And I do believe that this 1998 movie "Return to Savage Beach" (aka "L. E. T. H. A. L. Ladies: Return to Savage Beach") do round up my venture into the Sidaris movies. Most of which movies I have only seen for the first time here in 2022, believe it or not.

The 1998 action movie "Return to Savage Beach" has writer and director Andy Sidaris at the wheel, which is fortunate for the movie and the franchise at large, since his son Christian Drew Sidaris just didn't have the required skills to make movies worthy of his father's legacy. Sure, a movie like "Return to Savage Beach" is hardly a cinematic gem, but it does make for some cheesy watchable action.

If you have seen any of the numerous L. E. T. H. A. L. movies, then you know what you are in for with the 1998 movie "Return to Savage Beach" as well. Yeah, why fix or tinker with a formula that apparently worked out well enough? For better or worse, then "Return to Savage Beach" delivers what you would expect.

Sure, it is nice to see returning cast members such as Julie Strain, Rodrigo Obregó and Gerald Okamura.

Watchable for what it is, "Return to Savage Beach" is sure to please fans of the L. E. T. H. A. L. franchise.

My rating of "Return to Savage Beach" lands on a five out of ten stars.

With the tagline „The big guns are back", director Andy Sidaris returned to Savage Beach, almost a decade after the original „Savage Beach" movie. The title song is played while we watch the ladies swimming - pretty well aiming at the style of a Bond title sequence. Shae Marks looks like Lara Croft in her early (oversized) days when she enters Savage Beach in a tank top. Such elements of pop culture are nicely used again for an action flick that seems a bit confused in its first half, and sometimes uses annoying flashbacks, but later the loose ends are tied successfully, while another song named „Which ending does this story have?" ironically explains that confusing the audience needs to be a part of the show. Marcus Bagwell, the Warrior from „Day of the Warrior", helps the good guys this time, and Julie K. Smith gets the funniest scene when she can demonstrate her idea of punishing „bad boys". This is the last one out of 12 Andy Sidaris movies I reviewed, certainly not the best among them because it's a bit of a patchwork and lacks new ideas (well, there was a submarine at least), but I have to congratulate the ensemble since they never put out a real bore in all these years - and that, by the way, was the strong point: ensemble. With the exception of "Malibu Express", there was never only one star, it's always about team-play.

For his final ever film, director Andy Sidaris sees just how far he can go in terms of sheer audacity, preposterous plot developments this time around including the previously extremely evil megalomaniac The Warrior (Marcus Bagwell) changing his ways to become a government agent (and sex partner for Julie Strain's Willow Black), Filipino villain Rodrigo Martinez (Rodrigo Obregón) returning from the dead sporting a cheap Phantom of the Opera-style mask, and a very silly finalé that sees the bad guy being unmasked ala a classic episode of Scooby Doo. There are also numerous flashbacks, loads of convoluted double-crosses and deceit, and lots of dreary exposition courtesy of Obregón.

Of course, we also get the regular ingredients from Sidaris—Playboy models with massive mammaries and the fashion sense of a Hollywood hooker, hunks who leave their shirts undone to show off their abs, lots of poorly choreographed action, exploding remote controlled vehicles, a pointless fantasy sequence—but this time around it seems as if everyone is simply going through the motions, as though all involved knew that the series was at an end and just wanted to get it over and done with as quickly as possible and with the least fuss and bother.