When I saw that this was On demand my curiosity got the best of me. Supposedly this is the quintessential 'snobs vs slobs' eighties ski film that has been so mercilessly parodied over the years. That's not quite true, its more of a wannabe sports film, but the odd thing was that I knew exactly what was going to happen just from watching all the satires. The film doesn't help itself by seeming like a farce itself (one of the big ski sequences is a competition where they actually do a dance routine on skis down the mountain, I guess I missed that at the last Olympics) and the level of acting, and writing, is shockingly bad (when Shannon tweed is acting circles around your leads that's not a good sign). Really, not just bad, but laughably inept. I guess the equivalent of these type of films currently would be American Pie and their ilk but even those films display a level of competence that is completely lacking from Hot Dog.
However the one thing that sort keeps you involved is the complete lack of irony. You can tell the filmmakers really thought they were making an inspiring underdog story, and really wanted you to hate the evil Europeans (yes not Russians, Europeans). This lack of cynicism in the face of overwhelming incompetence is actually fairly mesmerizing and almost makes you ignore the casual misogyny, and borderline sociopathic tendencies of the 'scruffy' protagonists. Not enthralling enough for me to want to revisit Hot Dog (or its cousins) any time soon, but still an interesting viewing experience.
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