Rating: Summary: Utter Trash Review: This trashy B movie attempts to masquerade as a study of sexual addiction, but it is really a poor excuse for a sexploitation flick. The story revolves around Sammy Horn (subtle name) played by Michael Des Barres. Sammy is a restaurant owner with a clueless wife Grace (Rosanna Arquette) and a young child. He has a sexual addiction and must have meaningless sex every five minutes with any woman in his field of vision who will agree (and of course every woman on the planet finds him irresistible despite the fact that he looks old enough to be collecting Social Security).The story is centered on a conversation with his therapist (Nastassja Kinski) where he is describing each of his sexual exploits via flashback. This is nothing more than a convenient launching point for a parade of serial sex acts, which consumes at least 75% of the screen time. It is hard to know where to begin criticizing a film this bad. The production values are abysmal. The movie is shot on video with a look somewhere between a TV soap opera (at best) and an amateur porn flick shot in someone's garage. The direction by Joseph Brutsman is horrible with bad lighting, uninspired framing and poor actor direction. The script is vapid and the dialogue mindless and vulgar. Women are generally portrayed as sex obsessed nymphomaniacs just waiting for an addict like Sammy to come along and rough them up while feeding their insatiable appetites with some impersonal copulation. As an example, Grace's sister comes over to indignantly inform Sammy that she knows he's been sleeping around and that she is going to tell his wife. His response to that is to throw her up against the wall and begin raping her. About three seconds into it she has an epiphany and is instantly converted to one of his sex disciples begging him to give her more. Just as they finish Grace walks in and sis says to her, "Oh, great to see you, gotta run to pick up Timmy" and mum's the word about Sammy's indiscretions. The bond of loyalty has been sealed with a good ravishment. No spoiler here because it is so typical of the obvious nature of the film that anyone who had seen the first fifteen minutes could have predicted it. The sex depictions are all overdone, mechanical, and so poorly simulated that they are more comical than erotic. Most of them are done with both participants fully clothed. The acting is wretched. Michael Des Barres presents all the depth of a rain puddle. He really seems to get into the thrusting and profanity of the sex parts, but when it comes to actually acting with Arquette and Kinski, he is adrift. Rosanna Arquette is the closest thing to an actor in this film, giving a bearable performance and looking genuinely hurt when she finally discovers that her perfect husband is a lecherous animal. Nastassja Kinski is far too compassionate as the therapist, but at least we have some acting happening here. The rest of the cast is just a collection of elevated body doubles to whom they give thought provoking lines like "hit me harder, is that the best you can do?" and "Oh, God...YES". This movie is among the worst I have ever seen, a dubious distinction given the thousands of films I have viewed. I have given it the extremely rare dishonor of rating it 1/10. Not to be seen within three hours of any meal.
Rating: Summary: awsome Review: this was a very relistic film about sex addition. I really believe the screenwriter and director should have recieve a Golden Globe nomimnaton this movie really went under the radar.
Rating: Summary: I disagree with both review sides Review: Two thumbs up...!!! Excellent...!!! A MUST-SEE for anyone who has a friend or family member who suffers from this very misunderstood disease. A riveting and accurate portrayal of the illness of sex addiction. Sammy Horn is a level 2 sex addict who leads a double life and is trapped in his own delusion and denial. Outwardly charming, intelligent, successful and respected in his community Sammy is bound by his toxic shame to a life of compulsive-obsessive behavior leading to unmanageable life-damaging consequences. The film depicts Sammy's mother as cold, distant, and emotionally and intellectually abusive. He obviously grew up in a very dysfunctional family. The movie does a great job of depicting the addictive system: a dysfunctional family creates a faulty belief system, leading to impaired thinking and the addictive cycle, resulting in unmanageability and leading back to reinforcement of a faulty belief system. Sammy goes through his life preoccupied with the mood altering experience of sex leading to ritualized behavior which in turn leads to his sexually acting out and ultimately to despair, which sets him up for another fix. He sexually acts out to medicate his own emotional pain. Sammy's acting out is devoid of love, affection, and intimacy. As Sammy struggles from day to day, his illness (manifested in contradictions, lies, deceipt, and delusion) slowly and surely destroys his family relationships. Only when he surrenders to outside help, therapy and Sex Addicts Anonymous, does he have any chance of recovery. Even then, he slips back into his delusion and denial. I strongly recommend the following books on sex addiction: "Out of the Shadows" and "Don't Call It Love" by Patrick Carnes, PhD, "Women, Sex, and Addiction" by Charlotte Kasl, and "Back From Betrayal" by Jennifer Schneider, MD.
Rating: Summary: FINALLY an accurate portrayal of sex addiction Review: Two thumbs up...!!! Excellent...!!! A MUST-SEE for anyone who has a friend or family member who suffers from this very misunderstood disease. A riveting and accurate portrayal of the illness of sex addiction. Sammy Horn is a level 2 sex addict who leads a double life and is trapped in his own delusion and denial. Outwardly charming, intelligent, successful and respected in his community Sammy is bound by his toxic shame to a life of compulsive-obsessive behavior leading to unmanageable life-damaging consequences. The film depicts Sammy's mother as cold, distant, and emotionally and intellectually abusive. He obviously grew up in a very dysfunctional family. The movie does a great job of depicting the addictive system: a dysfunctional family creates a faulty belief system, leading to impaired thinking and the addictive cycle, resulting in unmanageability and leading back to reinforcement of a faulty belief system. Sammy goes through his life preoccupied with the mood altering experience of sex leading to ritualized behavior which in turn leads to his sexually acting out and ultimately to despair, which sets him up for another fix. He sexually acts out to medicate his own emotional pain. Sammy's acting out is devoid of love, affection, and intimacy. As Sammy struggles from day to day, his illness (manifested in contradictions, lies, deceipt, and delusion) slowly and surely destroys his family relationships. Only when he surrenders to outside help, therapy and Sex Addicts Anonymous, does he have any chance of recovery. Even then, he slips back into his delusion and denial. I strongly recommend the following books on sex addiction: "Out of the Shadows" and "Don't Call It Love" by Patrick Carnes, PhD, "Women, Sex, and Addiction" by Charlotte Kasl, and "Back From Betrayal" by Jennifer Schneider, MD.
Rating: Summary: Pretty damn awful.... Review: What an embarrassment. My main question is why would two such accomplished actresses as Rosanna Arquette and Natassia Kinski fall so low to be in this film?? I gave it two stars...one for each actress...because that's about all this travesty deserves. And why is it shot on video?? Lack of budget? Or is this director trying to make some kind of point by using video?? The story could be good, but the main character is so totally repulsive and the actor is wrong for the part; what the audience needs to make this film SOME kind of a success is a protagonist to care about. The film needs a better actor to bring out the self-loathing within the character and at the same time to suggest qualities that would make him likeable so as to gather some kind of sympathy from the audience; as we have it, this actor makes a few facial grimaces to suggest his conflict, then off we go on another sexual escapade. He's totally one-dimensional. The direction is awkward and clumsy, and at some points Natassia Kinski looks downright embarrassed to be in this thing. The only thing I found believeable was Grace's (Arquette) reaction at the film's end, although I severely doubt that ANY wife would be so ignorant all along about her husband's activities ("indiscretions" sure isn't the word in THIS case). See this film only if there's nothing else in the cinematic world to watch. Maybe one day we'll have a GOOD film on this topic as it's one that desperately needs to be explored, and it cries out for a better treatment than what we have (or lack) here.
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