Angels and Insects (1995, US/UK)

Director/co-scripter Philip Haas' controversial, visually-striking costume drama, an adaptation of A. S. Byatt's novella titled Morpho Eugenia, was set in Victorian England. The film was the first to be slapped with an NC-17 rating (later released unrated or R) for one brief scene of male genital nudity (with a semi-erection). It occurred when actor Douglas Henshall left the bed of a woman and pulled on his pants with his penis remaining semi-stiff.

It was the tale of lower-class, penniless entomologist-naturalist William Adamson (Mark Rylance) who had returned (after a decade) in 1858 from the Amazon in South America with an invitation to reside with his high-class wealthy patron-benefactor - a gentrified country minister and amateur insect collector named Sir Harald Alabaster (Jeremy Kemp), his fat wife Lady Alabaster (Annette Badland) and his large family of seven girls and one son. Shipwrecked, he was able to bring back the only thing saved -- a rare species of butterfly, the Morpho Eugenia. Inevitably, although he was an outsider to the world of privilege, William fell in love with Alabaster's lovely, other-worldly, and enigmatic eldest daughter Eugenia (Patsy Kensit), drawn to her like a moth to light, although she was entirely in a different social stratus.

William wooed her into marriage at the same time that a younger sister became engaged. The only opposition to the marriage, presumably for class reasons, was from Eugenia's wastrel, spoiled brother Edgar Alabaster (Douglas Henshall), the estate's heir ("You are under-bred, sir, and you are no good match for my sister. There is bad blood in you, vulgar blood"). It was unusual that the five quickly-produced offspring of their marriage looked nothing like William.

At the same time that Eugenia was withdrawing her affections, gentlemanly William partnered with his poor but talented artist/writer , a governess to the younger Alabaster children. They worked together on an ant colony research project taking many months - she was much wittier and smarter than William's wife (causing Eugenia jealousy and dissatisfaction).

[Note: There were clear parallels between the insect world and the Alabaster family - Lady Alabaster was the Ant Queen, while her children were her larval offspring.]

The story's revelation by the conclusion involved the dark, hidden, and shocking sexually-transgressive secret of incest (an anagram of insect!) between deceitful Eugenia and her perverted brother Edgar, who was also promiscuous with young female servants. William left to return to the Amazon, accompanied by Matty.

Beyond the Clouds (1995, Fr./It./Ger.) (aka Al di là delle nuvole, or Par-Delà Les Nuages)

This multi-part drama (by elderly, speech-impaired 83 year-old master Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni with German/Dutch co-director Wim Wenders) was an artsy, erotic, puzzling and pretentious group of four interconnected vignettes or short stories (based on Antonioni's own book "That Bowling Alley on the Tiber"). Each one was about the romantic obsession of male-female relationships between strangers coming together under chance circumstances, with plentiful female nudity. It was a box-office hit in Europe, but made little impact in the US.

The film was set up by having a wrap-around device to frame the stories. John Malkovich (as a wandering, imaginative American film director akin to Antonioni), was searching for locales for stories and filming. He pretentiously spoke:

"..we know that behind every image revealed, there is another image more faithful to reality, and in back of that image there is another, and yet another behind the last one, and so on, up to the true image of that absolute, mysterious reality that no one will ever see...."

The First Story: "Story of a Love Affair That Never Existed"

The film's couple had a chance meeting in a small Italian town of Ferrara at a hotel where they were both staying - they were city water pump technician Silvano (Kim Rossi-Stuart) and slender, beautiful schoolteacher Carmen (Ines Sastre). She waited for him in her room, but he fell asleep while waiting for the right moment. Then the two reconnected three years later after they ran into each other at the cinema.

They had a non-touching 'perfect' and unconsummated sexual encounter. Silvano moved his hand tantalizingly over willing Carmen's naked chest, especially over her too-perfect breasts - without physically touching her and then inexplicably left her apartment (with her lying in only her panties and physically untarnished on the bed) without following through on their mutual attraction.

The First Story - with Carmen (Ines Sastre):

The Second Story: "The Girl, the Crime..."

The director met a shapely seaside Portofino shop clerk credited as The Girl (Sophie Marceau), stalked her through narrow alleyways, and then made love to her in his hotel room as the murderess (although acquitted) admitted that she stabbed her father to death 12 times.

The Third Story: "The Wheel" and "Don't Try to Find Me,"

Set in Paris, it was about married New Yorker Roberto (Peter Weller) caught in a three-year relationship between his drunken wife Patricia (Fanny Ardant) and his Italian mistress Olga (Chiara Caselli) whom he met in a cafe.

Black Day Blue Night (1995)

Writer/director J.S. Cardone's neo-noirish, adventure crime-thriller was about a road-trip, with themes of robbery, deceit, adultery, confused identities, and sexual situations in the desert - and a flurry of closing plot twists and abrupt murders. The hapless women-in-peril and road-trip script cleverly kept the audience guessing about how things would end - and its awkward, bloody resolution at a hot springs was convoluted, somewhat preposterous, and confusing.

It suffered from limited distribution (by Republic Pictures) and low-budget production, due to the fact that it was released only on VHS-tape in the US (although via DVD in other countries). This film was the third of director Cardone's Arizona crime trilogy, following A Row of Crows (1991) with Katharine Ross and Shadowhunter (1993). It arrived in the wake of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994), and was very similar in many ways to Thelma & Louise (1991) and Red Rock West (1993). Its tagline was: "What's in a night?"

The title-credits sequence was a foreshadowing of the film's plot - a tarantula was briefly upended onto its back on a desolate road by the strong draft created by an unmarked Chevrolet police cruiser that drove over it while speeding across the desert; the creature righted itself and continued on its way.

In the opening sequence, investigative cop Lt. John Quinn (J. T. Walsh) from Provo, Utah drove up in his 1995 Chevrolet Caprice to an accident-crash site where - after an armored truck robbery, the getaway car fled from Provo (with two of the three robbery suspects dead); a dislodged, opened suitcase had scattered cash over the landscape - the closest town was Hanksville, Utah about 20 miles further south in southern Utah. Another police trooper noted about the scene of carnage that the getaway car with two robbers inside (actually there were three passengers, but the one in the back seat had survived and fled!) had presumably struck a cow in the road and turned over:

"They hit that cow over there. They must have rode over it a couple of times. They're both dead. One male, one female. S--t, there must be a million dollars scattered out here. You think it's them?"

