Hot Bubblegum (1981)
7/10
More of the same, with more nudity, and a more obvious formula
7 June 2022
This third entry to the "Lemon Popsicle" franchise of teen sex comedies certainly has the most nudity so far. It begins with a scene where the three boys (Benji, Momo and Yudale) peek through a hole in the wall at some girls changing, and when Yudale climbs on top of the changing room, he predictably falls through the roof, only to be chased out by half-clad and naked girls, and an ugly middle-aged woman, who are always spoiling the guys' fun in movies like these.

The prior Lemon Popsicle flicks always featured episodic teenage sex hijinx to break up the more serious scenes about the hero, Benji's, more serous love interest. I was never as aware of how uneasy this mix was as when I was watching this entry. The movie's actual plot is about Benji needing to choose between two girls, but in some of the hijinx scenes, he's shown trying to get with other girls and nobody mentions the ones he already has.

The behaviour in the episodic scenes also doesn't add up to what we've seen these guys do in previous movies. Benji's fallen in love, lost his virginity, paid for an abortion, had his heart broken, all in the first movie. Now he's betting on what colour panties the girls are wearing with his friend Yudale, who uses a mirror on his shoe to find out. Come to think of it, Yudale's far from a virgin now too. He had crabs in the first movie (so did Benji). You'd think he'd have grown out of sub-adolescent shenanigans like this by now.

What I'm saying is that the formula was really starting to show by the third flick. We get scenes that involve the real plot of the movie, ie. Benji's relationship development, and then unrelated scenes of teenage sex antics that we've all seen before. Some of these scenes are even kind of alarming, like one where Yudale tries to force himself on a girl and it looks like an attempted rape, or the boys spiking the girls' drinks with vodka, or a scene where Benji finally gets to bed his beautiful blonde houseguest (who is only in the movie for one scene) and then we see the other boys lining up outside, waiting for their turn. If you have sex with one of the Lemon Popsicle boys, do you hereby consent to have sex with the other two as well?

I still enjoyed the movie. The great soundtrack always gets you to come back to it when your attention wanes, and I like its beautiful Israeli girls.
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed