The second volume of Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video's Racy Reels series brings two films from the 1970s that are connected thematically even though the two films are very different.  The two films contained on this release, Female Chauvinists and Hot Connections, are both are very dated comedies that rely heavily on stereotypes.  Female Chauvinists holds up much better than Hot Connections did.

The release is a Blu-ray/DVD combination pack and both discs contain the same material.  There are two shared extras on the release that don't relate specifically to either film.  There is an untitled softcore Uschi Digard loop from 1970 that runs for 10 minutes.  There is also a booklet with the essay “The Exploitation of Liberation: Delving into Female Chauvinists and Hot Connections” written by Robin Bougie, of Cinema Sewer magazine and producer of The Cumming of Jizzus.

Female Chauvinists

The Film (3.5/5)

Female Chauvinists appears to have started out as a soft-X film at a time when consumers were looking for hardcore films.  As with other soft-X films at the time, hardcore inserts, that were shot later with a different cast, were added to the film to make the soft-X film a hardcore film.  To the best of this reviewer's knowledge, Female Chauvinists has only been released theatrically as a hardcore film.

Female Chauvinists is a very dated comedic film that used the women's liberation movement as the backdrop for sex.  Female Chauvinists relies on stereotypes to drive the characters and the story, however, it is all done in good fun.  Female Chauvinists uses a broad comedy, so viewers who don't like overly silly films will probably be disappointed.

The story in Female Chauvinists is that Cecil (Ronnie Summers) is trying to expose the women's liberation movement as a bunch of lesbians.  He inserts Boopsie (Roxanne Brewer) into a group lead by Ms. Fullabull (Nora Holliday) to catch them in the act and his friend Vince (Rick Dillon) also joins the group as a deaf and dumb handyman.

Female Chauvinists never takes itself seriously and the cast always looks like they are having fun.  The cast handles the comedic material well, especially Ronnie Summers – who really isn't utilized as much as he could be in the film.  The softcore sex scenes in the film are well done and the hardcore inserts look relatively close to the original footage so they fit in well.

As long as one isn't bothered by false stereotypes, Female Chauvinists is an enjoyable comedy that is worth a look.  Female Chauvinists isn't a great film but it is a fun way to waste 80 minutes.

Audio/Video (1.5/5)

Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video have done a poor job with their Blu-ray and DVD combo pack release of Female Chauvinists.  Female Chauvinists was shot on film and it looks like Pop Cinema has used a rather beaten 35mm print for this release.  Female Chauvinists is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p on the Blu-ray and 480p on the DVD.  The film looks rather ugly with grain and heavy print damage along with jumps.  The print was in such bad shape, one wonders why Pop Cinema decided to release Female Chauvinists on Blu-ray.

The audio isn't any better than the video quality.  Female Chauvinists is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural audio track on both the Blu-ray and the DVD.  The dialog is clear and easy to understand, however, the audio track has pops, crackles, jumps, and distortion.

The worst part of the release is that the film has been altered for this release.  It appears that Female Chauvinists was originally made as a softcore X-rated film and that later hardcore inserts were added to the film (This is rather obvious since Vince gains a ring on his finger during the hardcore portions at the end of the film.).  The version that Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video has opted to include on this release has all of the hardcore inserts missing from the beginning of the film but has left them in at the end of the film.

This reviewer would have had no problem had Pop Cinema found a print from before the hardcore scenes were added to the film and used that for this release, however, this seems to just be a random hacking of portions of the film for no reason at all.  In addition to the missing footage, Pop Cinema has added new footage to the beginning of the film, which stands out like a sore thumb.  Audio effects have been added to the film and portions of the music and audio have been replaced, which also stand out like a sore thumb, even to viewers who have never seen the film.

The end result is that this version of Female Chauvinists runs for seven minutes less than the previous Gourmet Video Collection DVD, which itself may have been missing footage from the original film.

Extras (0/5)

There aren't any extras that are connected with Female Chauvinists included on the release unless a newly made trailer for the film is considered an extra.