That night during a thunderstorm, at the Desert Sands Motel in Hanksville, armed and disgruntled Hallie "Hal" Schrag (Mia Sara) suddenly shot her way through one of the cheap motel doors where she came upon her creepy, abusive and unfaithful husband Bo Schrag (Tim Guinee) having sex with an attractive, profanity-spewing, short-haired, butch-like, bleached bottle-blonde Rinda Wooley (Michelle Forbes); with her gun aimed at him, Hallie threatened: "I'm gonna kill you, Bo!"

Wronged Wife Hallie "Hal" Schrag (Mia Sara)

Greasy Spoon Fry-Cook Rinda Wooley (Michelle Forbes)

Bo's mistress Rinda was shocked that the local stud Bo, an inveterate liar, hadn't informed her that he was married:

"F--k, you said you weren't married....You lyin' piece of s--t! You came onto me the first time we met, and we've been foolin' around ever since, and you know it!"

As Rinda left the room, she urged Hallie: "Shoot him, for God's sakes"; immediately after the encounter, Rinda impulsively quit her part-time, greasy spoon fry-cook job in Hop Chung's Cafe, a nearby Hanksville roadside eatery (run by a Chinese couple named Hop Chung and Fat Mama) after demanding her final one week's pay (without two weeks' notice) from Fat Mama at the cash register; the angry and embittered Rinda strode out into the restaurant's parking lot, where Hallie again suddenly appeared; her first words to Rinda were: "I didn't shoot him"; she asked Rinda for a ride westward: "It's the least you could do after you f--ked my husband."

The two wronged and allied females went for a road trip in Rinda's dilapidated 1967 red Cadillac DeVille convertible (with California plates) toward Phoenix, enroute to Southern California; while driving along, the two shared a conversation - revealing that Hallie was orphaned (her father was killed in a Moab, UT mine accident 5 years earlier, and her mother died a year later from drinking); she also recounted that she was a victim of domestic abuse from her husband for three years; during the thunderstorm, when they stopped to put up the top, the car became mired in mud.

They had their first spooky encounter with side-burned drifter-hitchhiker Dodge (Gil Bellows) who also suddenly appeared out of nowhere with a suitcase, begging for a ride; Rinda refused Dodge a ride - warning him with a shot from Hallie's gun.

After sleeping overnight in the car, the next morning, Hallie was startled awake and found herself in the back seat of the vehicle parked in the lot of the Wellton Cafe; inside at a booth, Rinda told Hallie that she had slept through the night while she and Dodge were rescuing their car from the mud; as a reward, she had offered Dodge breakfast - and a lift to the cafe; they noticed that he was clinging to his dilapidated suitcase.

In a parallel storyline, the pursuit was on for a sole surviving male member of the trio of masked armored-truck robbers (Spoiler: Lt. Quinn); the case was being supervised by Provo Police Chief Morris Reed (John Beck); about $900,000 of the haul had been recovered after it was scattered by the wind at the getaway car crash site, but more than $1 million dollars was still missing (fortunately, some of newest bills were traceable); according to the Provo Tribune, after the $2 million heist, one of the criminals shot and killed a retired policeman - Lt. Quinn's ex-partner Vern Pender; the only surviving criminal still-at-large, identified as a male, was presumably hitchhiking and carrying a suitcase with the cash.

Provo (UT) Tribune: Report of Armored Truck Robbery and Death of Ex-Policeman

Provo Police Chief Morris Reed (John Beck)

Back at the crash site after the robbery, an officer noted to Lt. Quinn that the dead female suspect was Patsy Petlow (Beth Ann Styne) while the deceased male was C.W. Trig; the latter was someone the Lieutenant had busted and wounded (with Vern) in 1978 after C.W. robbed a Provo liquor store with a gun; it appeared that the third unknown, missing suspect (Spoiler: Hallie) had dragged a heavy suitcase of money into the desert away from the crash site toward Hanksville.

Meanwhile, Lt. Quinn was doggedly tracking a "third suspect (who) was in the car with the other two" - the possible "hitchhiker" suspect was wanted for armed robbery and possibly murder; with no leads in Hanksville, Quinn proceeded on to Mexican Hat, UT (a town to the south, nearing Arizona); at the Bard Store gas-station in southern Utah near the Arizona border, while the two females were in the ladies' room, Dodge filled up Rinda's red Cadillac convertible; to mislead a Utah patrolman (Dale Swann), Dodge lied that Rinda was his wife, and that they hadn't picked up any hitchhikers.

The trio of drifters ended up in a secluded place, nicknamed "Paradise" (with a hot springs) and recommended by Dodge as a place to hide out; it was across the border in NW Arizona close to the small town of Kayenta, far off the main road; along with a beautiful lake, there was a spring-fed desert hot mineral springs located in a remote canyon.

Lt. Quinn was alerted to the threesome's location after a Navajo Man (Thomas Redhouse), the Bard Store gas-station owner in southern Utah near the Arizona border, reported to Quinn that a group of three in a red convertible had passed through; they bought $20 dollars worth of gas (for a "big red Cadillac") and one of the two females - (Rinda) with "yellow hair, angry eyes, like a coyote" - unwittingly paid for the gas with one of the stolen marked bills [Note: Later, it was revealed that Rinda had been given the $20 dollar bill by Hallie!]

There under the stars and around a campfire, the trio shared stories of their difficult childhoods and other wild tales. Hallie expressed a fear of hers: "I'm out here in the middle of God-knows-where with a couple of total strangers... I could get raped, killed, no one would know," and that she had things to be regretful about; Rinda and Dodge kissed, but he said he would postpone swimming with her until the next day; he confessed he had "old records" in his suitcase, but Rinda didn't believe him. Meanwhile, Lt. Quinn spent the night in a motel in Kayenta (Kayenta was 20 miles away from the canyon - a three hours drive due to the bad roads).

