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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: April 25th, 2017.
Director: Leonard Kirtman
Cast: Nicole Blanc, Karen Summer, Dorothy Onan, China Lee, Lisa Lake, Don Fernando
Year: 1984
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The Movie:
If plotless nonsense, groan inducingly bad comedy and a wonky cast bumping uglies sounds like your bag, step right up - Leonard Kirtman (directing as Leon Gucci) will scratch that itch for you with his 1984 picture, Hot Flashes!
The plot (ha!) revolves around three ladies - Rebecca Wallflower (Nicole Blanc), Rosie Raindrop (Dorothy Onan) and Justine Juicyfruit (Karen Summer) - who work as television anchors for WSEX TV, channel 69. Each night, they host a new program while, presumably, all sorts of people watch. At the very least, one couple (Lisa Lake and Don Fernando) is watching, presumably as some sort of way to spice up their sex life.
The first installment finds Rosie doing a man-on-the-street style interview to gather up the public's opinion on oral sex. Most of the people she tries to talk to just walk by, but one guy with a beard does a Stallone impersonation for some reason. Eventually some guy with a moustache and amazing hair stops long enough for her to get his pants down and go to town on him. This more or less sets the tone for the nonsense to come - Rosie has a threesome with two blonde guys, one of whom is a French painter or something, to find out that European men prefer American woman. The math here isn't so sound but whatever. Later the three hostesses test drive some vibrators and then the sound cuts out when Justine is caught going down on a sound tech off camera. At least she looks like she's having fun. From there we see her play around with a couple in some sort of investigative reporting gig.
Before it's all over a guy named Jock Strap (Nick Niter) does Rebecca piledriver style and some sort of fertility drug commercial gets that couple worked into a frenzy.
This is not a good movie. It doesn't make any sense and top make things even harder to wrap your head around, sometimes cast members play multiple parts - but whereas that might work had they attempted to bring different personas to life on screen, they don't do that here, they just pop up again under a different character name. Some of the gags are so corny and so stupid that you can't help but laugh at them - which was probably the point, clearly no one involved in this one was taking anything even remotely seriously - but anyone looking for anything even remotely close to substance should run fast and far away from Hot Flashes as quickly as humanely possible.
As to the on screen copulation? Meh. There's some moderately good groping here but nothing that really stands out as 'must see dirty movie action' in this writer's book, at least. Kristara Barrington shows up for a bit here, that's always a good thing, and hey, is that Zebedy Colt in one scene? Looks like it. That counts for something I guess.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Hot Flashes arrives on DVD from Vinegar Syndrome in a new 2k scan from the original 35mm negative framed at 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors look excellent here, they pop the way bad eighties fashions tend to pop, and detail is quite strong. Skin tones look nice and lifelike and black levels are strong. The image is typically quite clean, there are only a few minor specks throughout and a couple of scratches evident in the first few minutes. Overall the movie looks great, fans should be quite pleased.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono sound mix, the only one available on the disc, sounds fine. You might notice the occasional pop in the mix if you're listening for it but aside from that the levels are properly balanced, dialogue is easy to understand and the score and sound effects are mixed in effectively enough. Some mild distortion can be heard in a few spots. There are no subtitles provided on this DVD.
There are no extras, just a static menu offering chapter selection.
The Final Word:
This one is pretty goofy stuff. There is some mildly effective comedy here and there but most of the time this one is just bad. Eighties smut film completists or fans of the various performers that pop up in the picture might get a kick out of it, but it's a bit of an endurance test. Still, Vinegar Syndrome are to be commended for making this one looks as good as it does on DVD.
