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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: June 26th, 2018.
Director: Howard Ziehm
Cast: Nicole Black, Laurie Smith, Loni Sanders, Mike Ranger, Kevin James, Tantala Ray
Year: 1981
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The Movie:
Howard Ziehm's 1981 XXX comedy Naughty Network is an amusing enough entry in the director's substantial filmography. Essentially a series of hardcore parodies of what were at the time popular TV shows, it's eighty-minutes well spent if you're into wonky, comedic sex films.
The 'story' is set around TV station WHAC, popular in town for its sex-fueled content. Mr. Blackman (Harry Dreamz), the station's president, is concerned that other stations increasing their erotic content is going to lead to some unwelcome competition and cause their ratings to tank. Nobody wants that! So in order to combat this, he gets his team of top executives together to review all of the new shows that WHAC is set to bring to their audience in the coming season.
So what shows are in the pipeline? Genital Hospital, Wild & Crazy Kingdom, T*R*A*S*H*, As the World Burns and The Young and the Horny, of course! And as we see these parodies play out, we also get some TV commercials, the highlight being one for…. Stinky Beans (which involves a lot of fart lighting - this fart lighting is also featured on the menu screen of this DVD release, so there ya go).
There isn't much to the story here, but there's a decent cast assembled for the picture. Look for Mike Ranger and Nicole Noir going at as well as appearances from Loni Sanders, Delia Cosner (in a soft role, sadly!), Laurie Smith, Nicole Noir, and Kevin James among others. They all seem to be having a good time working together here, there's definitely a very playful vibe to all of the sex in the picture. Tina Jordan and Laura Hart spice things up considerably in their girl/girl scene that plays as part of the wild & Crazy Kingdom segment - it's spider themed and fairly predatory but definitely more creative than the other segments. Laurie Smith's segment with Kevin James in the T*R*A*S*H* bit also stands out.
This isn't exactly deep, or high art, but it's entertaining enough. Production values are okay. There are some fun costumes here and the sets work well in the context of the stories being told. Ziehm tends to keep things moving at a pretty nice pace and if the humor tends to be lowbrow, that doesn't make it any less amusing.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Naughty Network arrives on DVD in a 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer taken from a new 2k scan of the original 35mm negative. The film looks quite good, showing very little in the way of print damage but retaining a nice filmic look. Great colors, good depth and texture, strong black levels - no complaints really. The natural amount of film grain is handled well and there are no obvious compression artifacts or edge enhancement issues to note.
The film gets the Dolby Digital Mono treatment. Clarity is just fine and balance is good. There are no problems with any hiss or distortion. Dialogue is clean, crisp and clear. There are no alternate language options or subtitles provided.
Aside from menus and chapter selection, the disc includes the film's original theatrical trailer.
The Final Word:
The Naughty Network isn't a masterpiece of erotic cinema but it's an amusing and entertaining watch made with a decent cast that mixes laughs and sexy thrills in equal measure. Vinegar Syndrome's DVD is light on extras but it looks and sounds great. All in all, a fun release.
