PEEKARAMA BIG 2 UNIT SHOW: BOILING DESIRES (1987)/LOVE CHAMPIONS (1985)
Director: Carlos Tobalina
Vinegar Syndrome

Carlos Tobalina is back with another mind-numbing porn duo in BOILING DESIRES and LOVE CHAMPIONS on DVD from Vinegar Syndrome.

Leslie (Candie Evens, SEX ALIENS) and Alice (Bunny Bleu, NAKED EYES) have a double date, but Leslie is inexperienced. Alice tells her about her first experience with her high school teacher (Ron Jeremy, EAT AT THE BLUE FOX) and then gives her some pointers in the shower. Leslie discovers that date Warren (Mark Wallice, PRETTY PEACES 3) is just as inexperienced as she is while Doug (Tom Byron, TRASHY LADY) and Alice cannot wait to rush off to a motel. After her first time with Warren, Leslie gets some more tips from Alice (and some vibrators) and they decide to switch off so that Leslie and Warren can get some more experience with Doug and Alice respectively.

A couple more combinations of the two pairs and a foursome are pretty comprise the whole of BOILING DESIRES which is not particularly ambitious – with four attractive main performers and two or three locations – but the backdrop is pretty, the sex is well-shot (although Tobalina still does not know how to vary his coverage of group sex scenes), and the actors all seem to give deliberately naïve performances that manages to make the whole affair somewhat sweet apart from the Bleu/Jeremy scene which in contrast almost seems like a parody of the very porn clichés that embody much of Tobalina's work.

LOVE CHAMPIONS is similarly by-the-numbers in its acts and pairings as a judge sentences two pairs of would-be divorcées – David (Greg Derek, LUST AMERICAN STYLE), Lisa (Bonnie Fields, PUSSYCAT GALORE), Alison (Danielle, BEDROOM THIGHS), and Brian (Tom Byron again) – to sex therapy sessions with Dr. Carlos (Tobalina) and Miss Perkins (Colleen Brennan aka Sharon Kelly, ALICE GOODBODY). While the good doctor coaches women in vaginal contractions, Miss Perkins and her assistant (D. J. Cone, SINDEROTICA) provide historical anecdotes from "pussy-eater" Casanova and Don Juan – both subjects of previous Tobalina films – and physical demonstrations of "fancy fucking" to the two couples, as well as some visual aids like a video with John Holmes and Ron Jeremy (presumably a clip from another Tobalina production). Ultimately proposing swinging as the way to cure matrimonial malaise, Miss Perkins has the couples switch partners and positions a number of times before bringing in other satisfied customers – among them Cody Nicole (STRAY CATS), Lili Marlene (DOCTOR LUST), Crystal Breeze (HOT FLASHES), Blair Harris (LADY DYNAMITE), Francois (TRASHY LADY), and Marc Wallice – for an orgy which takes up five minutes at the head of the film and is then drawn out for the remainder of the seemingly endless eighty-four minute feature. Intimate in "scope" and well-shot – with some rimming and anal sex providing novelty – LOVE CHAMPIONS is simply more fodder for Tobalina's own theater and shows him going through the motions behind the camera (the director's "hand" in the vaginal contraction lessons remains below the frame) as others do in front of it.

Both scanned in 2K from the original camera negatives, the progressive, anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen transfers are colorful and crisp as the photography allows with little archival damage and for once none of the light leaks and flare that bedeviled some of Tobalina's other productions. The image looks tight on BOILING DESIRE but Tobalina's framing is often careless when not in long shot. The Dolby Digital 1.0 audio is clean but the sound recording is not always as good as it needs to be (some of the judge's speech in the opening of LOVE CHAMPIONS seems almost unintelligible). There are no extras. (Eric Cotenas)

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