Trading on the reputation of the Jonathan Demme 1974 cult classic, CAGED HEAT, this idiotic mess is just another entry in the sex-and-sadism subgenre that Demme's film sought to subvert.
CIA agent Amanda (Jewel Shepard) stages the apparent assassination of tin-pot despot King Lim (Ramon D'Salva) in order to get him out of the country before "the rebels" seize control. Unfortunately, they leave behind his daughter, Princess Marga (lovely but inert Chanel Akiko Hirai), so Amanda
has to return to the nameless Asian nation to rescue her. The princess has been imprisoned in Rock Island Penitentiary, a.k.a. "the Rock," which is ruled by slimy Warden Chen (Vic Diaz) with his pet inmate, Paula (Pam Grier wannabe Pamela D'Pella).
Amanda arranges to get herself caught smuggling drugs into the country, accidently implicating porn-peddling nymphet Lucy (Susan Harvey). They both arrive on the Rock just as Princess Marga gets there. The Rock turns out to be the kind of prison where all the inmates have expensively teased hair
and plenty of mascara. But then, this is the kind of Third World country where all the signs are written in English but everyone has some kind of accent--except the prisoners, of course, who all look and sound like Southern California beach bunnies.
With the aid of two "loyalist" guards, Amanda manages to escape with the princess, but they're caught and punished. Warden Chen rapes the princess and hangs Amanda by her hair. When Chen tries to arrange a menage a trois with Amanda and Paula, the latter senses a threat to her status--and
narcotics supply--and becomes belligerent, first attacking Amanda, then Chen himself. Using the old "Hey there, big boy--get a load of these" routine, Amanda and Lucy overpower a guard and initiate a mass prison break. The guards shoot wildly and with little success. Just as Chen has the women
cornered, CIA big-shot Carl (Ed Crick) comes to the rescue. To placate the rebel government, however, they must stage another killing--the execution of Princess Marga, who is in fact safely delivered to America.
Despite the addition of a few peculiar touches (e.g., the ludicrous hair-hanging scene) to the obligatory sequences of the genre (strip searches, shower rooms, mud wrestling, cat fights, a flogging), CAGED HEAT 2 is an uninspired exercise in misogyny. The performances are uniformly amateurish,
with only D'Pella showing any energy or presence. Shepard is particularly inept, portraying the super-agent Amanda with all the fierce intensity of a manicurist who can't find the cotton balls. Neither lurid enough to be of prurient interest, nor goofy enough to be enjoyed as campy trash, CAGED
HEAT 2 is disposable junk. (Violence, nudity, adult situations.) leave a comment
