Deliverance in the Everglades, With Cami Tops

Blackwater, the paramilitary corporation, has been in the news lately, since its mercenaries recently shot up that Baghdad street. By chance, a film of the same name shows Monday at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, and it too involves deranged white males terrorizing innocents.

Blackwater, by directors R. Douglas Zipperer and Bill Schreiber, follows four city girls on a sojourn to the Everglades. The group heads into the swamp for some back-to-nature fun, but soon they’re up against the worst of the human race: territorial hillbillies. These campy hicks live up to stereotypes: muddy, bearded, flannel-wearers, and perpetual cacklers. They don’t take well to adventure-tourists, especially not these girls, who (surprise!) look like Playboy Bunnies. The women are ambushed, bound up, and chased through the thick mire in wet shirts. They fight back with guns and cut-off shorts, but don’t know the terrain like the hillbillies -- besides, it’s hard to escape when you’re constantly stumbling over trails of scattered clichés.

Part Deliverance, part guilty pleasure, Blackwater does promise one thing: 88 minutes of your life where you won’t be thinking about mercenaries in Baghdad. Arrive at Cinema Paradiso (503 SE Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale) at 8:00 p.m. Tickets cost $5 to $8. Visit www.fliff.com, or call 954-525-3456.
Mon., Oct. 22, 8 p.m., 2007