User Reviews

Virginal, god-fearing beauty Debby (Lisa Baker) returns home after a date with her fiancé to discover her mother engaged in a three way. Understandably shocked, Lisa flees into the night, only to be kidnapped by a gang of black militants who make her their sex slave.

"Summer In The City" (The Lovin' Spoonful), "Light My Fire" (The Doors), The "Good Vibrations" (Beach Boys), "Everlasting Love" (Carl Carlton), "I Can't Help Myself" (The Four Tops)—just a few of the classic pop/rock hits that appear without the artists' or record labels' permission on the soundtrack for Hot Summer In The City, the 'roughie' that Quentin Tarantino once called "The Greatest Porno Ever".

With its retro soundtrack, impressive 70s poster art, cool blaxploitation trappings, stunning female lead, gritty audio and grainy video, and explosive violence—and especially considering its overall obscurity—its not difficult to understand how QT would go gaga for Hot Summer In The City, but to be honest, the film really isn't deserving of such high praise: the envelope isn't pushed far enough to satisfy roughie addicts, and I imagine that most exploitation fans will soon get bored by the endless nookie and lack of retribution (I was hoping and praying that Debby would eventually get all 'One-Eye' on her captors; instead, she happily accepts her role as honky ho).

It must've been a film like this that director Gail Palmer thought of when she recently gave her husband credit for directing all of her films in a recent interview. Interacial sex among mature consenting adults has always made good porno, but this is not anything near that class of film. So kidnapping, subjugation, and rape are bad enough to completely stereotype the black characters, it's even worst that the victim as played by Lisa Baker seems completely devoid of any emotional expression throughout it all other than pain or fear. There's a bit of romantic undertones from the gang leader but his sex scenes are too quiet. The editing is shoddy, the film scratchy and the violence and sex is fake looking with closeups that appear to be edited in from double stand-ins. Rent this or buy used and unlabeled if you must endure it out of curiosity. This could have been something better without one-dimensional characters and plotting.

I understand that Tarantino has been said to have claimed that this is the best XXX ever made. Well, I cannot believe it because for one, it is so badly made. I guess I could see why some might like the notion of a bunch of black dudes picking up some little white girl while they are planning some City disturbance, with much chat about Black Power and Civil Rights, but really! What I most liked here and maybe, just maybe, Tarantino also liked was the soundtrack! I don't think it is a purpose designed soundtrack, more simply bits of a radio show but we do get bits of classic mid 70s classics, including of course the Lovin' Spoonful and for certain nobody cleared the rights for this grubby little movie. Nasty but not truly as rough as some 'roughies', its just the black/white interaction that is unusual but the dialogue is so bad and in the main delivered so unconvincingly. Worst thing of all though, the sex is not well thought out and very badly photographed. I actually quite liked the same director's Candy Goes To Hollywood but that one only really for the great finale.