Avis Metacritic

Erotic, surely, only for the very easily pleased, with Dereks J and B and Cannon Films converging to form a matrix of sustained, tawdry silliness.

Poor Bo no sooner has her initial introduction to amour than the new lover gets gored in a sensitive location, putting him out of commission.

A strong candidate for worst picture of the year.

John Derek, who wrote and directed and filmed Bolero, failed to make Bo look sexy; managed, in fact, to make her look dull and foolish. [01 Sep 1984, p.B5]

Bad as Bolero is, it is unfortunately not bad enough. Seekers of inadvertent high-camp hilarity will be as let down as those who are suckered in by the promise of Bo's golden flesh. [03 Sep 1984, p.D1]

The plot sounds like that of a straight porn film, which is what Bolero would have become with anyone other than John Derek directing. Mr. Derek, who also wrote the screenplay, shows off his wife in an oddly self-contradictory way. He's glad to flaunt her tanned torso and her radiant smile, which is fortunate, since these are the movie's only assets.

A dismal softcore romance, a sort of film version of a housewife paperback bonk-buster.

Let's face it. Nobody is going to Bolero for the plot anyway. They're going for the Good Parts.

Bolero must rank as one of the worst major movies ever made. Many awful movies are at least funny in a campy sort of way. Bo and John Derek, however, make films so sincerely bad that they offer nothing in the way of relief.