Hot Connections

Cast: Rene Bond, Elana Casey, Peggy Church, Tallie Cochrane, Cindy Daly, Sandy Dempsey, Christopher Geoffries, Lynn Harris, James Hong, Margie Lanier, Ric Lutze, Jay Scott, Starlyn Simone, Patrick M. Wright

The Film (2/5)

Hot Connections is a softcore film from the waning days of soft X-rated films.  Hot Connections is a now very dated comedy that that is completely ineffective as a comedy in modern times and likely was not effective even when it was made.  The film tells the story of Marilyn (Tallie Cochrane), who is the leader of the Women's Liberation Defense Center, a militant feminist group.  Cynthia is fighting the phone company for the firing of Mary Collins for being pregnant by the misogynistic vice president Arnold Thaxton (Christopher Geoffries), Marilyn's ex-husband.

There is a side story about Arnold's lackey George Hanes (Jay Scott), whose wife Cynthia (Margie Lanier) gets involved with Marilyn's group.  As a result, George starts following Arnold's lead and starts cheating on Cynthia.  George appears to be a "good guy" character despite the fact he is no better than anyone else in the film.

Hot Connections relies on stereotypical characters to drive the film, which are rather flat personality-wise causing the viewer to really not care about any of them.  The film also uses rape multiple times as a seemingly comedic tool.  To top it all off, Hot Connections really isn't funny at all.  In the end, the viewer just feels dirty, and not in a good way.  The story for the film isn't that good either.  Maybe if the sex scenes were good, Hot Connections could be redeemed.

Unfortunately, the acting in the film is rather bad, especially the acting in the softcore sex scenes.  The acting is way over the top in the simulated sex scenes, distractingly over the top.  The acting in the non-sexual portions isn't much better, not that the cast was given much to work with.

The only real reason that Hot Connections will be of any interest to the modern viewer is that it was directed and produced by veteran mainstream actor James Hong, who also has a bit role in the film, who had roles in films such as Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, and Tango & Cash.

Any viewer who is looking for any more substance than just bared breasts on the screen is going to ultimately be disappointed by Hot Connections.  Hot Connections is extremely dated, the story is lacking, the sex scenes are poor, and the acting is lackluster.

Audio/Video (1.5/5)

Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video have done a poor job with their Blu-ray and DVD combo pack release of Hot Connections.  Hot Connections was shot on film and it looks like Pop Cinema has used a 35mm print as the master for this release.  Hot Connections is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p on the Blu-ray and in 480p on the DVD.  The print used for this release has obviously been used and abused.  The image sports the expected grain.  The print damage and artifacts are higher than expected due to the rough print.  There are also green and yellow blotches that appear on the screen at times and the film has some bad jumps in it as well.  Some of the scenes look overly soft, however, that issue may date back to the original production.  Given how poor a shape the print used was in, it makes one wonder why this release was selected for Blu-ray.  Something Weird Video has to have better quality prints than this in their collection.

The audio for Hot Connections isn't much better.  Both the Blu-ray and the DVD are presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural audio track.  This reviewer is unsure why the Blu-ray doesn't contain a lossless audio format.  The audio sounds very unbalanced with the dialog lower than the music.  There is a hiss throughout the presentation along with pops, crackles, and jumps.  The audio definitely needed more work than it was given for this release.

To add insult to injury, this edition has been altered from the original version.  Roughly under a minute's worth of footage has been excised from this print (too much to just be a really bad jump) for no known reason and newly created footage has been added to the beginning of the film for no known reason.  While viewers not familiar with the film won't notice the missing footage, the new footage stands out like a sore thumb.

Extras (0/5)

There aren't any film-related extras contained on the disc unless you count a newly made trailer for Hot Connections made by Pop Cinema.

Overall

The Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video Racy Reels release of Female Chauvinists and Hot Connections is a hard release to recommend to anyone.  Both films have been altered from their original versions with added footage that was recently created and cuts made to the original films.  In addition, both prints are in relatively bad shape making one wonder why they were picked for Blu-ray releases.  Yes, the two films look better than they have in the past, but viewers are still going to want to hold onto their uncut unaltered versions for now.