Strike a Pose (1993)

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Movies like the forgotten "Strike A Pose" were made for a different generation. Cinemax and Showtime would air these after midnight for naughty insomniacs and people who were too shy to buy a Playboy. Have you ever noticed that there are less and less big name actresses doing nude scenes? Back in the 70s, 80s and 90s it was ubiquitous: Jamie Lee Curtis, Brooke Shields, Phoebe Cates, etc. Nowadays since you can watch any type of sex/nude/fetish scene on your iPad there really isn't a demand for nudity in narrative films (not even in horror movies) rather more focus on mass appeal and some minor titillation, that's what makes money in the digital age. Back in 1993 there wasn't any Google but there was a huge demand for cheap, bad movies so long as they had plenty of pointless nude scenes. Sure this is a soft core porno thinly disguised as a narrative film meant for cable but what a lot of people miss is the wretched acting by wannabe Calvin Klein model Robert Eastwick and his merry band of models who are out-acted by inanimate objects around them, absolutely terrible synth music that makes Video Poker music sound like Abbey Road, inexplicable stains in the ex-con's motel room and a "surprise" ending that you can see coming a mile away. Don't watch this thinking this was just another bad movie, this was soft core meant for insomniacs with bad taste in movies. They did try a little bit at the end to hint at a sequel but even the director probably knew in his head that that wasn't going to happen.

Film is about sex, nude modeling, a cop, sex, nude modeling, a photographer, and oh yes some more sex. A nearly non-existent "plot" gives way for some really streamy sex scenes, studly men, and hot looking women in the buff. If this is your kind of thing, you should more then enjoy this. Unrated; Extreme & Graphic Sexual Content, Nudity, Violence, and Profanity.

I caught this movie on Cinemax a few years ago. Plot? I didn't notice any, really. There was a small bit of "acting," and lots of girls taking their clothes off and making really ridiculous poses. The one aspect of this movie that surprised me the most was the 5-minute sex scene between two of the models, which, while tame, was still pretty pornographic for cable TV. I mean, it's not every day that you can turn on the TV and see oral sex on cable. Nevertheless, even that scene couldn't save this movie from the multitude of cinemagraphic diseases it seems to be infected by.

It's safe to say I was disappointed in this flick. The whole "cop revenge" thing was just a distraction to the many topless models you see during the movie. That's if you actually sat through the entire thing. Personally, I'd stay for the first 15 minutes. In that 15 minutes, you see the scene in the convenience store where the cop in question shot and killed one of two robbers and the cashier (this event keeps recurring, which drives him to seek revenge on the other thief in the store), a parade in the opening credits of most of the models you'll see in the flick (if you stick around for it), a meaningless scene with the cop saying "hi" to his photographer girlfriend, and a pretty decent sleeping bag sex scene between them. Having sex in the cold of the desert night in a sleeping bag is quite fun, I guess. Well, that's the first 15. If you seen that, you know how the rest of the movie goes. The sleeping bag scene is the ONLY (and I do mean ONLY) thing that keeps this flick from getting an F. Poor, poor, poor!