Vixen

Rating:
Summary: Just plain lame
Review: God, this has to be the most badly edited movie ever! It's like a student film. And as far as soft core goes, it's pretty awful. The only scene worth a damn is the lesbian one, but don't think you'll be seeing anything more than breasts. It's not that kind of movie. If you want to see Erica Gavin in a good movie, watch "Caged Heat"

Rating:
Summary: Mountains of Fun!
Review: It's easy to see why "Vixen!" is one of the late Russ Meyer's more popular movies, with two of those reasons (sorry, this kind of humor is mandatory here) being Erika Gavin. Gavin, as the libidinous title character, seems to be having a great time frolicking through this movie, mounting Canadian mounties, sexually teasing her biker brother or seducing the young couple who stay at the mountain lodge she and her pilot husband operate. Vixen's racism is a bit disconcerting--she frequently hurls racial slurs at her brother's African-American draft-dodging pal Niles--though it seems used largely to set up a plot twist involving communism and hijacking (it'll make sense, sort of, when you see it). Meyer never did hardcore, but the sex in this one isn't as explicit as in some of his later '70s films ("Up" and "Beneath the Valley of the Ultra Vixens" for example). Still, it seems a lot more erotic, with all the men and women embodying sexual archetypes of the day (not to mention Meyer's own erotomanias). It's one of the few Russ Meyer movies where both the women AND the men have good chests. Also toned down are the manic jump cuts and breathless exposition, making "Vixen!" a lot less exhausting viewing experience than other Meyer movies, like "Cherry, Harry & Raquel" or "Up."

I'm still partial to Meyer's black and white drive-in films, like "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" and "Mudhoney," but I include "Vixen!" as one of my favorite Russ Meyer movies, second only to "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls."