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Pretty Good

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Jenny "Silk" Sleighton (Verrell) is a tough, fearless cop on the Honolulu, Hawaii police force. She stops at nothing to get her man. Whether it's foiling drug deals, stopping smuggling operations or breaking up cockfights, baddies on every island from Niihau to Kaunakakai to Kahoolawe to the Alenuihaha channel are facing her wrath. When she's kidnapped by arch super-villain Austin (Shilton), she's going to need help from her compatriots...but who can she really trust? Find out today! Silk gets off to a very silly start, with cop movie/TV show clichés galore (someone really needs to invent a word that means "a cliché but with no negative connotation; in fact, you want and even need to see this cliché". No such word exists in English that we're aware of. If you have any ideas, please leave a comment today). Cec Verrell as Silk is amazing. She's a beautiful woman in that classically 80's style, with a smoky bedroom voice, and she always has her hair slicked back and is wearing designer clothes. But no one ever questions why one of the models from behind Robert Palmer in the "Addicted To Love" video is now a cop. (Not literally as far as we know, but it very well could be). The fact that this absurdity is never once brought up makes watching Silk a delight.The fact that Silk is a woman doesn't change all the myriad clichés one bit. But we're just happy this Cirio movie isn't yet another jungle slog. Plus it has all the Philippines-based B-actors we know and love at this point: Nick Nicholson plays another heavy, Mike Monty is on board again, as is Willie Williams, Jose Mari Avellana, Henry Strzalkowski, and naturally, Vic Diaz. The extras in the movie are great too, and the dubbing ties it all together. The guitar-based soundtrack by Willie Cruz keeps the energy up, and there is a truly excellent title song which sounds like if Pat Benatar joined Jem and the Holograms. In a true travesty, we do not know who performs this memorable tune. If anyone out there knows, do tell.Styles were so cool back then, even teddy bears had sunglasses and mustaches. But besides that, we're always on the lookout for when video stores pop up in movies, and in Silk, we see one in a mall. There's even a poster for Ark Of the Sun God (1984), the Margheriti movie, which can be clearly seen. In the end, Silk is an enjoyable (probably) one-time watch, because nothing in it really sticks to the ribs. We would like to see more Cec Verrell as Silk, but by the time of Silk 2 (1989) (yes, there's a Silk two), apparently she'd had enough and was replaced by Monique Gabrielle. She never came back to reprise the role like Sean Connery. But for video-store action with a strong and interesting female presence, it's certainly worth a view.

Going by "Silk", Cec Verrell is an underrated 1980s action actress who should have gotten a bigger break. Her dialogue delivery is a little stiff, but in this genre actions speak louder than words, and Verrell shows her credentials right from the opening sequence, doing some pretty daring stunts. She has physical presence; her body looks strong, and that adds authenticity to her part as a cop. And she's not a female Dirty Harry: she always gives her targets the chance to drop their weapons and surrender, before opening fire (of course, if they try to play rough, she can play rough too). Beyond her, there is little else in "Silk" worth recommending. The plot is neither coherent nor interesting, and the supporting cast is largely indistinguishable. Quite frankly, when Verrell isn't on the screen, the film quickly becomes boring. ** out of 4.

*SPOILER ALERT* *SPOILER ALERT*I bought this video for three bucks. It had one of those cheesy illustrated 80's covers on an over-sized video box. There was a picture of a woman stripped down to her bra holding a giant gun. She's Silk, the toughest, hottest cop in all of Honolulu. Naturally, I had to see this film. A woman wearing a bra while holding a gun was all I needed to know about "Silk".So Silk shoots a lot of bad guys while looking tough. There's a story about smugglers and hit men but it's all filmed so haphazardly it's hard to keep up with it all. Either that or I just didn't care. "Silk" is a pretty standard bad action flick. Silk shoots guys, they die and their cars explode. Standard. Of course, what's really disappointing is that Silk does not strip down to her underwear. There's no bra scene. There is a short sex scene but we don't get to see any nudity. That says it all about the quality of "Silk". This one can be avoided.

This is a low-budget effort about a maverick female cop who single-handedly fights crime and corruption, playing by her own rules (a la Dirty Harry). Set in Honolulu, the film opens with Silk thwarting a robbery with her trusty handgun, as she blasts numerous machine-gun toting bad guys.Everything about the film is poor, but its difficult to totally dislike a film which is so blatant about its limitations and lack of originality. Cec Verrell as Silk is a statuesque, macho looking female lead, always wearing low-cut vests, with a body to die for - similar to Brigette Nielsen in Rocky IV. Film plays like a sub-standard tacky mid-70's American cop TV series, but it is mildly entertaining for the masochistic viewer.Great video cover with Silk standing in full Rambo pose, with slicked back hair, denim jacket with turned up collar, firing a HUGE phallic machine gun.