Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989)

July 17, 2022 10:23 AM

The U.S. government, eager to protect the nation's avocado supplies, recruits feminist professor Margo Hunt to make contact with the Piranha Women, an all-female tribe who believe men are only good as a source of food.

Starring Shannon Tweed, Adrienne Barbeau, and Bill Maher.

Currently streaming on Tubi, YouTube, Pluto TV, and Arrow.

posted by miss-lapin (7 comments total)

I think that I've circled around this movie a few times (in the sense of seeing it at a video rental store--remember those?--and maybe on a streaming service), but never dived in. Is it any good?
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:23 PM on July 17, 2022

I mean, it certainly sounds prescient. “Good” is another question, though.
posted by Mr. Excellent at 2:29 PM on July 17, 2022

It was popular on USA Up All Nite so for me its a nostalgia hit. It embraces being completely silly, but it's not at the level of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
posted by miss-lapin at 2:57 PM on July 17, 2022

I remember finding this very funny (and titillating, to be honest) as a tween in the 80's -- I think I saw it via Joe Bob Briggs' late-night cable soft porn offerings rather than via USA Channel. The only funny bit I remember was in Adrienne Barbeau's villain monologue to Margo about what drove her to abandon her career in academia to go all 'Heart of Darkness' and become leader of the Cannibal Women tribe, that her 'the horror, the horror' line was in reference to having to try to promote her book on feminist critical theory on Letterman.
posted by oh yeah! at 4:23 PM on July 17, 2022 [2 favorites]

Yeah that was a great moment. It's fun to see how some of the jokes still land (like that one) and some of them don't (the subservient male tribe known as "the Donahues").
posted by miss-lapin at 6:57 PM on July 17, 2022

The writing in this is much better than it needs to be.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:12 AM on July 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

And Bill Maher's acting is just as bad as you'd expect it to be.
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:37 PM on July 19, 2022 [1 favorite]