Later that night under a full moon, Hallie snuck off from the car where she was sleeping, stripped naked and dipped into some hot springs; she was soon joined by Dodge, who told her: "Hey, I'm glad you didn't leave"; they passionately kissed and began to have sex; feeling miffed from afar as she quietly watched the two coupling together, Rinda felt out of place

The next morning, Rinda told Hallie: "Look, I came here for a little bit of fun, a little bit of adventure, and I had some fun. I just didn't quite get the adventure. That's OK"; she decided it was "time to move on" and proceeded on by herself to California; Hallie decided to take Rinda's advice to "stay and play for awhile"; as Rinda drove off, she told Hallie: "Don't live in fear, Hallie. It's gonna be alright"; Hallie and Dodge were left behind in the canyon (without a vehicle)

At the same time, by happen-stance, Lt. Quinn noticed that the suspect Cadillac was parked in town; he located Rinda inside a restaurant where she initially resisted his questions; he showed her the marked $20 bill used to pay for gas; she admitted that she had no idea it was stolen money: ("I didn't steal anything"); he explained about an armored truck holdup three nights earlier in Provo, UT involving the theft of $2 million dollars, with only one of the three guards still alive; also after a car crash, the sole surviving third male robber (possibly Dodge) was assumed to have been hitchhiking, and was possibly picked up by her.

Rinda Intensely Questioned by Lt. Quinn in a Restaurant

Her first reaction was anger that Dodge might have lied to her, and told her that there were only old records (rather than stolen money) in his suitcase; Lt. Quinn offered Rinda the $10,000 reward for information leading to the male suspect that was involved; Rinda promised to lead Quinn back to the canyon - accompanied by a Navajo Nation law enforcement officer named Begay (Norman Patrick Brown) sent to find Quinn by Police Chief Reed.

Meanwhile, Hallie and Dodge had just enjoyed a second night at the hot springs; the film's title was attributed by Dodge to his father: "Born on a black day, you die on a blue night."

In the film's unusual, plot-twisting conclusion, there were a number of startling and almost illogical revelations:

• once Lt. Quinn and Rinda arrived in the canyon (driven by the Navajo Nation officer in his 1983 Chevrolet Blazer truck), Quinn handcuffed Dodge with his hands behind his back - he suspected him to be the third missing robbery suspect that had taken the heist money and hidden it, but Dodge vehemently denied the charges; a search revealed that there was nothing but a "bunch" of old 33 rpm records and personal mementos in his suitcase - as he had earlier told Rinda; Quinn was incensed with Dodge: "Where's my money!...You think this is funny? I want my f--kin' money!", and dunked his head under water to get him to confess to the money's whereabouts

Lt. Quinn Wielding His Revolver

Murder of Native-American Officer Begay

Murder of Rinda

• when the Native-American officer attempted to side with Dodge and let him go, Quinn shot the officer four times - and he also murdered Rinda with two shots to her upper chest; Quinn sat down, thought to himself for a few moments, and described how he would double-cross everyone: his plan was to frame the two murders on Dodge and then kill Dodge as well
• a flashback to the armored truck-robbery revealed that Lt. Quinn was the third robber in the heist, when he removed his mask; he had been betrayed by his two partners (one male, one female) who sped off without him after the female shot and killed one of the truck's guards; then Quinn - who was recognized by another guard (his retired cop-partner Vern) shot him too; the getaway car subsequently crashed and the two robbers in the front seat died (Spoiler: Hallie in the getaway car survived!)
• Hallie watched as Lt. Quinn began to threaten to kill Dodge by drowning him under water; she blurted out: "He doesn't have it. I do!"; Lt. Quinn was flabbergasted and asked: "You?"; he approached her and she shot him dead with two blasts; he staggered backwards into the water and sank
• as the two survivors drove away in the dead Navajo officer's truck, Hallie made some startling and almost illogical revelations to Dodge, seen in flashback; a few nights earlier near Hanksville, the night of the armored-truck robbery, hitchhiker Hallie described how she was picked up and was seated in the back of the getaway car; in the front seat were a drunk male and a female who was driving; their car ran into a cow standing in the road; (Hallie was obviously involved in the aftermath of the robbery!); Hallie survived the crash - with apparent bruises (but never seen), but the other two suffered bloody deaths; she noticed cash strewn everywhere; when the sun came up and a police car approached, she took the male's gun, and then walked off with a suitcase full of money; for safe-keeping she stashed the money in a bus-depot locker in Hanksville
• Dodge proposed that they abscond with the money, slip into Nogales, Mexico and hide out with a friend of his - and "disappear"; they drove back to Kayenta, abandoned the Navajo officer's truck, and located Rinda's parked Cadillac (outside Quinn's hotel room where he had stayed); using Rinda's car keys, they drove back to Hanksville to retrieve the money in a blue suitcase at the depot; to celebrate, the two had sex in a motel room next to the opened suitcase stuffed with money; later, Dodge left a note, telling Hallie that he had briefly gone out to acquire a different vehicle for their flight to Mexico.
• in the meantime while Dodge was gone, Hallie's abusive husband Bo (with blackened skin from his grease-monkey job) suddenly barged into the hotel room with lots of questions for her (i.e., Where was Rinda? Why was she driving Rinda's car?); he opened the blue suitcase and was startled by the stacks of cash; when he asked about Dodge's whereabouts and she lied to him, he brutally slapped her across the face; he grabbed her mouth and asked: "Have you been f--king him?"; enraged, he 'kidnapped' Hallie, deposited Dodge's suitcase and the suitcase with cash in the back seat of Rinda's Cadillac, and forced Hallie to drive them away; Dodge saw them as he was returning and pursued after them in his newly-purchased used 1968 Dodge D-100 pickup truck; while driving, Hallie fought off her husband wielding a pistol
• Dodge watched from close behind as Bo forced Hallie to try and beat a speeding SP freight train at a railroad crossing, but it was clear that she wouldn't make it in time; Bo shot her dead to get the car to stop, but it was already too late and the car lost control; the car and train collided and the demolished vehicle exploded; Hallie's body was thrown from the vehicle along with the suitcase of cash

• in the film's final images, Dodge was stunned by Hallie's death as he left the scene of death and scattered money; he abandoned his truck at the intersection, ran screaming down the country road in the opposite direction, when suddenly a crop-dusting plane appeared and flew next to him on an adjacent field

The Celluloid Closet (1995)

This documentary was inspired by Vito Russo's book The Celluloid Closet (1981), and narrated by Lily Tomlin and other stars.

