I've poked around enough message boards in my day to know that there are many people who aren't very big fans of Joe Bob Briggs. I, however, am not one of them (and I know I'm not alone in this, so fess up!). To me, Joe Bob seems to be a pretty funny guy who also happens to be amazingly knowledgeable about the subject of trash cinema, too. I fondly remember many Saturday nights frittered away watching TNT's MonsterVision with my host Joe Bob. The fact that I enjoyed the wrap-around segments as much or more than the movies themselves speaks volumes about the man's entertainment capabilities. With the hope of recapturing the essence of these Saturday nights of fun, I plunged into Elite Entertainments 'Joe Bob Briggs Presents: The Double-D Avenger' and returned thoroughly gratified.

The film itself is cute, but certainly no masterpiece. What we are given is the story of Chastity Knott (Kitten Natividad), the busty owner of a successful English pub (the bustiness necessitates the successfulness) who finds out from her physician, Dr. de la Croix (Raven de la Croix), that she has a terminal case of breast cancer (a strangely morbid turn of events for a supposedly comic film). Hoping to find a cure, she heads to South America (played by a So. Cal. backyard and stock footage inserts) and is guided by a local named Renaldo and by Orbs, the leader of the Amazonian Tata tribe, to the mysterious Crockazilla fruit. By licking and sucking on this banana-shaped plant she cures her affliction and inadvertently gains super powers in the process (sadly, she does not gain super acting ability, for she was over-emoting even before fellating the fruit).

Meanwhile, across town, Al Purplewood, the owner of a local strip joint, is quite distressed by the fact that Chastity's English pub is drawing business away from his club. Deciding to do something about this problem, he sends his strippers, Hydra Heffer (Haji), Pirate Juggs (Mimma Mariucci), and Ooga Boobies (Sheri Dawn Thomas, making the best of a throwaway character), to kill Chastity. With water guns of death in hand, the three surprise Chastity and attack; however, things go awry, and Chastity's boyfriend Bubba ends up the dead one. Distraught over the loss of her lover and the fact that the police are stymied as to who perpetrated the crime, Chastity decides to take the law into her own hands. Pulling on a cheap superhero costume and red mask, she transforms herself into the Double-D Avenger and sets out to seek retribution.

Now, Iâve seen this movie bashed in other reviews and to an extent I can understand why; the film is a bit of a mess. Pacing is terrible, with the Double-D Avenger not even showing up until more than halfway through the film. Similarly, a good deal of the movie's scant 74 minute runtime is composed of almost endless dialogue and exposition, even going so far as to include scenes where characters discuss information that is already known. Acting ranges from passable to unpleasant, with a particular offender being Al Purplewood and his deliveries of his spit-spraying, vein-popping monologues (though I suppose this is probably intended to be campy).

Double-D is also padded to the max, with no fewer than four minutes of opening credits and several montages that take up a great deal of time. Speaking of time-wasting, toward the end of the film, in a staggeringly bizarre 'I can't believe it's not Ed Wood moment,' a German stripper named Adolphina Hitbrakes (strange to throw Hitler references into a light comedy...) appears an hour into the film, does an unattractive chicken-themed striptease, and then disappears. I'm still a little stymied as to why exactly a character is introduced an hour into the film when she has no purpose whatsoever in relation to the story. While the bit was kind of funny, it grinds everything to a complete halt for almost five minutes (which is the amount of time it will take afterward for you to pick your slack-with-confusion jaw up off the floor.)

Still, even with all this strangeness considered, there's plenty of good to be found in Double-D as well. First, technically at least, the film is a fairly professional-quality production with good camera work; a clear, crisp DV image; and a polished soundtrack. The film also manages to play itself for camp fairly well, throwing in some delightfully tacky music (particularly the theme song), occasionally amusingly self-aware dialogue, and plenty of knowing nods to its three Russ Meyer skin-queen stars (for instance, during a catfight, Purplewood cries to Haji, "Faster, pussycat! Kill! Kill!"). Finally, if all that isn't enough for you, there's a pretty cute cameo by Forrest J. Ackerman as a befuddled museum curator and the film's infamous "dildo duel" sequence to top it all off.

Despite its many shortcomings, Double-D Avenger ultimately saves itself with its playfulness. Sure it contains less-than-perfect acting, pitiful special effects, tacky jokes and is a little too heavy on the story's mechanics, but in the end the movie is all in good fun and we know that. I, for one, was willing to forgive it, and, while it's doubtful that I'll be playing it again anytime soon, it's a harmless time-waster that will fill a boring evening or lazy weekend afternoon.

Despite the 'just okay' nature of the film, Elite Entertainment has given it a respectable presentation. The digitally shot film has a clean and very watch-able transfer with no image problems to speak of. As mentioned, the audio is similarly clear and clean, with the cheesy music and cheesier dialogue coming through in all its stereo glory. The disc's menus, too, are worth mentioning, as they are spiced up with amusing Joe Bob audio clips that play after an option is selected ("I've got your audio options right here" is by far my favorite...).

As for extras we receive both the film's trailer (called a 'theatrical trailer,' though I for some reason doubt that this played theaters...) and a 30-second TV add that you may have caught on late-night cable TV. Along with this is a brief still gallery of publicity shots and behind-the-scenes photos. Along with this we receive a making-of documentary that, at 78 minutes, is longer than the film itself (!). Talk about overkill... Still, it's more interesting than it could have been or perhaps even should have been, and it's worth a look for anyone who is interested in the independent filmmaking process.

Finally, wrapping things up is Joe Bob Briggsâ delightful audio commentary. Displaying a shocking amount of knowledge about such an obscure title, Joe Bob rattles off a jaw-dropping amount of useless facts about this film and even quotes from several of the actressesâ websites when talking about them. (Apparently, alien abduction is a theme with these women). Of course, all of this imparting of knowledge is spiced up with some deliciously acerbic jabs of the film. For fans of any of the three Russ Meyer starlets, it would probably be advisable to stay far, far away from this track, as Joe Bob often takes director Winckler to task for casting the three aging beauties instead of a trio of buxom, 20-year-old bimbos (he even goes so far as to suggest the movie be re-titled 'Attack of the Slutty Grandmas'). Still, if you're not too emotionally invested in the proceedings or actresses, the Joe Bob rant is a hell of a lot of fun and just as good (in my opinion at least) as anything MST3K has ever served up. In addition to coming up with more euphemisms for the mammary than the film itself has tit jokes (this is quite a feat, trust me), Joe Bob pokes fun at all of the above-mentioned failings while growing increasingly disgruntled about the fact that the film contains no nudity (yes, you read right). By the end he's wildly taking potshots at everyone and everything, and I for one was in stitches. To say more would be to ruin the joy (indeed, I'm worried I've said too much already); just rest assured that this commentary is definitely priceless.

While The Double-D Avenger itself is nothing more than an amusing little time-filler, Elite Entertainment's presentation of this film under its Joe Bob Briggs Presents label is simply remarkable. Joe Bob's delightfully acerbic commentary is a real treat, and definitely has the greatest amount of replay value of any commentary I've ever seen (and that's including Asia Argento's wonderfully bitter narration over Scarlet Diva). For anyone mourning the loss of Joe Bob or of MST3K on TV, this will prove a fantastic evening's entertainment, and with Media Blasters hopping onto the Joe Bob bandwagon as well, this truly is a wonderful time to be alive. Can't wait until you grace my TV screen again, Joe Bob! It's been too long...