Search - Hot Dog...The Movie on DVD

Sunny Side Up

Gene Siskel's Ghost | Salt Lake City, UT, USA | 04/17/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Does Hot Dog: The Movie have stellar acting, fascinating characters, and brilliant writing? No. If you want an oscar worthy film that makes you think or makes you cry, don't even bother reading the rest of my review.But if you want silly, politically incorrect, 80's fun, this is a terrific flick. A real classic from my generation. Aspen Extreme may be a much smarter film, but who really wants that in a ski film? Hot Dog set the 80's standard for a good ski film: good ski action, plenty of beer drinking, some attractive buxom women, and some silly humor. Hot Dog is still the best in this regard: Ski School has more breasts but is so terribly NOT funny, despite stealing the Hot Dog storyline almost to the letter, and Ski Patrol goes one step further by being terribly NOT funny and having NO breasts whatsoever! (Dear God, why?).The synopsis, like most 80's comedies, seems to follow the Animal House blueprint. The fun, loveable, party guys are being put down by the ...sexually repressed jerks with perfect hair, and they must fight for their right to party. In this case, our heroes are a group of mostly american skiiers known as "The Rat Pack", led by Dan, played by David Naughton of "American Werewolf In London" and "Midnight Madness" notoriety (remember that flick?). The Rat Pack also includes all american boy Harkin Banks, goofy sidekick Squirrel and Okendo ... Yamamoto. Our uptight villians are led by Austrian skiier Rudy "Stay out of ze middle" Garmischt (an uptight Austrian? Surely you jest!). Good looking, all american boy, and rookie skiing sensation, Harkin Banks seems to be outskiing everybody, including Rudy Kazooti, but the judges, probably influenced by big dollars from European sponsers and TV stations, seem to be overlooking this. So our heroes challenge the Austrians to a no holds barred, no rules, Chinese downhill, with the first one to the bottom taking home the trophy.Some good, funny characters in this film, with Squirrel and Okendo taking home the prize, and a few buxom beauties showing us their assets, such as Sunny (Tracy N. Smith, who had a small part in "Bachelor Party"), and Sylvia, played by Playboy Playmate, eventual softcore B-movie queen, and longtime girlfriend of Gene Simmons, Shannon Tweed. Skiing, breasts, beer, and some good humor win the day is this typical 80's comedy. Being a skiier from Salt Lake City, I've gone through a few copies of this movie over the years. It gets played about ten times every winter!"

Classic

TM | CT, USA | 03/08/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a classic for any hardcore skier or random Gen Xer. I remember my friend RENTED A VCR so we could watch it. Many, many classic lines in here, and gratuitous nudity galore."