This was a groundbreaking compilation film about the distorted portrayal of gay men and lesbians on the big screen, from the earliest days of stereotypical representations to the present, illustrated by over 100 film clips.

The films ranged from the earliest 'gay' and 'sissy' images in the silent era and early talkies, to Dietrich's cross-dressing in Morocco (1930), to Garbo's lesbian kiss in Queen Christina (1933), and through to more recent films such as Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971), Cabaret (1972), Cruising (1980), Making Love (1982) and Philadelphia (1993).

Delta of Venus (1995)

This was another of the many Zalman King-produced, soft-core, sensually-filmed and soft-focused erotic dramas (previously he helmed Two Moon Junction (1988) and Wild Orchid (1989), and produced 9-1/2 Weeks (1986) and Siesta (1987)). It was rated NC-17 for theatrical release, but then modified for an R-rated video release.

The film was loosely adapted from Anais Nin's post-humously published erotic novel, about an American writer of erotic novels abroad in 1940s Paris named Elena Martin (Audie England) who thoroughly researched her subject matter by exploring her sexuality, while narrating in monotonous voice-over.

She encountered fellow American expatriate Lawrence Walters (Costas Mandylor), another novelist and rower on the Seine River, who told her when they first met at a party: "I know you. This morning and the morning before that, and the morning before that, on the bridge..." She confirmed: "I write at night, and at sunrise, I take a walk along the river before I go to sleep." He responded: "I know...(You're) Elena Martin, American. You came to Paris four months ago to be a writer. Works hard, keeps to herself. Could be shy, could be a recluse." Afterwards, she thought to herself after they danced: "Time stood still. We could have been on the dance floor for ten minutes or two hours. I don't know."

Shortly later, she wrote: "Before tonight, I was growing sad with restlessness and hunger. I felt that nothing would ever happen to me. I felt desperate with desire to plunge into living" - before plunging into a torrid, intimate, sexually-awakening affair with him. After he left for America, she also modeled nude for a life-drawing class ("Everyone's modeling nude, it's the rage").

To earn money at 200 francs/page, she took an assignment from her publishing agent to write pornographic stories (erotically unfolding on screen) for a wealthy benefactor (predictably mysterious) who wished to remain anonymous, thereby justifying her numerous sexual encounters in hedonistic Paris. She watched as big-busted red-headed hooker Bijou (Markéta Hrubesová) was ravished by a bald, black man. She attended an opium den where there was a naked lesbian orgy, and watched as a blind-folded man had sex with a veiled exhibitionist (Eva Duchkova).

In Opium Den: Veiled Woman (Eva Duchkova) with Blind-Folded Man

Desperado (1995)

Writer/director Robert Rodriguez' 'spaghetti-western' and Hong Kong-styled action film (a big-budget, English-language quasi-remake of his own low-budget cult classic El Mariachi (1992, Mex/US), his directorial debut feature film as writer and director), was great for action-hungry fans who wanted spectacularly cartoonish, balletic violence with lots of blood.

The neo-Western featured a smoldering love scene in a candle-lit room, shot with original camera angles and flash-cuts, between the two popular and attractive stars:

• Carolina (Mexican soap-star actress Salma Hayek in a breakthrough role), a bookstore owner senorita
• El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas in his action-film debut), a guitarist and vengeful gunslinger

El Mariachi had come to the Mexican border town Ciudad Acuna, to avenge the death of a previous lover, targeting drug lord kingpin Bucho (Joachim de Almeida) for killing his first love and for taking the use of his right hand in a gunfight.

Embrace of the Vampire (1995)

Director Anne Goursaud's R-rated erotic horror/thriller was a melding of vampires and blatant erotic sexuality of the soft-porn variety. The film was most noted for Alyssa Milano (a former TV sitcom Who's the Boss? child star) showing off her enhanced chest. The film's tagline: "The innocence is over" could have as well applied to the 'good girl' image that was shed by Milano as a result of this film.

It told the story of a virginal, repressed college freshman named Charlotte Wells (Milano), unknowingly the reincarnation of a Transylvanian Princess (June 1986 Playboy Playmate Rebecca Ferratti), who was pursued and under the spell of a handsome, kinky vampirish demon-lover and soulmate (Martin Kemp), who must have her join him in three days - or die.

He first approached Charlotte (Alyssa Milano) by appearing in her torrid, lustful dreams in the few days before her 18th birthday.

The most memorable scene was the sensual encounter during a topless photo session between Charlotte and bisexual photographer Sarah (Charlotte Lewis) who introduced her to lesbianism - she was photographed topless while Sarah teased her hair, lightly touched her chest, placed Charlotte's own hand on her right breast, lightly caressed her face and lips - and then kissed her. Later in the film, the two further explored their sexual feelings for each other, with more intimate touching and kissing.

Sensual Topless Photo Shoot Between Charlotte (Alyssa Milano) and Sarah (Charlotte Lewis)

There was also a dreamy, kinky foursome sequence - a fantasy orgy scene that Charlotte imagined.

Fair Game (1995)

This mediocre action-thriller film from director Andrew Sipes garnered considerable press for having supermodel Cindy Crawford in her feature film debut as sexy, overachieving Miami civil law attorney Kate McQueen (or McQuean).

She was targeted by a group of ex-KGB agents led by madman Colonel Ilya Kazak (Steven Berkoff), often on the run in a form-fitting T-shirt, or pulling herself up onto a dock with a wet T-shirt, or a teasing view of her changing her top - but it was a less-than superlative acting performance. She was involved in the action because she was in the process of impounding the Tortuga, a cargo ship that served as the bad guys' headquarters.

In the film's conclusion, there was one long and unbelievable blow-'em-up pursuit sequence with time-out for one obligatory (and illogical in terms of plot) sex scene from Cindy (undoubtedly with all nude appearances of Crawford performed by a body-double) in a dirty freight train car (with annoying flickering shadows) alongside co-star William Baldwin as flirtatious, cigar-smoking cop Max Kirkpatrick.

Forbidden Games (1995) (aka Games)

The only reason for this R-rated, bargain basement-priced, soft-core film's existence was to capitalize on its rampant sexuality and gratuitous nudity, offering this enticing tagline on its poster:

"Fantasy was the start. Murder was the finish."

