The Bikini Carwash Company I & II Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Bikini Carwash Company I & II Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 25, 2025

Ed Hansen's "The Bikini Carwash Company" (1992) and Gary Dean Orona's "The Bikini Carwash Company II" (1993) arrive on Blu-ray courtesy of the MVD Rewind Collection. The only bonus feature on the release is a selection of trailers. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for each film. Region-Free.

The majority of the footage in The Bikini Carwash Company films easily could have been used in a music video for the latest hit from one of the big hair-metal bands that ruled the ‘80s. Motley Crue’s Girls, Girls, Girls video features several professional striptease dancers who raise the temperature exactly like the girls in the two films. Great White’s Desert Moon video is set in a sandy area whose atmosphere is exactly like that of a memorable beach scene from the first film. Winger’s Can't Get Enough video has a similar gorgeous model taking her bra off and getting picked up by a handsome guy, and a similarly cool convertible whose owner is distracted like most customers at the carwash. Von Groove’s Once Is Not Enough mixes humor and sexual fireworks exactly like the spicy cash-raising content from the second film. And Hardline’s Takin' Me Down offers several lines that sum up perfectly the sexy carwashers’ business strategy.

If you approach The Bikini Carwash Company films with the understanding that all of these similarities are not coincidental and were part of a very popular trend, you are unlikely to be disappointed because the two deliver exactly what they promise. In fact, a very different scenario is practically guaranteed. After enjoying them, you will likely look around to find out whether some of their sexy stars may have been cast in famous music videos from the same period, and try to learn more about Shake City and A.Z.R.O., the hair-metal bands that supplied multiple tracks for their soundtracks.

In the first film, directed by Ed Hansen in 1992, a clueless young bachelor named Jack (Joe Dusic) travels from Iowa to Los Angeles to help his aging uncle run a struggling carwash. At the beach, while sticking like a sore thumb and looking for directions, Jack meets Melissa (a stunning Kristi Ducati) and her friends, who, while having a good time, are trying to figure out how to make enough cash to get them through the summer. Soon after, against all odds, they strike a deal -- Jack, only slightly less clueless, welcomes Melissa and her friends at the carwash, and, with their tops off, the girls begin washing the city’s dirtiest cars for a percentage of the profits. The long lines of impatient customers and daily traffic jams quickly attract the city’s business regulators and a popular local nutjob called The Flasher.

In the second film, directed by Gary Dean Orona in 1993, Melissa (again played by Ducati) and her friends are trying to sell their business and retire in style. They sign a contract with a huge international corporation, but shortly after accidentally discover that the top man (Larry De Russay) there plans to use the land where the original carwash and the new locations it has inspired are to build numerous luxury condominiums. Determined to protect their legacy and business, Melissa and the girls then launch an ambitious strategy to outsmart the corporation with the help of another clueless young bachelor (Greg Raye), employed there, who spends most of his time fighting the copy machines.

Both films are beyond silly and look incredibly dated. However, this is precisely why they are entertaining. Their silliness oozes wonderful positive energy of the kind that used to dominate late-night B-films and disappeared as the ‘90s ended.

The first film is much, much better, primarily because it is shot like one very long, very colorful, and uncensored MTV video. The second film has a more generic appearance of the kind that many of Fred Olen Ray and Jim Wynorski’s skin flicks perfected. (Wynorski pops up in the first film, but few viewers are likely to recognize him).

The Bikini Carwash Company I & II Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The release offers two different presentations of The Bikini Carwash Company films, and only one of them is worthy of your time. Before I explain why, I would like to clarify something so that you can place all comments about the quality of these presentations in a proper context.

These films were shot on video, not on 16mm or 35mm stock, which means that they cannot look as good as most other genre films, regardless of whether they are remastered. They have native limitations, and any proper presentation of these films on Blu-ray will reproduce these limitations. Also, these limitations affect all major areas we scrutinize in our reviews -- delineation, clarity, sharpness, depth, fluidity, and color reproduction.

There are "remastered" 1080p presentations of both films that are equally bad. I do not know how these presentations were done, but they upscale the original content from 480i to 1080p and, in the process, mismanage the frame continuity. As a result, in the new upscaled, supposedly progressive mode, different frames continuously overlap, producing very distracting skips/stutter.

The standard definition presentations, both properly set at 480/60i, which is NTSC's native resolution, do not have the skips/stutter. On my system, these were clearly the better presentations that made it possible for me to view and enjoy both films. How do these presentations look exactly? Considering how the films were shot, I would describe them as very good. They could have used some additional, but proper, remastering work, like the one that the folks at Criterion did for Hoop Dreams, but I am quite certain that the overall quality of the visuals would have been very, very similar to that of the current presentation. While not immaculate, these presentations are very healthy. Color reproduction is very good, too. However, you need to keep in mind that the color spectrum is natively smaller, so primaries and supporting nuances are naturally limited. Image stability is very good. Lastly, I did not encounter any distracting encoding anomalies to report in our review. In summary, I think that the two standard-definition presentations of The Bikini Carwash Company films are very pleasing. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

The Bikini Carwash Company I & II Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this release: English LPCM 2.0 for the remastered presentations and English Dolby Digital 2.0 for the original standard-definition presentations. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided only for the former.

I mentioned elsewhere that chose to view the original standard definition presentations of both films. I thought that the lossy audio tracks on both presentations were very good. Clarity, sharpness, and depth are exactly what I expected them to be because of how both films were shot. However, the most important detail here is that both tracks are healthy. There is no distracting background hiss, distortions, pops, or stability issues. I did sample the lossless tracks on the remastered presentations. In some areas where the music becomes prominent, they create the impression that dynamic contrasts there are better. However, I would say that it is the volume that can mislead one to conclude that there is a substantial, meaningful gap in quality.

The Bikini Carwash Company I & II Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this audio commentary for The Bikini Carwash Company was recorded by Jim Wynorski (Sorceress) and Heath Holland.

• Poster - included with this release is a mini-poster for the two films.

• Trailers - a selection of trailers.

The Bikini Carwash Company I & II Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fred Olen Ray and Jim Wynorski are still trying to make B-films like The Bikini Carwash Company films. However, in the digital era, these types of films are impossible to make right because the proper ingredients for them are missing. Digital technology makes them look incredibly sterile and unattractive, rock music is not the same, and virtually all of the talent that gets booked for them is unsuitable. Their sense of humor is all over the place, too. I am not trying to sell you The Bikini Carwash Company films as masterpieces of genre cinema. They are not great films. They cannot even match the visual quality of most other B-films from the same period because of how they were shot. However, their silliness oozes wonderful positive energy of the kind that disappeared as the '90s ended. It is why I find them attractive in pretty much the same way I did the earliest version of MTV, which played a lot of content like the one that you will see in these films. RECOMMENDED.