phoenix 2 The Hot Flashes is a movie about a high school basketball team that reunites after a few years to raise money for breast cancer. However, it ends up being a movie about the main protagonist and her struggles with her family, herself and her social background. The performances aren't that bad, but the poor script doesn't help the actors much and, in the end, even the few twists that are thrown here and there are too predictable to surprise the audience. It would have been better, as well, if the movie at least focused only on one character and didn't try to handle too many stories, because it ended up showing only one and just concluding the others at the final sequence. So, 2 out of 10.

thehappycow This movie is like comfort food to any (intelligent) woman going thru menopause. How many movies can say that? Progressive and interesting on a number of different levels. Real life with no pretense, no plastic surgery. The cast is fabulous. Brooke Shields, Wanda Sykes, Daryl Hannah and Virginia Madsen, they are all interesting and should have been more developed as characters. And Mark Povinelli as the ex-veterinarian/coach? Kidnapping dogs to clean their teeth? Yes! Moonlight rescue! So progressive, pro tolerance, pro kindness. Of course the idea of charity basketball games to fund the mobile unit screening for breast cancer is great, but there is so much more here. Eric Roberts is a very believable character but he was a little obsessed with his hair. I mean, what man plays with his hair like that? Whatever. This movie is specifically wonderful from a human kindness/tolerance prospective. Bravo!

rgblakey There are a lot of movies that get released that sport a cast of known actors but for whatever reason gets shoved straight to video. Sometimes it's obvious why but others end up being really entertaining and make no sense they didn't get a bigger push. The latest The Hot Flashes features Brooke Shields, Daryl Hannah, Wanda Sykes, Andrea Frankle, Camryn Manheim, Virginia Madsen, and Eric Roberts and is sponsored American Cancer Society but does it make for a good film? The Hot Flashes follows an under-appreciated group of middle-aged women, all former high school champs who challenge the current arrogant high school girls' state champs to a series of games to raise money for breast cancer prevention. This movie is actually pretty entertaining for what it is, but is never really able to step out of feeling like some sort of Lifetime movie. That isn't such a bad thing, but given the cast involved you would kind of expect more. Everyone here delivers some fun performances and seems to be having a great time but the movie itself just seems to struggle to really find its footing. Some of the film is a drama while other aspects are a comedy, but never really commits to either. Most of this film is pretty predictable, but thanks to the cast it entertains in somewhat of an awkward way at times as they try to pull this team together. There are all the clichéd characters for this kind of film and they build up numerous situations, but only some of them are resolved at the end. There are some you just let go or let your imagination fill in the gaps but there are others that have a pretty strong build up and they seem to get lax and rush the resolution.This is one of those movies that will find a particular audience that will love it and others that will probably skip it all together, but no matter which of these categories you fall in, you are sure to be entertained in this quirky comedy. It plays most things safe, but still tries to craft a story in recognition of some important subject matter and the film deserves its shot for that alone.

K_Ripley Susan Seidelman's gem of a comedy tells a story that run-of-the-mill Hollywood flicks are loath to tell: The story of underdogs such as women of colour, queer women, women of a certain class, and most notably women of a certain age. This movie challenges the viewer by making its subject a demographic of people who are grossly underrepresented in film and media, and yet it's hardly a shocking or radical film. Seidel brings us to the American heartland where we find ourselves welcomed by surprisingly believable characters (for the most part) in outrageously comic situations. The film had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments: in particular, the cheerleaders, the second game, and Wanda Sykes' hair moments. Actually, everything Wanda Sykes says and does in this movie is a riot. However, it could have been funnier. The jokes are there, but sometimes their delivery isn't quite ostentatious enough to really knock them out of the park. Also, though most of the characters were quite believable (especially Camryn Manheim's character, Roxie), other important characters such as the antagonist mom whose name I forget were a bit two-dimensional, and some of the dialogues felt a bit lazy. Honestly, if this movie had been about a group of middle aged guys returning to basketball to raise money for prostate cancer, all other things the same, I probably would have given the movie a 6 or 7. But seeing a feel-good comedy that actually celebrates women (in a suffocating media environment where relegating female roles to either sex goddess, love interest/love obsessed, or obsessive villain is the norm) is such a welcomed and needed breath of fresh air that its occasional cinematic mediocrity can be overlooked. Now, if only Hollywood could make a movie with the spirit/guts of this flick combined with the technical prowess of a movie like the Avengers...