It was not to be confused with Rene Clement's Forbidden Games (1952, Fr.) aka Jeux Interdits, of the same name.

The thinly-veiled, erotic-thriller plot opened with the murder of Charles Douglas (Jefferson Wagner), the married head of a haute couture modeling agency known as Pinnacle Models, Inc. in Los Angeles, during a kinky and deadly S&M bondage sequence (seen in the film's opening and during flashbacks) with a straight-edged razor and deadly capsule. He was very wealthy, "tough and capable," but had a "weak spot" for women. Was it a murder (due to jealousy) or an accidental death (of a heart attack)?

Opening Incomplete Flashback to Death (?) of Charles Douglas During Kinky Bondage S&M Sex

The main character was introduced in the opening scene - ex-Justice Department detective Michael Brandon (Jeff Griggs) who had a "gift" of psychic powers, dreams and visions (often used to solve cases). [Note: He spoke in tones similar to Clint Eastwood's voice in Dirty Harry (1971).] Separated from his wife Rachel (Elizabeth Sandifer) (with a pending divorce), he was being seduced by blonde Linda (Becky Mullen) in his apartment, who became miffed and stormed off when he received a phone call from Rachel.

Michael Seduced in Opening Scene
Linda (Becky Mullen) with Michael

After a high profile but incompetent investigation had been undertaken into the mystery of Charles Douglas' death a year earlier, Michael was privately commissioned to solve and end the mystery by Charles' step-daughter Shannon Douglas (Lesli Kay). [Note: She was in a lesbian relationship with her Asian-American assistant Beth (Liat Goodson).] Shannon mentioned that two key individuals probably had something to do with Charles' death:

• Tonya Douglas (Gail Harris), her step-father Charles' wife
• Shauna Fargo (Amy Weber - an ex-WWE Diva, TV-series show actress and 34C Playboy model) - Charles' mistress and partner at Pinnacle (a modeling agency)

Michael explained that he was on disability for a few years due to the stress involved from his psychic visions. However, he decided to take the case due to financial strains and the need for money ($100K to begin, and $200K more when completed). According to newspaper records, the deceased Douglas left $300 million to his grieving wife Tonya and business partner Shauna, and $100 million to charity. (Later, it was revealed that Charles' assets were frozen until the case was solved.)

His first stop was a Playboy-styled mansion with lots of bikinied models strutting around, to speak to Shauna. At an outdoor pool, he came upon the bi-sexual Shauna sunbathing naked. She claimed she had a special but loving relationship with the deceased. It was suspected that she had an intense jealousy or resentment over any of Charles' other lovers. His next stop was to speak to the widowed wife Tonya, a horse-enthusiast. During a 'Family Night' on a Friday evening at the mansion, Michael was seduced by Shauna's friend Trish (Ashlie Riley) in an upstairs bedroom, while Shauna watched. On Sunday evening, during an invitation for a horse-ride and dinner at Tonya's place, he peeped on her as she bathed.

And then in the middle of the night, he was summoned to the mansion for a threesome with Shauna and Trish - a kinky scene of blindfolded bondage that was photographed by a third female.

The film also included a traditional lesbian love-making scene in a jacuzzi-spa between Shauna and her Russian assistant Amber (Aleksandra Kaniak) while the two were surrounded by large candles and a roaring fire.

Jacuzzi-Spa Sequence

Toward the end of Michael's investigation, he realized that he and Tonya were falling in love, when he spent a full weekend with her at her invitation, including pool-swimming bathing together, and passionate love-making. He didn't know that he was being voyeuristically watched and video-taped by Shannon (for use as evidence to blackmail him).

Michael with Tonya

While Michael was in Tonya's arms, he suddenly realized (through a psychic vision) that Tonya, an unmasked Shannon, and Shauna were ALL responsible for the murder of Charles during kinky-bondage sex.

In the final revelation, Shauna and Shannon joined them in the bedroom, where Shannon claimed she had hired Michael to close out the case (with his DA friend Ron Taylor (Edward Holzman)). He was pressured to call his DA friend and claim that Charles had simply died of a heart attack, so that Charles' assets ($300 million split three ways between the females) would become unfrozen for all of them. They had compromised Michael (by setting him up and photographing and videotaping him having sex) in order to ruin him and/or to persuade him to do their bidding.

They claimed they liked Michael but were only doing what was expedient and right: "It wasn't personal. It was business...We had to do what we had to do." Shannon also bribed him by promising to give him $1 million more, not just $200K - a lucrative bribe: "We'll take care of you for the rest of your life." The threesome also claimed that Charles deserved to die and had no regrets.

In the film's final plot conclusion, Michael was surveying a notebook of clippings about the resolution of the case. The $300 million had been released to the Douglas heirs, and a tell-all about Charles' real character had been revealed - he was both a wife beater and child molester. Michael had cooperated and benefitted from his decision - he was reunited and married to Rachel (now pregnant) at a plush ocean-side home, where his life had been turned around.

Full Body Massage (1995)

This 93 minute made-for-cable TV film, directed by Nicolas Roeg, was memorable for having the most unforgettable role of full-busted (38D) actress Mimi Rogers - she starred as Nina, an art dealer and gallery owner.

The film consisted mostly of her weekly topless massage appointments with a new replacement masseur named Fitch (Bryan Brown), during which time they philosophically discussed relationships, life, art and various massage techniques. At one point, Nina mused: "Massage is sexual...very sexual," but Fitch countered: "Can be, doesn't have to be, shouldn't always be..."

A Full Body Massage Session for Nina (Mimi Rogers)

Both of the characters also experienced flashbacks of their previous encounters, in which other individuals appeared naked (Gabriella Hall as a younger Nina, and Elizabeth Barondes as Alice, Fitch's most recent relationship although she suffered a tragic death).

Ghost in the Shell (1995, Jp.) (aka Kôkaku Kidôtai)

Japanese animated films (called anime) have often featured explicit and graphic content and unflinching explicit bloody violence, first evidenced in Akira (1988).

This adult-oriented, PG-rated animation contained soft-core nudity and stylized erotica regarding the film's major character: the often nude and beautifully voluptuous but tough cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi - a special security agent resembling a Playboy Playmate-like Terminatrix.

