Hot Chili

Ever since I saw a VHS tape cover of this very movie, I've long been curious to see this especially since it never played in theatres in Baton Rouge, LA, where I lived as a teen then and I still do now. It's from Cannon Films as represented by producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, the same people who remade their Israeli-made Lemon Popsicle into The Last American Virgin. Two players from that last one-Joseph Rubbo and Louisa Moritz-also appear here. Rubbo is one of four teens taking a job at a Mexican resort where they encounter many willing women. I'll stop there and just say the whole thing was silly and ridiculous to the extreme with plenty of predictable stereotyped-characters and occasionally sentimental moments that would either go down easily or just make one wish it was over very soon! I myself felt both emotions several times while looking at the timer on YouTube. I'm guessing this didn't do particularly well as no one in this film seem to have gone on to anything better...

Definatly one of those hit the bong, shrooms, alcohol and go back in time for 80's cinephiles of teenspolitation. 3 teens work as bellboys in a Mexican Hacienda resort over the summer and get into typical adventures on a quest to serve odd guests and their hedonistic sexual needs while trying to stay out of trouble and keep their jobs.

This film begins with four teenagers by the names of "Ricky" (Charles Schillaci), "Jason" (Allan Kayser), "Arnie" (Joe Rubbo) and "Stanley" (Chuck Hemmingway) driving down to Mexico to work at a Mexican resort for the summer. Naturally, being red-blooded American teenagers they are preoccupied with sex but once they get there are told that they cannot fraternize with the hotel guests. As it turns out, however, it's the guests who have a different set of rules with some of them quite anxious to bend the rules. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this could have been a fun, teenage sex comedy but it lacked the necessary humor and direction required for a movie of this sort. Quite frankly, other than the presence of Victoria Barrett (as "Victoria"), Bea Fiedler (as the "Music Teacher") and Katherine Kriss ("Allison Baxter") to enhance the scenery, I couldn't find anything remarkable or worthwhile about this film and I have rated accordingly.

When a quartet of high school graduates take on jobs at a Mexican resort, in lieu of the traditional summer vacation, they hope to take advantage of some residual fringe benefits as the assortment of oddball guests pile in for the season. What follows is a fun, brainless romp of sex and adultery, typical of the soft-porn comedies that were a fad of the eighties.

Think "Porky's", "Meatballs", "Private Lessons" or "Joysticks", multiply the debauchery tenfold, and you'll come close to "Hot Chili". The guests are diverse, and their characterisations honed for maximum ham value, incorporating some cracker dialogue that won't soon be forgotten. There's Herr Fritz (Bromilow), the Ruger-clutching Bavarian chasing fat boy Arney (Rubbo) around the resort screaming "where are you salami boy?" after he catches him with his nymphomaniac Frau Brigitte, herself incessantly moaning "I am bekomming!" as she climaxes at every given opportunity.

But if that's not austere enough for your moral compass, you might prefer the nudist music instructor (Fiedler) always willing to give intimate cello lessons to visitors, or, the sleazy hotel manager (Lazarus) who's too busy chasing tail to notice his establishment has become a brothel in which the randy guests are knocking each other off like guinea pigs on heat. Unbeknownst to them all, their sordid escapades are being covertly taped, and a litany of affairs is exposed in an hilarious highlight reel at the film's conclusion.

Louisa Moritz might be the cast's biggest name (Ferdy Mayne's role is very brief), which gives you an idea of the scale, although Federico Gonzales is particularly amusing as the sleepy taco, with little interest in the promiscuous activity of the guests.

Obviously if you're not accustomed to the teen sex comedy styling of the eighties, you might be offended by the content, although it's pretty tame by today's standards. William Sachs ("The Incredible Melting Man" being his piece de resistance) directs this tongue-in-cheek tale with little attention to narrative, poring maximum emphasis on T&A for the adolescent male audience to enjoy. If you were going to sample this genre from the 80's halcyon era, "Hot Chili" must certainly be mandatory viewing.

This was a pleasant blast from the past. The Golan-Golbus Israeli sex comedies have always been a more distinctive lot than the American, French or British ones. These films are the ones where you turn your brain off and just watch the zany situations offered up.

Yes, it's another 1980's retread of Porky's but the GG Touch is evident here to make it all seem fresher. Where else but in a GG-produced film can you see the lovely Louisa Moritz, the forgotten sex kitten from Cuba? Where else can you see crazy characters like the dominatrix couple from Germany, the nude musician and the stereotypical Jewish family from New York all in one hotel? The acting is pretty bad but it's done in a very watchable manner. Nobody comes off as annoying or anything like that. There's plenty of nice T&A here as well but is considered tame for 2006; especially for Canadian T.V.

The real star of the movie is the hotel. The Hacienda Tropicana Cabana is the coolest fictional resort I've ever seen in a movie. It has swimming pools galore, exquisite suites, a fancy restaurant, a piano bar with live Mexican entertainment, plenty of hotties, a chapel and live bullfighting. The cool addition of a bullring made me feel that all the HTC needed is a casino and they could have a winner on their hands in Las Vegas.