The Italian Job: Papaya - Love Goddess of the Cannibals

Never has an exploitation film disappointed me more.  (Actually, now I come to think of it, Jesus Franco's Vampiros Lesbos was possibly more disappointing, but I gave up on that one before the end, tired of waiting for either the vampires or the lesbians to turn up).  I had such high hopes for this movie, which promised so much: cannibals, lesbianism, naked women, sex and exotic locales.  Whilst all of these elements are indeed present, under sexploitation veteran Joe D'Amato's pedestrian direction, they never gel into a satisfying whole.  We just get what seem like endless sequences of not very interesting voodoo ceremonies characterised by lots of naked dancing and drums, punctuated by even less interesting but lengthier dialogue scenes.  Characters wander around, get seduced by the titular character, sometimes get murdered but mostly they just talk.  The whole thing is flatly filmed, but does succeed in effectively contrasting the luxurious hotels and facilities enjoyed by wealthy tourists and visitors to the tropical island where the 'action' takes place, with the run-down shanty towns the natives are forced to live in.

The plot, such that it is, concerns the local population trying to stop the construction of a nuclear plant on their island.  The key to achieving this aim, it seems, is for Papaya to seduce the various geologists, surveyors and other scientists sent to lay the groundwork for the plant, before castrating and killing them.  This seems such a haphazard way of going about it  - nobody from the nuclear plant group seems to realise that they are being systematically targeted - that I was left wondering why she didn't just organise a petition or a few protests? But then, Papaya, Environmental Activist of the Cannibals wouldn't have been such a good title, although the action would have been no less tedious. And speaking of cannibalism, there actually isn't much on display in the film.  That said, there is a lot of flesh on display, mainly of the female kind.  Whilst Papaya, played by Melissa Chimenti, might be the title character, much of the running time is devoted to journalist Sara, played by sexploitation favourite Sirpa Lane.  Both characters spend a lot of the film's running time naked and, for no other reason than the box-office, get down to some full-on hot lesbian action at the movie's climax.  It all makes little sense and is far less exciting than even this brief review makes it sound.   Unless you are really desperate to see Sirpa Lane naked - and trust me, she's taken her clothes off in far more entertaining films than this - I'd give this one a miss!