GoldenEye (1995, UK)

The fictional femme fatale character of Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) in the James Bond film GoldenEye (1995) exhibited sexual sadism in her physically-lethal, sociopathic role.

In several memorable scenes, she displayed her 'orgasmic' pleasure in murdering others - either with a gun or with her muscle-bound thighs used as a body scissors-vice. During a love-making scene on a yacht with Canadian Admiral Chuck Farrell (Billy J. Mitchell), she achieved orgasm while suffocating him with her long legs.

And in a steam bath scene in a Russian (St. Petersburg) hotel while draped in only a robe, she battled James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) by crushing and squeezing his ribs between her bare thighs.

In the film, they also engaged in playful double-entendre lines of dialogue:

Onatopp: "You don't need the gun."
Bond: "Well, that depends on your definition of safe sex."

Haunted (1995, UK)

After an appearance in Uncovered (1994), Kate Beckinsale also appeared in this R-rated, poorly-received haunted house mystery film (similar to Henry James' The Turn of the Screw) by director Lewis Gilbert from an adaptation of James Herbert's novel of the same name. Its tagline was unconvincing: "You will Believe..."

The film, executive-produced by Francis Ford Coppola, was only released on DVD following Beckinsale's later prominence in films such as Pearl Harbor (2001).

In the story set in 1928, guilt-ridden, skeptical American paranormal psychologist Camberly University professor David Ash (Aidan Quinn) - after the accidental drowning of his twin sister Juliet (Victoria Shalet) years earlier in 1905 - investigated the supposed 'haunting' of the upper-class Webb's family country estate (Edbrook Manor) by tormented spirits.

The Sussex estate was inhabited by the elderly, mentally-troubled, tormented and frail maid, Nanny Tess Webb (Anna Massey), and three siblings:

• Christina Mariell (Kate Beckinsale), a lovely, free-spirited, flirtatious "It" girl
• Robert (Anthony Andrews), Christina's older controlling brother, artistic and aristocratic
• Simon (Alex Lowe), her wild younger brother

In the midst of trying to debunk ideas of the supernatural (he was against spiritualists and mediums), Professor David Ash met Christina, who often appeared nakedly indifferent (posing nude for her brother's painting, skinny-dipping by diving off a dock and emerging through the tree's leaves, although with a body double).

Christina (Kate Beckinsale) (mostly body-double)

He also observed the pseudo-incestuous behavior between Christina with both of her brothers, but on one occasion was able to bed down Christina himself (although Robert spied upon them from the shadows)..

In the film's twist ending, it was discovered that the house was frozen in time. The three Mariell siblings were all ghosts. As confirmation, David was led by the ghostly vision of his dead sister to the graveyard where he viewed the tombstones of the three Mariells, who died in 1923 in a fire. The Nanny had set the fires that killed them, after their distressed mother had committed suicide, upon learning of the siblings' incest.

Although he eventually was able to escape from the haunted mansion when led away to safety by his dead sister Juliet, upon his return home, he was still being stalked by Christina.

Jade (1995)

William Friedkin's sleazy, erotic psycho-thriller and murder-mystery who-dun-it from screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (with the script mostly rewritten by Friedkin) featured Linda Fiorentino (coming off her success in the previous year's The Last Seduction (1994)), kinky luridness, and aberrant sexuality, recycling Basic Instinct (1992). The film's title Jade referred to the alias of an unknown female, the main femme fatale protagonist, whose identity was a key to the murder.

A 12 minutes-longer Director's Cut (for cable and VHS tape) was released with new storyline sequences as well as extended sex scenes. The theatrical film was negatively reviewed by critics, and was a box-office flop, receiving two Raspberry Award nominations for Worst Screenplay and Worst New Star (David Caruso). Its tagline heralded:

"SOME FANTASIES GO TOO FAR."

Katrina Gavin (Linda Fiorentino) - Implicated
Sex Videotape	Katrina with Mask - as Jade
Sex Photographs

David Caruso (from ABC-TV's popular series NYPD Blue and later CSI: Miami) portrayed San Francisco Assistant DA David Corelli, who was investigating the brutal stabbing murder of millionaire Kyle Medford, a Russian Hill art collector who had a lot of friends - and enemies. The murder weapon was a highly valuable African ceremonial axe. The last person who saw him alive was Corelli's ex-lover and clinical psychologist Katrina 'Trina' Gavin (Linda Fiorentino) - a specialist in "hysterical blindness" who was now married to powerful SF lawyer Matt Gavin (Chazz Palminteri), an adulterous and philandering mate.

Photographs of Governor Lew Edwards (Richard Crenna) having sex with prostitute Patrice Jacinto (model Angie Everhart) were found in Medford's safe. A hair-cutter in a Chinatown beauty salon, Patrice was shortly thereafter run over and killed by a hit-and-run driver to prevent her from talking to the DA. In the L.A. morgue during an autopsy in mid-March 1995, the coroner noted the bruises on her naked body.

It was suspected that the Governor murdered presumed blackmailer Medford. However, Katrina appeared to also be involved in Medford's attempted blackmail. She became the prime suspect when her prints were found on the hatchet that killed Medford. She claimed innocence - that Medford had given her a tour of his artwork just before the murder. However, a sex videotape found at Medford's Pacifica beach house revealed that Katrina was also one of the call-girls - a popular one named Jade, who was having intercourse and oral sex with various clients.

In the plot-twisting finale, the case was supposedly wrapped up when some of the Governor's dirty cops: Det. Bob Hargrove (Michael Biehn) and Governor's Aide Bill Barrett (Holt McCallany) were implicated in killing witnesses, including Patrice and Medford. However, in the last scene, Katrina found that Matt had laid out B/W photographs in her bathroom, revealing her having sex with men at the beach house. Matt admitted to Katrina that he murdered Medford because Medford would eventually have blackmailed both of them. Matt delivered the final line to her: "Trina, the next time we make love, you introduce me to Jade."

Kids (1995)

Director Larry Clark's much-criticized, semi-improvised cinema verite film with lots of raunchy talk and simulated sex was considered bordering on sleazy child pornography and voyeurism (disguised as a cautionary documentary) although it was also one of the most truthful films ever made about teenage (and pre-teen) sexuality. It was released unrated to avoid the stigma of an NC-17 rating.

