Verdict
Summary
Produced in conjunction with Playboy in Canada as a knee-jerk reaction to the enormous success of Flashdance, Heavenly Bodies is pure pulpy schmaltz in the vein of a red-spined Harlequin romance novel, but it’s absolutely glorious with its complete package of perfect time and place, circa 1984 / ’85, with its intense, sweaty jazzercising enthusiasm, heaving, sculpted bodies, sultry sex scenes, and a nonstop parade of ear-worm ’80s non-classics on the soundtrack. Kudos, once again, to Fun City Editions for resurrecting a film that has long been absent on home video and bringing it to Blu-ray for the first time. This movie has never been on DVD before, and its last time on video was when it was released to VHS, so praise be!
Plot:
Two aerobics studios compete against each other for supremacy.
Review:
Working girl Samantha (Cynthia Dale) has a full time office job, a kid, and a dream: To open her own aerobics dance studio. She saves every penny and her and some of her friends pool their resources together and buy a trashed space and refurbish it and transform it into the dance studio of their dreams. Samantha quits her full time gig and goes into business. It’s a smash success, and she instructs hardcore aerobics full time, balancing her home life as best she can, but then life throws her a bit of a curveball when she engages in a romance with a dude bro named Steve (Richard Rebiere, perfectly cast), and suddenly her life is flaming hot with passion for not just nonstop workouts on the dance floor, but in bed too. On a lark, she tries out for a syndicated show that would see her (or some other hopeful) as the host of a aerobics workout program, and she’s stunned when she lands the gig, over the producer’s preferred choice of his own girlfriend, a snooty bitch who sets her sights on ruining Samantha’s life. When Samantha lets her guard down, she unwittingly engages in another romance with the producer of the show (played by Walter George Alton), which sidelines her focus and puts her own dance studio’s future on the line when she’s swindled of her deed for the property, and so the only way she knows how to fight back to save her studio is to rally the troops and the media into agreeing to let her compete with another group of dancers, with the prize being the deed to her studio. In an all-day and all-night dance off, the last dancer standing will be the winner.
Produced in conjunction with Playboy in Canada as a knee-jerk reaction to the enormous success of Flashdance, Heavenly Bodies is pure pulpy schmaltz in the vein of a red-spined Harlequin romance novel, but it’s absolutely glorious with its complete package of perfect time and place, circa 1984 / ’85, with its intense, sweaty jazzercising enthusiasm, heaving, sculpted bodies, sultry sex scenes, and a nonstop parade of ear-worm ’80s non-classics on the soundtrack. I’ve been a fan of Heavenly Bodies since the VHS days, and I’ve even seen it projected in 35mm film, and I own an original copy of the soundtrack on CD. I’m a big fan! The plot is simple, the lead performance by Dale is pitch-perfect (and she’s super cute to boot), and the direction by Lawrence Dane is exactly as it should be. This movie is basically a popsicle on a stick, and will cheer you up, no matter what your mood. What’s not to like?
Kudos, once again, to Fun City Editions for resurrecting a film that has long been absent on home video and bringing it to Blu-ray for the first time. This movie has never been on DVD before, and its last time on video was when it was released to VHS, so praise be! The film arrives on disc in a premium edition, which includes an audio commentary by several film historians, and there’s an on-camera video interview with star Dale as well. There’s an image gallery included, and the first pressing comes with an insert booklet with two essays about the film.
