Hot Moves

Forged within the sea of endless '80s teen sex comedies, Hot Moves somehow manages to be much greater than the sum of it parts.

This movie saw almost no time in the theaters, showing up only in a few New York locations in December '85, hoping to lure in cold easterners yearning to do some California dreaming.

Hot Moves certainly has its share of faults. The acting ranges from mediocre to horrible, a lot of the dialog is poorly written, and the movie is peppered with long, "second-unit" scenes on Venice Beach which don't feature any of the cast, and have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie. These parts were obviously "filler", as the running time for the entire movie is 85 minutes. Without these boring sequences, the movie would be well under 80, which wouldn't qualify it as "feature length".

However, despite its aforementioned problems. "Hot Moves" manages to be charming, entertaining, and at times, very funny. Despite the movie's obvious low budget, it still features a completely original 12-song-deep soundtrack, and a lot of the music also has its own campy charm.

Hot Moves is perhaps best known for its "nude beach" scene, where the viewer is treated to the full frontal nudity of dozens of beautiful women, inexplicably running across the sand. Such a display would surely earn an NC-17 rating nowadays, but somehow this movie kept its "R" rating back in 1985.

While I can't complain about the nude women, "Hot Moves" actually stands out in my mind for its frivolous fun and surprisingly creative plot. I have a strong feeling that the writers of "American Pie" must have seen Hot Moves, since the plots are incredibly similar. While American Pie was more "advanced" than Hot Moves, it could be argued that the raw material for Hot Moves was actually better. Oddly enough, when the E! channel toured Seann "Stifler" William Scott's house, he proudly displayed Hot Moves as one of his favorite movie of all times.

Look for Virgil Frye (Soleil Moon Frye's dad) playing a sex shop owner, in an odd cameo.

Rent Hot Moves. It's 85 minutes of fun.

'Hot Moves' is one of the *many* "teen sex comedies" from the 80s. A few you may remember--'Porky's', 'Spring Break'--a couple you might know if you had Cinemax growing up. Most are on the level of 'Hot Moves'. This was a thrift store, VHS(!), find. I love this genre, and had never seen or heard of it before, so I faced the accusing glare of the cashier and gladly plunked down my .99 for what appeared to be an original video store rental copy.

It gets off to a bit of a clunky start, but once it gets rolling it's pretty fun. The plot is actually very similar to 'American Pie', and the four leads--who all look like actual high schoolers instead of the customary 80s teen who is played by a 35 year old--are all pretty charming and have good chemistry together. Save for the copious nudity, and there's a bunch (at one point there's a scene on a nude beach where a large group of women recreate the iconic scene from 'Chariots of Fire') it's all harmless fun. Not a movie for a Women's Studies major or anyone with an allergy to the 80s, but a decent time if you like the genre.

The move was obviously made with the Porky's genre in mind. Unfortunately it was retardedly funny, and the naked women every 15 minutes sucked you in. Total guilty pleasure. I would not rent it, but if it was real late night pay-cable (on a commercial channel this movie would be horrendous), I might watch it again - as long as no one else knew.

A feel-good 1980s teen lust comedy, with the right music, cute girls and the usual gang of idiots trying to get laid. It is very tasteless but enjoyable; I can't understand why they don't make these anymore. I've watched it a dozen times, yet it still gives me the same feeling of innocent fun. For friends of politically incorrect sex comedies, Hot Moves is highly recommended.

"Hot Moves" wasn't exactly a big grosser when it was released to theaters, a big reason probably being that the teenage sex comedy genre was all but dead at that time. But I think a bigger reason why the movie never took off was because it's an AWFUL movie. For starters, there's no real plot on display here - it's pretty much just a collection of vignettes with the loosest of threads holding them together. And while the movie attempts to be comic with just about every vignette, the results are absolutely without any laughs. When it comes to sex and nudity, there is less of that here than you might think - I think there are only three scenes where nudity is on display (though the second scene is jam-packed with naked women.) The cast shows some talent, but the way they are directed makes them come across as alike, without any individualism. There's nothing in this movie that may make it worth a rental to anyone.