A universal sexual fantasy beautifully fufilled!
I think Undercover/Undercover Heat plays to a very primal male (and female escapist?) fantasy, that beneath the surface of every tough, intelligent, attractive, independent woman is an insatiable nymphomaniac just dying to slip on some kinky lingerie and have sex with everyone in sight, they just need a little nudge and will then be overwhelmed by the sexiness of the situation. It succeeds admirably and is a darn sight more entertaining than many big budget Hollywood efforts.
On the good side Athena is just amazingly beautiful, a shame she seemed to largely give up acting after this. What's more she's not a bad actress convincing both as the tough tomboy cop and the supersexy hooker she transforms into once she succumbs to her suppressed femininity. As always Meg 'Scary Eyes' Foster effortlessly improves any film she graces with her presence. Jeffery Dean Morgan in an early role before going on to a good deal of mainstream success (bet he's taken this film off his CV). The story isn't bad and the whole thing zips along at a fair old pace. The sex scenes are imaginative and truly erotic, going a lot further in terms of kinkiness than you normally get in these sorts of films, especially the stunning sequence with Athena in her dominatrix policewoman outfit which leaves you drooling with lust (her entrance wearing it generated an actual collective groan of desire from the audience the first time we watched this!).
On the bad side the central idea that Gold could be certain that Cindy would only receive the phony clients he sets up for her takes some swallowing (although a quick scan of the net reveals several real life cases of off-duty policewomen moonlighting as prostitutes). Madame V's seems to be the only brothel in the world where all the clients are young, attractive and fit as well as the working girls. The production values are pretty poor, you can see the shot of the outside of the police station repeated again and again. Some of the supporting actors aren't so great and the dialogue rather flat. The one line that always makes me laugh is when Cindy is trying on her new hookerwear in front of the mirror (love to see the expenses claim for that!"Hot pants, check, thigh boots, check, black lace stockings with matching thong and push up bra, check...") "Being a cop doesn't scare me but being a woman does". Because obviously the essence of being a woman is slutting it up in skimpy black lingerie? Sadly we only see Athena in a sexually dominant role, I'd also have liked to have seen her explore her submissive side. You wonder would Gold be so resistant to Cindy 'sowing her wild oats' if she was male? Cindy doesn't really make much headway in solving the case but then she's probably too busy having fun lolling around in sexy undies and screwing everyone in sight.
So all told a great film and I always wonder why we didn't have a whole series of them in the same vein?