Rating: 
Summary: Relax it just a great story
Review: Relax is one of the truly real and emotionally well adjusted movies about life - rather than "lifestyles". Technically its poor but the script and acting are superb. The rape scene when it was shown in the Australian Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras was quite confronting for some of my straight friends who saw it. They suddenly got a glimpse of the fear and of the violence that normally perpetrated on queers.
Rating: 
Summary: A worthless waste of time and effort
Review: Some movies are practice for actors to keep working, but this is just a total waste of time and plastic. It would have been better to give it less than one star!
Rating: 
Summary: Love and sex in darkest LA
Review: The lives and loves of a group of friends - mostly gay, some straight - are placed under the microscope in writer-director P.J. Castellaneta's LA-based production, "Relax...It's Just Sex" (1997), a dialogue-heavy comedy-drama which unfolds like a theatre-piece and is largely energized by a top-notch cast of formerly B-list players, deservedly elevated to lead status. Adopting several points-of-view throughout, the movie opens on unlucky-in-love Mitchell Anderson (one-time regular on TV's 'Doogie Howser, M.D.') and his friendship with sharp-tongued Jennifer Tilly ("Bound", "Bride of Chucky", etc.) who's desperate to have a baby with her reluctant boyfriend (Timothy Paul Perez), whose brother (Eddie Garcia) has just been diagnosed with HIV. Garcia's illness brings the core group of characters together, including Cynda Williams and Serena Scott Thomas (Kristin's sister) as long-term lovers whose relationship is on the slide ("We haven't had good sex since Martina won Wimbledon!"), and Anderson's would-be boyfriend (T.C. Carson), an artist and radical thinker whose contentious views on the AIDS crisis allows Castellaneta to engage in a controversial debate about the relationship between HIV and AIDS and the effectiveness of current medical remedies; some viewers may want to hear more of these theories, while others will likely applaud Tilly when she advises Carson to: "Shut the [bleep] up!" It's lively stuff, and the characters are likeable and engaging. But the group's complacency is irrevocably shattered by a horrific encounter with gay-bashers midway through the movie, an event which concludes in a wholly unexpected (but no less sickening) manner, and which causes the entire group to re-evaluate their priorities and expectations, leading to a bittersweet conclusion.Opening with a tongue-in-cheek introduction which pokes fun at straight viewers for their well-known aversion to gay themes in mainstream entertainment, the movie - which won the Audience Award at the Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in 1998 - segues immediately into a joyous sex session between Anderson and a curiously uncredited super-hunk, which sets the tone for much of what follows. Overall, the movie offers a sweet but superficial examination of the gulf between sex and love, and demonstrates how a broad range of 'divided' communities - men/women, gay/straight, black/white - experience the same problems as every other community, without distinction. Tilly dominates proceedings as an earth-mother figure whose love for her friends is matched only by her devotion to the man in her life, while Anderson makes a startlingly convincing transition from down-on-his-luck loser to born-again militant after life deals him a particularly unpleasant blow. Other cast members are superb - including Lori Petty (the eponymous "Tank Girl") and Joe Dallesandro-lookalike Billy Wirth (a model-turned-actor who recently branched out into directing) - and there are hilarious cameos from veterans Susan Tyrrell and Seymour Cassel (horrified that their erstwhile lesbian daughter [Scott Thomas] has suddenly taken up with a...a MAN!!) and Paul Winfield as an outrageous seen-it-all-before queen who takes Anderson under his wing during a moment of crisis. The film derives most of its strength from the quality of the performances and dialogue, and while the production is clearly more technically polished than Castellaneta's previous micro-budgeted offering ("Together Alone" [1991]), it's marred by Lon Magdich's slightly ragged-looking cinematography, possibly due to the director's use of cheap film stock. Or perhaps it's due to the generally poor quality of A-Pix's region-free DVD, which is letterboxed at 1.85:1 and suffers from bland colors, lack of detail, and a handful of marks and blemishes scattered throughout the print. The remastered 5.0 Dolby soundtrack is better, but the dialogue-heavy narrative doesn't provide many opportunities for elaborate audio effects. Identified on the cover as a 'director's cut', the movie runs 109m 58s and is supplemented by trailers and outtakes, though there are no English captions or subtitles. The closing credits - grey against black! - are almost impossible to decipher on smaller screens.
Rating: 
Summary: who cares?
Review: This film just seemed to go on and on and on and on... I found the writing to be madulin and amatuerish. I didn't care about these characters at all. Except for a couple of performances, most notably a charming Lori Petty, this movie was a big "so-what" yawn. Skip this movie unless you aren't paying a cent for it...
Rating:
Summary: a reason to love film again. thanks pj.
Review: This film really isnt about sex at all. Its about life,relationships,friendships,humor, its all in there. I was so moved I called the director and I thought he was extremely nice. Jennifer Tilly should have gotten an oscar. This is definately one for the film collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Something for everyone
Review: This is a film that has something for everyone.No matter if you are gay,straight,lesbian,bi-sexual or anything in between.Finally a film that deals with people just being people and not labels. The cast is excellent esp. Anderson and Tilly. This is a group of friends who will stick by you no matter what and isn't that what we all want out of life!
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Summary: This film made every one I know - Cry - It's BEAUTIFUL!
Review: This is a film that will take you on an emotional roller coaster ride... I cried so hard during this movie. It's not really about sex... it's about the friendships that happen once in a lifetime... deep friendships... and the love that's forged in them. Jennifer Tilly was outstanding in this role. Lori Petty and Cynda Williams have a scene that will touch your heart. If you watch it for the first time... make sure you have a box of kleenex handy!
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Summary: Fun and not ordinary
Review: This is a great film. I like the witty humor and the not oversimplified human relations. People are not good or bad. The story is not black and white it is as complicated or as uncomplicated as life itself.
J. Tilly's performance is outstanding in this movie that dared to put gays and straights in one storyline as friends and not adversaries! No clash of civilizations, no victimizing one or the other group and guess what who knew gays were something more than sex-crazed, immoral animals. Love and life and all... I enjoyed it very much.
Rating:
Summary: Awsome gem
Review: This is one of my favorite movies ever. It's hillaroius with lots of heart. It's one of those films where you acually laugh and cry during it. All of the actors ( Jennifer Tilly, Mitchel Anderson, Lori Petty, "T.C", Cynda Williams, and Serena Scott Thomas in particualar) turn in great performances. The movie is about a group of friends ( who just happen to mostly be gay and lesbian) try to deal with life, death, and hard ships. I f you want more indepth descrption of it go to the other dvd edition's reviews. But I deffinetly recomend you buy this edition. Other then a great movie there is a witty, funny commentary track by Lori Petty, Jennifer Tilly and the producer Steven Wolf. I was laughing out loud with some stories and comments they had about the making of the film and there experiences in sundance. Plus I believe the two of them were the standouts of the cast so it was even more enjoyable. There are also some deleted scenes and some bloopers ( very scarce) but better then nothing. Overall it's a very good dvd and I'd buy it anyway just for the greatness of the movie. For movie with a 250,000 budget ( seriously) it deserves top honorr. Good for everyone.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I had the misfortune of seeing it in a theater with a friend, so it would have been rude to walk out on it. If I'd been watching it at home I would have turned it off in disgust. One review titled it "Relax...It's Just A Really Awful Movie" and I've always thought that was perfectly accurate. The movie tries to be deep, but fails miserably, and ends up being trite and absurd instead.
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