Are you ready for a good time?  A house of women plying the world’s oldest profession is an oasis in the desert for sex-starved customers.  Welcome to Cathouse, where if you’ve got a credit card – and no inhibitions – you can make your sexiest fantasies come true.

“If you took all the men Amy’s had sex with,” says Bunny Ranch owner Dennis Hof of working girl Airforce Amy, “you’d have a small city.”  Hof is adamant about the word prostitute, a word he does not like.  Ditto “whore” and “slut.”  Interestingly, despite his semantic predilections, Hof has no problem with the film about him and his establishment being called Cathouse.  Hof tells us that he has paid for sex in third world countries – how charming! – and that any man who says he has never paid for sex is lying (and let’s face it: we all pay one way or the other).  Hof purchased the Bunny Ranch during one of its less illustrious periods and transformed it into a brothel he can be proud of, the kind he would feel comfortable walking into.  And it is comfortable; the girls are all affable and ready to party.  So easy on the eyes, too…

Prostitution has always been with us, yet it remains shrouded in mystery; you’re either part of the club or you’re not.  As Charlie Sheen famously put it, “I don’t pay a hooker to come over, I pay her to go home.”  Colin Farrell compared it to ordering a pizza.  Heidi Fleiss went to prison over it, but she lived in Nevada we might never have heard of her.  Cathouse gives us an image of the brothel as harmless fun, which it may very well be.  Aside from Airforce Amy, there is porn star Sunset Thomas, the Ranch’s most famous employee, who works by appointment only.  Through hidden cameras we get a look at the girls negotiating their dates, and some of the encounters are pretty interesting.  One customer, a black pimp and friend of Hof’s, tries to pitch the girl into leaving the Ranch to work for him.  Sunset Thomas, who gets much of the attention here, has an appointment with two fans who quickly find out that they do not have enough money for the kind of date they want.  The negotiations are much of the fun here.

Interspersed with business meetings, Hof tells stories about the history of prostitution in Nevada and his relationships with some of the girls.  Hof and Thomas have an open relationship, and he relays a story about Airforce Amy, who apparently is quite the acrobat.  “If you’re going to have sex with Amy,” Hof says, “you better be on your game.”  Hof and the girls are clearly having a good time, and they don’t seem to play to the camera as much as we see in other documentaries; every moment caught on film seems as candid as can be expected.  For all the party atmosphere, the Ranch is a business before anything else, and we end our visit learning that the Bunny Ranch has had the best April in its history, with revenues of over one million dollars.  We leave on a high note, another party, more good times.  There is a sense of family within the Ranch that is endearing.  Cathouse gives us a glimpse into a world that is still off limits for many people, for one reason or another, and the result is never short of entertaining.  Society’s most open secret has never been so alluring.

Cathouse is presented in the original full screen ratio.  The presentation is good, the colors well timed and balanced, but there is nothing exceptional here.

This DVD offers audio tracks in English and Spanish, both in 2.0 Dolby Surround.  The presentation is clean, free of any defects.  This is not a demanding soundtrack, but what is here is well done.

THE EXTRAS

Exclusive Interview With Brothel Owner Dennis Hof: Extended cuts of Hof’s musings, expounding on what we see in the film.  This is of minor interest, but it adds very little to what we have already seen.