Movie Review: Flesh and Bullets

Review By: James DePaolo

On March 1989 the film industry lost the man who could be singled out for my blindness, Carlos Tobalina. To me, he was one of the king of the adult film world with his love of romancing the camera and getting those shots that other directors seem to stray from. When I heard he did a film that was not a porn my first reaction was that it was a porn in hiding, but needless to say this film is nowhere near porn which still should be said, it is a good enough film to recommend nonetheless.

The humor for me comes from the fact that the original print of the film he changed his name to hide the fact of who he was. In a somewhat odd retelling of sorts from Alfred Hitchcock’s Stranger on a Train, we meet two unhappy married men both of whom have shady pasts meet in Vegas and hatch a scheme to murder one another’s ex-wives. Well as you can guess there will be a catch to this plan and each of them fall in love with the other’s ex.

Movie Review: Three Ripening Cherries (1979) and Sensual Fire (1982)

Directed by Carlos Tobalina

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Desperately plain girls buried under makeup. Ugly wallpaper, sheets and tablecloths. Nonexistent stories about sex in San Francisco. We are back on director Carlos Tobalina’s turf, friends.

Three Ripening Cherries finds Mom (Kitty Shayne) talking to four girls at the kitchen table about sex. Mom admits that her first time was not pleasurable. A bearded friend of the family sought to be the one take away her troublesome cherry, and in a flashback, aforementioned creep forces himself on her to her cries of pain and distress. Mom sought to make amends by sleeping with every high school greaser in the process in order to get her groove back.

Movie Review: Mai Linn vs. Serena and Oriental Hawaii (both 1982)

Directed by Carlos Tobalina (under the name of Troy Benny)

Movie review by Greg Goodsell

Vinegar Syndrome strikes yet again with a double-shot of early 1980s hardcore porn. The very prolific Carlos Tobalina, here working under the pseudonym of Troy Benny ground these two out in 1982, the year when the skin trade left 35mm film altogether for the far less expensive shot-on-video route. Never fear: Carlos treats these celluloid epics as indifferently as anything shot on a family camcorder. Out-of-focus shots, improvised dialogue, ragged pans and zooms that would make Jesus Franco envious – ol’ Carlos just knew instinctively that the lonely guys at the grindhouse would settle for anything ol’ thing with pussies and dicks.

Mai Linn vs. Serena is simplicity in itself. The suave and more than slightly creepy Tobalina stars as himself to offer favorite nudie cuties Mai Linn and Serena with a most unusual wager. He will award either one of the girls the lead role in his next skin epic on the provision they perform the most unusual sex act they can imagine. Offering the winner $25,000 – probably the entire budget for this film, Mai Linn and Serena get busy. Tobalina isn’t around to witness the gals getting down and dirty, so we assume he’ll just have to go on their hearsay.

Movie Review: Jungle Blue (1978)

What’s one of the best ways to open a movie? In my 35 plus-years of film watching I have to admit seeing a fellow in a gorilla suit somewhere in the sticky jungles of the Amazon getting his wrinkly crank fellated by a hungry young lass is a way you can go. Welcome to the insane world of adult film director Carlos Tobalina. Who needs explosions when you can see this? Michael Bay take note, it’s far cheaper than explosions and has just as much impact on the viewer…err at least me. Tobalina’s Jungle Blue opens like this and it’s just the beginning of the insane proceedings. Vinegar Syndrome has taken this Tarzan porn and prettied it up for the filth loving eyes of classic XXX enthusiasts.

When a group of horny travelers decide to embark on an adventure in the wilds of the Amazon, there lies some truly raunchy fun to be had. The gals seem to go absolutely gaga over a hunky Tarzan-type who enjoys climbing with monkeys and swinging from tree-to-tree. The most fascinating thing about him though is that he doesn’t have quite the "experience" as the other males in the party - mainly because he’s looking for just the right “Jane” to hang from his vine.