The naturalistic film followed a group of sex-obsessed teenagers and preteens during 24 hours of a hot Manhattan summer, in which they partied at a friend's flophouse, shoplifted malt liquor at a convenience store, watched skateboarding videos, smoked dope, got into a fight in the park, and bragged about deflowering as many new girls as possible.

In the opening scene, skinny 17 year-old skateboarder Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick) easily seduced 12 year-old Girl # 1 (Sarah Henderson). He asked: "Know what I want to do?" with the girl's blunt answers: "You want to f--k me. But you can't f--k me...You know why...'Cause I don't want no baby." He reassured her that he loved her before deflowering her:

"'Cause I like you. I think you're beautiful. And I think if we f--ked, you'd love it. You wouldn't believe it....I don't know. I just think you would love it, that's all... I just want to make you happy, that's all. You know it won't hurt. I'll be gentle, I promise."

In voice-over, as they made love amidst moans and grunts - and her complaints that it hurt, he stated:

"Virgins. I love 'em. No diseases, no loose as a goose pussy, no skank, no nothin'. Just pure pleasure."

Afterwards, he crudely bragged to his slacker pal Casper (Justin Pierce):

"I'm the motherf--kin' virgin surgeon....Once it was on, we f--ked for like a good half an hour. I had to keep taking it out and putting it back in. It hurt the first time. Didn't want to come too quick either...That bitch was so clean, dude...I think I'm getting addicted to this s--t...It's all I think about now."

Casper asked: "Hey Telly, she suck your d--k, man?" Telly answered:

"A little bit, but I really didn't want her to...Having a virgin suck your d--k, that's so basic, man. It's simple, it's easy. But like, if you deflower a girl, man, ah, man, you're the man! No one can ever do that again. You're the only one. No one has the power to do that again."

In a parallel scene of girlfriends, 16 year-old Jenny (young Chloe Sevigny), who had been devirginized earlier by Telly (her only instance of unprotected vaginal intercourse), told her promiscuous 17 year old friend Ruby (Rosario Dawson) that she was upset that she had been insensitively used, like so many others. Ruby stated the obvious:

"There's a difference between making love, having sex, and then f--king."

From experience, Telly explained how he had to give a sweet-talk spiel to his female victims: "You got to be smooth. Girls like it slow and romantic." Both groups talked about foreplay, orgasms, blow-jobs, and condom use, and it was mistakenly thought that making love with virgins would keep one safe from becoming HIV-positive and AIDS-infected. However, results of a blood test determined that Jenny's sole sexual contact with Telly was damaging, and that she was HIV-positive, while Ruby was found to be "clean."

Distraught, Jenny was determined to track down the predatory Telly, who had gone out with his friends - bringing along his latest female victim 13 year-old Darcy (Yakira Peguero). The group snuck into a fenced swimming pool area to go swimming in their underwear. Pseudo-lesbian friends Kim (Michelle Lockwood) and Joy (Carisa Glucksman), both in see-through wet bras, gave each other a long kiss. Soon, the group ended up at Steven's house party where kids were making out, smoking dope and drinking beer. At a rave party at a club called NASA, Jenny was given an "euphoric blockbuster" pill before arriving at the house party, where Telly was already seducing Darcy in the parents' bedroom with the same familiar lines. She came upon them having sex, with Darcy moaning in pain, and then Jenny passed out on a living room sofa.

The film concluded with a controversial rape scene in which hung-over Casper fondled, kissed, undressed, and then forcibly raped the unconscious, helpless Jenny (with her legs held up in the air) - possibly infecting himself. Although she weakly pleaded "no," he shushed her ("It's me Casper, don't worry").

Later, the camera panned over the many wasted teenaged bodies littering the floor of the house, including Telly in the arms of his latest conquest Darcy, as his voice spoke off-screen with this soliloquy:

"When you're young, not much matters. When you find something that you care about, then that's all you got. When you go to sleep at night, you dream of pussy. When you wake up, it's the same thing. It's there in your face. You can't escape it. Sometimes when you're young, the only place to go is inside. That's just it. F--kin' is what I love. Take that away from me, and I really got nothing."

Casper sat up the morning after and spoke directly toward the camera: "Jesus Christ, what happened?" as the film ended.

Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

Director Mike Figgis' critically-acclaimed film was shot on Super 16 film and was notable for Nicolas Cage's Best Actor Oscar win, and a Best Actress nomination for Elisabeth Shue.

It told about a romantically-involved co-dependent tragic couple:

• Ben Sanderson (Nicolas Cage), a failed, out-of-control Hollywood screenwriter and self-destructive, doomed alcoholic
• Sera (Oscar-nominated Elisabeth Shue), a needy, but high-class, street-walking Las Vegas prostitute

Sera had been degraded by her profession during her association with abusive Latvian pimp Yuri (Julian Sands), who was apparently in trouble with Russian-Polish mobsters about to murder him for bad debts. After losing his job due to chronic alcoholism, Ben's plan was to drink himself to death over a four-week period in Las Vegas while enjoying the company of the high-class hooker.

Sera was basically introduced delivering a monologue - she bragged about her skilled abilities as a call girl to her off-screen therapist:

"I bring out the best in the men who f--k me. I mean, it's not easy, but I'm very good. I mean, it's amazing. Like, I haven't worked for a really long time and boom, I can just turn on a dime. I can just become who they want me to be. I walk into that room, I know right away, this is their fantasy, and I become it. I'm that service, you know. I just, I perform it, and I perform it well. I'm an equation most of the time. Like, thirty minutes of my body is, costs $300 dollars. Well, that's just to get into the room. And then, it's about $500 dollars after that and we negotiate. But it's a performance. It's definitely a performance."

During Sera's first encounter in a hotel room with Ben, she described the few ground rules in a typical spiel:

"So for $500 bucks, you can do pretty much whatever you want. You can f--k my ass...you can come on my face...whatever you want to do - just keep it out of my hair."

But he suffered impotence (due to his drinking) although that afforded them time to talk and begin to develop a relationship.

