Customer Reviews

Undercover [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This tape has a copious amount of nudity and several imaginative sexual encounters by probably the best looking actress in film today Athena Massey. Story is Athena Massey plays an undercover cop (hence the name) trying to solve a murder case. The undercover assignment is at a bordello, thankfully. Good lighting in this video make for clear sexy shots and impressive veiwing angles if you get my drift. Well worth the $10 price!

and i don't mean for crying. Brother I've seen my fair share of soft porn, and they usually turn out to be busts. but this here video is as good, if not better, than it's box cover.wall to wall sex scenes and a lead actress that is anything but a skank ho, lead to one highy enjoyable, if lonely, evening.

Obviously, most people are going to buy this so that they can see Athena Massey semi-naked - the very first shot, in fact, is of Massey putting on her bra. And why not? She has a perky chin and, although she can't act, she at least appears to realise that the film is schlock. Whilst most of the nudity is fairly dull, it's worth it for a sequence in which Massey dresses up as a dominatrix police office - if you've seen the film, you probably know what I mean. Shannon Tweed, stand aside.

As a motion picture, it's rubbish, however. Gregory Hippolyte has directed lots of films, but he still doesn't know the first thing about directing. None of the actors look remotely like the characters they are playing (the policemen all have ponytails, for a start), and most of the non-nude sequences consist of characters standing next to each other, talking endlessly. There's one particularly memorable sequence where Massey is conferring with her best friend, and they talk and talk and talk and then, for no real reason, they walk off the right of the frame... and enter a new location from the left, where they continue to talk and talk and talk.

That's what the fast-forward button is for, anyway. It's a shame this isn't out on DVD properly, though - the transfer that exists is an edited-for-television version, with all the nudity taken out, which makes the film rather pointless.

For your $10 you will not be let down if you are looking for a solid soft core effort with tons of nudity. Go grab this soon!

Forget Anna Nicole Smith, silicon crazed superstar of midnight fantasy. Athena Massey rules! I don't even remember the plot of this film very much. Something about a psycho john getting blackmailed in a bordello. Massey was strutting around in and out of her costume so much, I think it effected my short-term memory. Massey fans, flock to this one in droves!

Somewhere, there is a good movie waiting to be made about a policewoman who turns to prostitution. The concept suggests an intriguing character arc, as it questions this society's criminalization of irregular forms of sexuality. So, the concept is a good one. But sadly, "Undercover Heat" doesn't deliver on its promise.

This is largely because the film aims itself squarely at the soft-core porn market, which undoubtedly limited its budget. Some rough edges are laughable: the male lead (Anthony Guidera) looks more like a porn star than the cop that he's supposed to be, and a plot-pivoting car crash is kept eye-rollingly off screen. A bit more attention to character and budget would have been appreciated.

But perhaps the film's biggest drawback is that its policewoman protagonist, Cindy (Athena Massey), doesn't grow that much. When the audience first sees her, Cindy is getting dressed, and we watch her bare body gradually being covered by civilian clothes, a convention of sexploitation cinema. Imagine what a greater character arc might have been conveyed if Cindy started the film as a sexless uniformed officer with hair in a bun and, through her encounter with prostitution, came to liberate her more feminine side. Her entry into hooking would have felt more severe, and it could have built up audience expectation for the nudity. (If there had to be nudity in the first shot, the title sequence could have focused on a supporting character.) But since Cindy starts the film as a sensual/sexual being, there's not as much room for her character to change.

Not to give too much of the ending away, but Cindy finishes the final scene of "Undercover Heat" in a rather conventional situation. You wonder why she had to experience such a legally transgressive form of sexuality (prostitution) to end the film in such a non-transgressive position. Maybe "Undercover Heat" was catering to its audience's expectations. But the film's premise of a policewoman prostituting herself -- in other words, having an upholder of the law break the law -- raises very intriguing issues of legality, sexuality, and the positive aspects (such as they are) of prostitution. Cindy might have ended up quitting the force or adapting more of prostitution's unconventionality to her own sex life. "Undercover Heat" doesn't maximize its material's best potential. Pedro Almodóvar could have done wonders with the subject.

In the midst of all this disappointment, the film's copious nudity (in the unrated version) is the only redeeming feature. So is Meg Foster's performance, whose understated shrewishness as the bordello madame beats the other actors like a dominatrix flogging a masochist. It's like watching a professional actor slumming in a community theatre.

If all you want to see is Athena Massey naked, then you probably won't care about my opinions. And if all you want to see is Athena Massey naked, more power to you. But the film could have been much more than a cheap, by-the-numbers erotic thriller. As a film about a policewoman and prostitution, "Undercover Heat" is a bust.