“I am intoxicated, lost in the erotic splendor of a paradise that is forever,” insists the opening of ex-adult film star Candida Royalle’s Caribbean Heat (FEMME Productions, 2004), an erotic movie filmed in Central America and designed with women’s needs and desires in mind. The movie is split into five different stories, each taped amidst a balmy, tropical backdrop and to an island soundtrack. While the film has a romantic, soft-core feel to it, there is no question about what is going on: the viewer does see everything.
To maintain some surprise for potential viewers, here were my three favorite stories of the five:
• “Celebration on the Beach”: A couple boards a small boat heading toward a private beach and along the way, the man gives the woman a gold-bowed gift of engagement ring-size proportions. How shall they celebrate? In the way you might guess – those hot pink panties don’t stay on for long. There are several playful shots of them dancing and doing nude cartwheels on the beach before having their rendezvous on the rocky coastline. The waves are crashing, both literally and figuratively.
• “The Interior Designer and the Security Guard”: The well-muscled, ill-slicked security guard with the gorgeous eyes (but unfortunately blank “sexpressions”) unlocks the gate for the interior designer. (Here’s how you know you’re watching an erotic movie for women instead of your average joe’s porno: The interior decorator is wearing a business-casual pantsuit instead of a skirt with a hemline up to her vagina.) It’s never quite explained what this security guard is actually guarding, but he brings the interior designer a cup of water that leads to them getting down to business in the bedroom with the strategically placed mirrors, and I don’t mean he helped her hang wallpaper.
• “The Maid and the Master”: This is, hands down, my absolute favorite of the stories. It features a French maid outfit – how could it not be good? It has its quirks: the guy with the yummy-looking mouth leads his lady around on a leash and has her trail her around with a wine glass of seeds so he can feed his caged birds. Still, their tryst in a lawn chair is intriguing, and the tale ends with him on all fours and her riding on his back into the sunset – just like all good stories should end.
One area that Caribbean Heat is lacking in is dialogue – rarely do the couples speak more than five sentences to each other, relying primarily on body language. The appeal of this is obvious: speaking would break the dreamy spell of each fantasy, and we all know how dialogue in blue movies has the potential to become embarrassing puns that make the viewer groan and slap her forehead. The lack of conversation also leaves the viewer to make her own self-satisfying conclusions. Still, more dialogue would have been appreciated to really show a connection between each couple and draw the viewer into the story in a more fulfilling way. The 84 minutes of viewing time is too scanty to really immerse one’s self in fantasy.
However, there is a lot of good in the flick. The guys are good-looking, the women are real, the kissing is plentiful, and the sex scenes don’t look painful, grotesque, or cringe-worthy in any way. The viewer doesn’t get the sense that the women were cheapened or disrespected. I never felt like I was watching “pornography” – there was a very natural vibe to the movie that I found very successful. Additionally, the special features to the DVD are actually not too skimpy; they were more than I was expecting and include a behind the scenes with Michele Capozzi (a.k.a. the ship’s captain in “Celebration on the Beach”); a chat with Candida Royalle about her line of vibrators called Natural Contours; some FEMME line trailers; and a photo gallery.
Overall, I would recommend Caribbean Heat, not for its ability to sway viewers to completely lose themselves in their desire, but for its exotic locales, attractive cast, and realistic but still romantic and otherworldly mood.
Caribbean Heat: $24.99 on Amazon.com.
Read the review of AfroDite Superstar here
Read the review of Stud Hunters here
Originally published February 2009