Sexual Predator (2002)

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Blistering performances.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

I bought this on DVD for £2 not really expecting much. I knew the two leads but no one else in the film. Ms Everhart had impressed me in small roles in Jade & Trigger Happy. Richard Grieco is a reasonably competent C grade actor but I didn't expect too much, I was quite surprised. For me this movie worked if you don't expect too much. I thought Angie Everhart was attractive and quite competent in her role and Richard Grieco was relatively believable in his role. The ending was pretty good and overall it was not a great movie, but one I would watch again. Some scenes were quite erotic and Ms Everharts nudity was worthwhile. Certainly better than most Shannon Tweed, Shannon Whirry offerings.

Spoilers herein.I make a hobby out of finding interesting things in bad movies. Soft porn is a pretty promising playground for this because so many talented people seem to be involved while waiting for something else.And gosh, this project is almost worth recommending.As a thriller it actually works! -- at least so far as the way that the story is structured and paced. The acting is generally bad but in a twist the supporting actors are much worse than the main ones. In fact Angie is no worse than what we accept from Julia Roberts. That's not saying much, and what she does is far less than what the role demands. But that's because the role is surprisingly complex and demanding. Grieco is even better in his greasy Mickey Rourke manner. He is the person who made this happen outside the film and within it. He's not a Vincent Gallo, but there is an edge there. His director and cinematographer let him down though. As old fashioned late eighties soft porn, it sort of works too I suppose. I continue to be amazed at the rocking horse moaning that is supposed to represent copulation. I continue to be repelled at the defacing of natural beauty these women go through for increased breast size. The real star of these scenes is the actress who plays Lisa, the woman killed in the beginning. She is pretty good at what she does and not unnaturally deformed either. Her effects are taken from the much superior "Realm of the Senses." Elsewhere, in her supposedly "frumpy" mode, Angie actually is attractive.Oh well, the real prize for slogging through it is what I call "folding." That's where elements are reflected in other elements, most often in selfaware selfreference. For instance, we have here a photographed film whose chief character is a photographer, and the discovery of his relationship (the relationship of what he does and photographs to what we see as photographed) is through photographs of secondary characters. There are lots of overlaps where what we see as the film are snaps of photographs IN the film. Some art gallery conversation about folding of the photographer's erotic art.There are few reflections of who controls who: a relatively novel juxtaposition of the criminal justice system and bondage and domination in sex. This blurs into the obligatory soft porn convention of our heroine having sex with at least two men. Not unclever. One is the cop, the other the "bad" guy naturally. More: the folding of Angie?s past with what we see ? and why ? is the final revelation.For me, it is another fine example of how ordinary these sophisticated notions have become. Just this time, the film was of much higher quality than usual.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 4: Has some interesting elements.

This movie was pretty much what I expected and Angie looks great throughout. The plot was so-so with the end being somewhat predictable. The only reason I wrote this review is that I just can't believe the casting of "Beth"'s (Angie Everhart) boyfriend!!!!! Not even in the bizarro universe could a guy who looks like that (AND whimpers like a little puppy in several scenes) get a second look from a woman who looks like Angie, let alone being a steady boyfriend. I know they try to make her look frumpy in the beginning as though he may be in the same league with her, but it just doesn't make any sense......

Another obvious attempt to cash in on the "Basic Instinct" craze about Law Enforcement officials getting a little too sexually involved with their charges. The story would have worked better if the antagonist had been a little more menacing.However, Angie Everhart seems to have that 40's style screen siren glow that has been sadly missing from the movies for decades. All light on the set seems to radiate from her when she is on the set, despite a few lapses by the Director of Photography.She also does a very competent job of striking a balance between a vengeful parole case worker and a sexually repressed (more like kinky sexually repressed), but knowingly gorgeous women.I hope Angie finds her break through role. If she doesn't, I guess she can always marry the prince of Monaco!