Later in a scene by a motel pool (to Don Henley's singing of Come Rain or Come Shine), Sera straddled Ben's lap, removed the top of her one-piece black swimsuit, and enticingly nuzzled a bottle between her breasts and then poured alcohol over them for him to enjoy, before she returned the swimsuit straps to her shoulders; however, Ben fell over and shattered a glass table that left him cut, bruised and bleeding.

Booze and Sex Together at the Motel Pool

After breaking property poolside and causing issues and complaints, the two were asked to leave by the next morning: ("We get a lot of screw-ups here. Now you two, you take your loud talk and your liquor to your room. You check out first thing tomorrow. And after that, I don't want to see either one of you back here ever again. And don't you worry about payin' for anything. And don't you worry about cutting your little hands on the glass. Let's just leave it at that. See you in the morning").

The film also included the scene of Sera's brutal attack and gang rape by a group of three drunken college football jocks in their room at the Hotel Excalibur and Casino, who insisted on anal sex, but when she refused, she was beaten; afterwards, the battered and bloodied Sera washed away the blood and memory in the shower.

By film's end - in a touching final scene, sickly pal Ben was in a hotel room, when Sera came to his side and asked: "Do you want my help?" - she then coaxed and readied him to be erect for a last loving act of intercourse (Ben: "See how hard you make me, angel? You know I love you") before he expired from toxic alcohol poisoning.

The film ended with her final thoughts to her therapist (in voice-over), when she confessed her love for Ben, as she sat on the bed next to Ben's body: "I think the thing is, we both realized that we didn't have that much time, and I accepted him for who he was. And I didn't expect him to change. And I think he felt that for me, too. I liked his drama. And he needed me. I loved him. I really loved him."

Malicious (1995)

This straight-to-video, formulaic romantic thriller (similar to Fatal Attraction) was justly famous (and received most of its publicity) for featuring the only nude scene (her debut one) from red-headed, ex-Brat Pack sweetheart star Molly Ringwald - a break-the-stereotype kind of role.

Ringwald played the part of an obsessed, demented medical student named Melissa Nelson, who pursued (stalked) her college's star baseball player Doug Gordon (Patrick McGaw) - who already had a girlfriend named Laura (Sarah Lassez).

While on a boat with him, Melissa tied her partner's hands and kissed his chest down to his groin area while straddling him. She then removed her own yellow sweater to reveal her firm, bare breasts as she hungrily kissed him repeatedly as they made love.

After he rebuffed her and returned to his girlfriend, she psychotically sought "malicious" revenge and accused him of rape, as well as terrorized the couple in the predictable conclusion.

Mallrats (1995)

Director Kevin Smith's youth-oriented, R-rated romantic comedy was the second in his inter-linked, low-budgeted series of View Askewniverse films, including:

• Clerks. (1994)
• Mallrats (1995)
• Chasing Amy (1997)
• Dogma (1999)
• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
• Clerks II (2006)

The first three films, all strong cult films, were dubbed "The New Jersey trilogy."

The film's predominant setting was a suburban shopping mall in New Jersey, where T.S. Quint (Jeremy London) and slacker/videogamer Brodie (L.A. skateboarder Jason Lee in his debut feature film) hung out after being dumped by their girlfriends, Brandi Svenning (Claire Forlani) and Rene Mosier (Shannen Doherty). A Dating Game-like TV show named Truth or Date was being filmed in the mall, coincidentally produced by Brandi's father Jared (Michael Rooker). Brandi was unable to go on a Florida vacation with T.S. when her father needed her to fill in after the original contestant drowned in the YMCA's pool. Because of T.S.' over-reaction to the snub, she broke up with him. Rene also dumped Brodie for his slacker ways (comic-collecting, and SEGA videogame obsession), and had already begun dating Shannon Hamilton (Ben Affleck), a clothing store manager.

In an expected plot element, the two dopers decided to sabotage the show with the help of two drug-dealing dopers: Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (director Kevin Smith).

Gwen Turner (Joey Lauren Adams), the former girlfriend of T.S., briefly showed her breasts in a changing room scene. She was interrupted by Silent Bob, who continually was crashing into her dressing room while she was changing clothes. In the film's conclusion, she convinced Brandi that T.S. was a great boyfriend.

In one of the film's weirdest sequences, Brodie and T.S. visited a local flea market, where they consulted with a topless fortune-teller psychic named Ivannah (Priscilla Barnes, famous for the 1980s TV show Three's Company). She advertised that she offered 'barechested' readings. As the two stood contemplating the sign, they had this discussion:

T.S.: "What does palm reading have to do with being topless?"
Brodie: "No man. It makes the news easier to take. She could tell me I was gonna die in ten minutes, so long as she told me topless."
T.S.: "Your maleness amazes me sometimes."
Brodie: "What can I say? I love tits...You know, you used to like tits, too."
T.S.: "Hey, I love tits as much as the next guy, but why would I wanna pay some old hag good money for some supernatural chicanery coupled with sagging, wrinkled, weathered boobs?"

After deciding to hire the psychic for one of her readings, she charged 58 dollars and 60 cents. Shortly later, she described what was required for her psychic reading: "I should tell you something, but in order to do that, I have to work completely unfettered." She confessed that she had to be topless to give readings: "It's the only way that I'm effective." She removed her top, stroked her three bare nipples and breasts and predicted: "I can definitely sense the problem here - girl trouble." She gave them an accurate reading about their problems - their "respective steadies." She then showed off her unusual third nipple: "You can stare at it. I don't mind."

Just before leaving, Brodie began to hesitantly ask: "Do you have...", and Ivannah completed his sentence: "...any other extra body parts?" She said she didn't, but came onto him: "You could double-check me... If you like." After the two satisfied guys left to win back their girlfriends, she peeled off the third nipple, popped it into her mouth, and said to herself: "Works every time."

Money Train (1995)

It was a rare phenomenon to see Jennifer Lopez nude in a film, and this one provided that unusual glimpse.

In this action-thriller - and buddy comedy - she starred as Latina love-interest and co-worker Grace Santiago, providing the romantic spark between two foster brothers who were NYC transit police co-workers:

• Charlie (Woody Harrelson)
• John (Wesley Snipes)

Although Charlie was interested in her, it was John whom she bedded.

Their love-making was a respite from the film's plot - the two brothers planned to rob a "money train" - the armored collection vehicle (with armed guards) of the subway's daily revenue from the city's token booths.