POWER OF LOVE

Power of Love starring Inari Vachs, Taylor St. Clair, Mia Smiles, Ava Vincent, Angelica Sin, Monica Mayhem, Brandi Lyons, Evan Stone, Dale DaBone, Ian Daniels, Rich Handsome, Joey Ray, and Max Steele and directed by Nick Orleans.

The Plot: Evan Stone had rather etrade than have sex with his girlfriend, Taylor St. Clair. On the advice of her girlfriend, Monica Mayhem, Taylor St. Clair signs Evan up for some re-education classes at The Love Foundation run by Inari Vachs. At The Foundation, Evan is enrolled with two other men: Dale DaBone who is obsessed with comic books and Ian Daniels, a sports nut. All three are put through various experiences to help focus their minds on sex and less on their other interests.

: The plot of Power of Love was sketchy and I had to fill in parts of the story that felt left out. I think The Foundation was turning men into a sort of "Stepford" husband/boyfriend. Near the end of the movie, Evan Stone has sex with Inari Vachs and she decides what she has been doing at The Foundation was all wrong....I know pretty bad and pretty damn chauvinistic.

This is a terrible movie with only one thing or actually, in this case, one person who kept it from being an absolutely total waste of time, Evan Stone. His "hammy" (in a good way) style of acting was enough to keep me sloughing through Power of Love until the end credits. The problem is one person can't save a disastrous piece of film-making like Power of Love. I would rate this one a D, but taking into consideration the musical soundtrack is basically just a loud, pounding, headache inducing drum machine throughout the whole film, I'm rating Power of Love a D-

MISBEHAVIN

MisBehavin' starring Leslie Bovee, Gloria Leonard, Kurt Mann, Dick Galan, Eric Edwards, Arcadia, Molly Malone, Jack Wrangler, Marc Valentine and directed by Chuck Vincent

The Plot: Leslie Bovee has been married numerous times. Once she divorces one of her rich husbands, she takes half of their money. God and The Devil make a bet about whether her next marriage will be for love or money and they both try to influence the outcome.

There are two other sub-plots in MisBehavin' - Molly Malone, Bovee's ex-Mother-In-Law is upset about Bovee collecting the divorce settlement from her son. She makes numerous unsuccessful attempts to kill Bovee. Malone is so completely incompetent she reminded me of the coyote in The Roadrunner cartoons. The other sub-plot is about Marc Valentine, a spurned lover of Bovee's who is trying, also very unsuccessfully, to commit suicide.

: Andrew Sarris has defined screwball comedy as "a sex comedy without the sex". MisBehavin' is a screwball comedy with sex. It contains all the necessary elements: the farcical situation of God and The Devil making a bet on humans with the rewards being souls, a plot involving marriage/courtship, slapstick, and different classes of people. The only element it really seemed to be missing was fast talking repartee. This last element was replaced with the characters "breaking the fourth wall" and talking to the audience.

The least interesting parts of MisBehavin' turned out to be the sex scenes. While they were integrated into the plot and weren't long and drawn out like modern day sex scenes, they were for the most part uninteresting and generated little or no heat.

The non-sex parts of MisBehavin' on the other hand were great fun to watch. It had a well thought out logical plot with LOTS of humor (even if sometimes, that humor did resort to some stale jokes). With the two running sub-plots, as mentioned above, the characters "breaking the fourth wall", and a surprise ending, this all added up to make for an enjoyable viewing. Without the sex scenes MisBehavin' would still be worth recommending, something I usually can't say when reviewing a XXX movie, I grade MisBehavin' a solid B.

A final note relating to my other blog Gonna Put Me In The Movies, the band Harlequin appears during the outdoor party scene at the first of MisBehavin' playing the song "Stray Pussy".

TATTLE TALE

Tattle Tale starring Jessica Drake, Rocco Reed, Kirsten Price, Marcus London, Monique Alexander, Randy Spears, Georgia Jones, Dylan Ryder and directed by Francois Clousot

The Plot: Rocco Reed is a reporter for a gossip magazine. He shows Jessica Drake evidence of her father being involved in a ponzi scheme. If she doesn't help him get the dirt on her socialite friends, he'll run it in the magazine. Reluctantly Jessica agrees, but later finds out Reed was mainly interested in saving his magazine from going out of business (I was never clear why this plot point was added late in the movie, since it really didn't add much to the story). There's a small twist at the end of Tattle Tale, but I won't spoil it by revealing it here.

: Tattle Tale had a lot of trouble with its plot. Although the plot was simple, half the time the movie would jump to a scene leaving the viewer left to fill in how we got to that part of the story. I could blame this on either bad editing or a weak storyline. Considering the big reveal of Rocco wanting to save his paper came so late in the movie, I'm guessing the plot wasn't very well thought.

The other weakness of Tattle Tale was the acting. Only Kirsten Price can be commended for her acting. I have seen every actor in this movie previously (except for Georgia Jones) and I know they are more capable than the performances they gave in Tattle Tale.

Francois Clousot's camera work was great as usual and he briefly was able to make the camera "love" Monique Alexander's body. Clousot just didn't sustain it through Monique's entire sex scene as he did with Kirsten Price in the first sex scene in Lies. Speaking of sex scenes, the ones in Tattle Tale ran around 10-15 minutes allowing the movie to flow at a more even pace.

Tattle Tale wound up being a slight disappointment, since with all talent involved - both stars and director - I was expecting much more. Taking into consideration the weak plot and acting I can only give Tattle Tale a C.