4/10
Boring and stupid
13 February 2016
The snow always seemed an odd choice as a setting for a sex comedy. There's only one reason people watch movies like these, and that's to see nudity. It makes sense to set these at the beach, because at least there one expects to see more skin than they would in the suburbs or the city. But on the ski slopes? Why would one disrobe there?

There could only be one reason why the producers decided to set "Hot Dog: The Movie" in a place so cold you need more clothes, not less: they needed something basic and arbitrary to separate their movie from the glut of other similar films flooding the market in the '80s.

I guess they were also trying to cash in on the skiing fad, if that's what it was.

The fact is, there is not enough nudity in this movie - despite the presence of softcore queen Shannon Tweed - to make it worth watching for anyone other than hardcore skiing aficionados. Even they might be annoyed at the idiocy of moments such as when one of the bad guys pushes a button on his belt and his helmet starts pumping out exhaust, making the guys behind him cough and gag. Or when the skiers all apparently become indestructible and start crashing through tables and glass. Try not to think of Sonny Bono during most of the movie, or cringe when one guy hits a tree.

This all happens during the big race at the movie's finish. Getting there takes some effort. The movie is tedious and stupid. Consider the good guys, who have a collection of character traits that make them more pitiful than sympathetic. One is obviously an alcoholic, with little bottles of booze in every pocket of his ski vest. Is this supposed to be funny? Another is constantly plastering his face with zinc cream and propositioning women so that they can throw their drinks in his patchy white face. At one point he climbs into a gondola alone, while his friends have already taken to the sky, and they watch him get it on with some random girl who has no reason to be doing that. But never mind - his friends cheer him on although they have no way of knowing what he's doing. Their POV shots reveal nothing but the back of their friend's head.

There is also a cardboard cut out bad guy, an Austrian with a great head of hair who acts like a huge jerk from his first appearance, because if someone cut you out of cardboard, you better do everything to make sure you fit the shape they made. Of course it ends up being the hero versus the bad guy, but the thing is, these two aren't the only ones in the competition, all the way up 'til the end. When the other good guys root for the hero, they seem to forget to, you know, root for themselves as well? Or do they know they're in a movie where they've been relegated to buddy status?

There is very little nudity and a lot of skiing, which looks like someone lurching from side to side monotonously toward the camera. There is also a "freestyle skiing" round, where the skiers spin around like there's a rat in their pants they're trying to get rid of.

It's a boring and stupid movie, and it's hard to imagine anyone enjoying it.
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