Andy Sidaris made cheerfully narrow action films, full of glamour models, gadgets and explosions. We can enjoy the foolishness, but the thin plots and gratuitous nudity make him a recommendation for particular tastes.
Fi1m perspective
Sidaris puts glamour models in tropical locations, gives them guns and supplies explosions. Remote-control vehicles and extravagant weapons provide further distractions, while frequent nudity makes the intended audience clear. These are light-hearted action films with simple plots, and we can see the appeal without making large claims for them. The gadgets promise more amusement than the stories do; patience with the undressing is a separate requirement.
His eye for attractive distractions was already at work in sports television. As the first director of Wide World of Sports (1961), Sidaris helped develop coverage using replay, slow motion and split-screen; his broadcasts also found time for close-ups of cheerleaders and women in the crowd. Scripted television included an episode of Kojak in 1975. We warmed to Telly Savalas's quiet charisma in Kojak (1973), because he makes its moral complications involving even when the police drama feels dated. That is a reason to recommend the series, though it would be a stretch to credit one contributing director with its appeal.
His later features are easier to recognise as his own. Malibu Express (1985) began the Bullets, Bombs and Babes series, with Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987) a representative entry and L.E.T.H.A.L. Ladies: Return to Savage Beach (1998) the last. Producer Arlene Sidaris worked with him across twelve films, while recurring lead Dona Speir and frequent cast member Rodrigo Obregón helped give the series a familiar set of faces. The repeated performers, tropical settings and gadgetry make it reasonably clear what an evening with Sidaris will involve. There is something useful about knowing that before sitting down.
The difficulty is that cheerful silliness only excuses so much. Simplistic plotting and continuity problems remain faults, and the gratuitous nudity can be tiresome. Sidaris's fondness for implausible hardware is more appealing: at least it gives the action something particular to do. Try Hard Ticket to Hawaii if the gadgets sound entertaining; do not expect the plot to compensate if they do not.
Biography
Andy Sidaris was an American television and film director, producer and screenwriter. He began his career in sports broadcasting, directing coverage of football and basketball games, Olympic events and the first broadcast of ABC's Wide World of Sports in 1961, a role he held for 25 years. He won multiple Emmy Awards, including one in 1969 for directing the Summer Olympics, and pioneered techniques such as the "honey shot" close-up of cheerleaders and female spectators.
In the 1970s Sidaris moved into scripted television, directing episodes of series including Kojak (1975), Gemini Man (1976) and The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977). From 1985 he wrote and directed a series of action B-movies known as the "Bullets, Bombs and Babes" or "L.E.T.H.A.L. Ladies" films, among them Malibu Express (1985), Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987), Picasso Trigger (1988), Savage Beach (1989) and Fit to Kill (1993). These featured rotating casts of Playboy Playmates and Penthouse Pets. He worked with his wife Arlene Sidaris as production partner on twelve films.
