies like Chatterbox, Hell Night (also with Linda Blair!), Reform School Girls and Angel III: The Final Chapter.There's also a subplot that doesn't matter much at all, with Brenda facing off with cheerleader Cindy over her boyfriend Fadden. Also - Faden owes Jake tons of money for coke.I really need to let you know how great Robert Dryer is as Jake. He's pure menace, bringing an edge to this film that shocks you with its brutality.Also - the dialogue! From the principal yelling, "Go f an iceberg!" to Jake intoning " I am going to cut your heart out and eat it!" and nearly everything Brenda says, this movie is packed with quotable quotables.This is the kind of movie that feels so good before the sun comes up. Go Brenda! Shoot those Scars up! Use the beartrap!

callanvass Linda Blair was notorious for starring in some rather risqué and controversial roles after The Exorcist. This baby is one of them, and I can say unabashedly that I enjoyed the hell out of it. This represents everything that I loved about the 80's. Bad hairdo's, hilariously dated outfits, and the no holds barred approach. It does have some powerful moments. Brenda (Blair) has a deaf sister who gets raped in the girl's locker room. (Linnea Quigley in an early role) It certainly hit home, and wasn't pleasant to watch, but once Linda Blair goes on the warpath to revenge, it's all fun and games from there. How can you not resist Linda Blair cursing like a sailor at her caring teacher while she's dangling a cigarette from her mouth in a classroom? Or spouting Freddy Krueger like lines in a dark alley at a group of thugs that raped her deaf sister? Hell; a girl gets thrown over a bridge onto the road, and nobody bothers to stop or look around. That was my favorite. Brenda and the token cheerleader Cindy have some hilarious verbal jousting and even get into it in a shower! I won't reveal everything, but it really is vigilante brilliance. Linda Blair is miscast, but a lot of fun to watch nonetheless. She goes all hammy and bad-ass with it. Her cheesy one- liners are a hoot, and I give the girl credit for being completely committed to the role with bravado and guts. It's probably my favorite role of hers. (Yes. Even more so than Regan) Robert Drake is excellent as the leader of the Scars, and I had a blast with his sleazy portrayal of Jake. He is typical bully fodder, but he was still fun. Linnea Quigley is infamous for cheesy roles and this is one of her best. John Vernon shows up to collect a paycheck and has a bit of fun as the foul mouth principal. He steals scenes that he is in. Loved him!Final Thoughts: A guilty pleasure at it's finest. For anyone that trashes this film, calling it uncouth or similar things like that… Don't be such a stickler! There are a few unpleasant scenes, but it remains one of my favorite exploitation movies. If you manage to find it online, give it a whirl. I'd even go as far to say it's worth tracking down on DVD. 7/10

atinder I saw this movie on the Horror channel in UK.I was never real going to watch but when I was reading the plot, sound good and it really intrigued me. so I gave it go!A teenage vigilante seeks revenge on a group of violent thugs, who raped her handicapped sister and killed her best friend.I was really shocked, that I enjoyed this, it had some descent plot.With some cheesiness adding as well, which worked really well with the rest of the movie.As I really enjoy it , good cheesy movie.There was some shocking moments as well well.The dose feel a little out dated now, who knows there could a remake of this movie just around the comer .(Don't get any idea Hollywood :)).This was really well and never got boring, there still thing they could have done better.I going to give this 5 out of 10

lost-in-limbo A vibrant Linda Blair is always appealing, even when she's a pudgy, foul-mouthed, smoking bad-ass punk leader of a girl-gang known as the 'Satins'. This emotionally raw, but engagingly campy and tasteless low-budget exploitation fodder is your standard revenge story that cooks up ruthlessly calculated violence, trashy dialogues and gratuitous flesh. Although the video I hired out, just happened to be cut, so while I was entertained. Even though the attitude sticks, I never really felt the film's brutal punch, and at times was at a lost. These were around the supposedly notorious rape scene of Brenda's deaf-mute sister (glowingly played by Linnea Quigley) and the death of one of her friends. Danny Steinmann's well-served direction is competently gusty, and moves at a cracking pace. Even when it wasn't being punishing, the side-plots involving the daily school cycle (catfights in showers, sex jokes, and sticking it to the teachers) were moderately amusing, and the moving bond between Blair and Quigley's characters is well done. The melodramatic premise is slim and played straight, but more then ever it's quite hysterical when it approaches it that way in the second half of the film. This can be attributed to the silly and juvenile script, but still it's quite flavored. Blair does get some great one-liners. Humour is there, but simply lacks that deadly and biting touch. The cast are lively show-ins. Robert Dryer suitably snarls as the villainous leader of "Scars" gang. John Vernon's brief, but hardened no-bull turn was a nifty inclusion. What I thought to be holding the film together, and adding to the spirit was an upbeat, soaring rock n roll soundtrack that added to the care-free punk scene and the vigorous urban locations.