{"id":14222,"date":"2008-05-28T12:44:18","date_gmt":"2008-05-28T16:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=14222"},"modified":"2008-05-28T12:44:18","modified_gmt":"2008-05-28T16:44:18","slug":"hot-summer-in-the-city-1976","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2008\/05\/28\/hot-summer-in-the-city-1976\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Summer in the City (1976)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hot-summer\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the more humorous aspects of \u201cHot Summer in the City\u201d is the presumption that it\u2019s an actual movie because its book ended by \u201cSummer in the City\u201d by Lovin\u2019 Spoonful. Not only does the song have nothing to do with the actual movie, but director Gail Palmer seems to just have bought the rights to play it at the beginning and end of her movie to add some sense of credibility trying to eagerly convince us that there\u2019s a serious plot here, instead of just a hint of a narrative in between all of the rough sex and rape. In all honesty, it\u2019s just a hardcore porno with dashes of story here and there and some wildly cartoonish Caucasian protagonists and African American villains. And there’s a lot of rape, too. Poor white chick gets raped by black dudes. That’s the plot.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While some may be quick to compare it to \u201cThe Last House on the Left,\u201d there\u2019s not a lot of revenge to be had, even if there\u2019s plenty of sexual violence. The film is disgusting and vile, I won\u2019t deny that, but it\u2019s not without its value. It\u2019s really just fifty minutes of a sexy white woman being ravaged by evil Black men endlessly, and there\u2019s also a rather fantastic soundtrack featuring the Shangri-Las, The Beach Boys, and The Supremes. Sexy Lisa Baker plays Debby, an inept young woman waiting to be married before sex. This is pointed out to us with great importance so we can be aware of how horrible this series of rapes are for her–even though when she’s forced to give her captors a blowjob, she obliges with zeal, even taking shots to the face with a smile. And this is the basis for her character.<\/p>\n

That’s the whole brunt of her characterization. Palmer seems to want to us to think that this tied down uptight woman really doesn’t mind being ravaged and sexually devoured by these men, but then this movie is so inept in production value and direction, I’m inclined to consider it a coincidence. Upon arriving home from a date, she finds her mom in bed with two other men. Shocked (especially considering she stood there for fifteen minutes watching) and non-confrontational, she decides to go for a walk to cool off (makes sense\u2026?) and in a stunned state of mind is greeted by a small group of aggressive minorities who decide to kidnap her and corrupt every inch of her body. The four black men rough up poor Debby and get her drunk and just take turns having sex with her against her will.<\/p>\n

Playboy Playmate Baker is a very sexy young girl with a performance reliant mainly on being a vulnerable sex object, made into fact considering she gives one of the most inept performances I\u2019ve ever seen in movie. Baker is incapable of providing even the minutest of emotions for her character. She can\u2019t even cry properly when she reacts to her mom\u2019s threesome, and her misery is not as terrible since she can\u2019t even seem to convince herself that she\u2019s in excruciating pain. There\u2019s not even an explanation why walking in on a threesome would bring her to the verge of an emotional breakdown. In a twisted bit of clever (I use the term loosely) irony, the group of men don\u2019t just turn her into a hostage, but she also becomes a cook, a maid, a confidante, and a sex toy.<\/p>\n

In other words, a slave; Poetic irony, bitches! Director Palmer at times doesn\u2019t even seem to know what the hell she\u2019s doing with erratic pans, goofy edits, and sloppiness for staging basic scenes. There\u2019s also the inherent lack of tension in Debby\u2019s predicament made worse by Baker who stands around pouting like a child, while the male actors aren\u2019t convincing enough as villains. Palmer can\u2019t even decide what the point of her movie is. Is poor Debby in the middle of a gang war, a victim, or is she just being toyed with? And why does Palmer place immense focus on a poker game between the four thugs? There\u2019s no use getting your panties in a bind, as \u201cHot Summer in the City\u201d is not much of a thriller to be offended towards considering the production is so horrific to watch. Taking into account the small budget \u201cHot Summer in the City\u201d is a movie that\u2019s so bad, it\u2019s good. From terrible direction, even worse performances, and a plot that\u2019s pretty much non-existent, it\u2019s a crappy piece of sexploitation you may want to get a hold of, if only for the groovy soundtrack. No Tarantino, this is not the Best Porno Ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the more humorous aspects of \u201cHot Summer in the City\u201d is the presumption that it\u2019s an actual movie because its book ended by \u201cSummer in the City\u201d by Lovin\u2019 Spoonful. Not only does the song have nothing to do with the actual movie, but director Gail Palmer seems to just have bought the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12],"tags":[240,302,337,438,792,1087],"class_list":["post-14222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grindhouse-review-fest","category-movie-reviews","tag-crime","tag-drama","tag-exploitation","tag-h","tag-porn","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}