Customer Reviews

Body Shots

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

All I can say after having watched this movie is, "What the heck?..."

So a group of guys goes out to a bar to meet up with a group of girls. We all know what that's like, right? And let's be honest here, more than a few of us know what's on the mind at this point. And, in fact, we're right: People - *gasp* - have sex.

Then the tricky twists arise. Well, too many for there to be any real resolution to any of them.

By far, of course, the "date rape" plot line is the most powerful and socially relevant. Did she consent? Was she even capable of consenting? Or, to the contrary, did she actually scream "NO" repeatedly?

Now THAT would have been a good plot line to follow. We're interested. We see the conflicting points of view, and it's fascinating to know that there is NO other witness, and it's his word against hers. While the movie does take this plot line adequately through -- including to its less-than-satisfying conclusion -- it muddies up the progression of this situation with a HUGE slew of otherwise irrelevant and horribly uninteresting sex twists.

Of the four or five couples who end up having sex that night, we really do only really care about the one, right? I mean, in terms of plot line develpment, I don't think we really care about the particular kinky perversions of Batgirl. And yet we're told about it anyway.

All in all, it seems to me that this movie spends too much of its time trying to work "sex sex sex" into its reels -- probably in an effort to draw viewers who really don't care about the meaty date rape plot line -- and the end product suffers as a result.

Body Shots is an interesting premise. Mix reality tv (at the the time) like the Real World, fill it with hot young actors, make sure there is a movie plot, make sure there is a lot of sex, and watch it fly. Well unfortunatly thats what they did.

Body Shots is about a group of eight adults, four men and four women who all have different opinions on sex. It's Friday so they all decide to go clubing. The next day all of them got some, but unfortunatly some not in the way they wanted. After the initial club scene where they got drunk they wake up the next day. The latter part of the film ends up focused on the incidenet between Jerry O'Connell and Tara Reid as she claims he raped her. However they were both so drunk they don't remember what happened.

Overall the movie is Ok at best. The only really redeeming value is that we got to see some of Tara Reids Naughty Parts. Past that the movie features a lame been there done that plot, weak sex, poor acting, and overall not what was expected from what seemed like an interesting idea.

I'm totally biased because I just adore Sean Patrick Flanery, but that said I simply cannot figure out what this movie was meant to do. Is it hip, fresh, and fun? or is it massively depressing and meant to make twentysomethings cringe at themselves and their lifestyles?

I've spent (way too much) time thinking about it, and I'm just now figuring out some parts of the movie. For instance: the very last scene in the movie, I totally didn't understand until I realized that it was another victim of the bizarre flashback/flashforward/flashsideways direction. As for the whole date rape part of the movie...I'm going to have to stop caring about it and trying to take sides. In both sides of the story--the he said, the she said parts--you can see where something could be misconstrued or how one moderate-sized mistake could snowball so quickly into a massive mistake.

Positive sides? Well, Ron Livingston was a riot playing a totally irritating guy who thinks nothing of sleeping in the gutter for a few hours, literally. He was a little cartoonish at times, but in the end, I think the movie needed his outlandish character. Otherwise it would've turned into an R-rated Lifetime movie.

Final answer? If you like Ron Livingston, Sean Patrick Flanery, Amanda Peet, Brad Rowe, or Tara Reid, you could possibly enjoy parts of this movie. If you're looking for a movie about twentysomethings in the 90s, please look elsewhere! If this defines my generation, I'd like to turn in my Gen X membership card!

If "Body Shots" did not start with scenes of a young woman bruised and bleeding, obviously the victim of a sexual assault, the abrupt shift that this 1999 movie takes would have been similar to those who went to see "Million Dollar Baby" thinking it was just a boxing film. Indeed, even having been shown what is going to happen to one of these characters and knowing that we are seeing the events that lead up to the incident it is easy to forget that is what lies ahead in the first half of "Body Shots," which was written by David McKenna ("American History X," "Blow") and directed by Michael Cristofer ("Gia"). That is because the early part of this film involves lots of direct to camera statements by the characters, and then after the pivotal incident the fourth wall is slammed back up in our faces.

The scope of the film is basically 24 hours in the lives of eight young, attractive people trying to live and have sex in L.A. The four women are Jane (Amanda Peet), Sara (Tara Reid), Whitney (Emily Procter), and Emma (Sybil Temchen), and the four men are Rick (Sean Patrick Flanery), Michael (Jerry O'Connell), Trent (Ron Livingston), and Shawn (Brad Rowe). The two quartets meet at a club, engage in heavy drinking and end up pairing up for the night. Jane and Rick seem to be the smartest of the bunch so they end up together, while Sara leaves with Micheal, who plays for the Raiders. The thing is, Sara has been dating Shawn, who responds to this affront by taking Emily out to the alley. That leaves Trent to end up spending the night with Whitney, who turns out to have another side to her sweet disposition.

There is a strong documentary-like element to the first part of the film, where most of the characters get to weigh in on various matters, usually sexual, that are under discussion. This allows us to get lots of views about everything from what constitutes "sex" to whether or not teeth are a good thing to bring into play during a particular endeavor. However, given what is going to happen in this film these exchanges of personal philosophies are not simply an opportunity to run the gamut of viewpoints but an opportunity to judge the characters. This will become critical in trying to make any judgment as to what really happened between Sarah and Michael.

Sara says that she was raped by Michael and he denies it. When he hears the news Trent says he could totally see that happening. What we see is first his version of what happened and then her version of the same events. The obvious cinematic reference point would seem to be to "Rashomon," but "Body Shots" does not get that far. In Akira Kurosawa's film we had three different versions of the same story, each of which revealed something about the character once you established their motive for distorting what happened. Here we have only two versions, the basic "she said/he said" dilemma. But at the end of "Rashomon" we do get the "truth," as the woodcutter confesses he saw what "really" happened, an understanding that allows us to go back and reconsider the other three stories a second time. But "Body Shots" does not get to the "truth" and we do not know what really happened.

This will drive some viewers to distraction, and obviously has. However, it is significant that Jane and Rick, who are the two smart ones, do not have to decided whether they believe Sarah or Michael, because they do not hear both stories. Jane only hears what Sarah has to say, and Rick, as Michael's attorney, only hears his side. But even without hearing the other side, each has to decide whether at face value they believe their friend. The chilling part of this story is that since both sides are believable (Michael is truly amazed and outraged while Sarah is really bruised and bleeding) who we decide to believe could be based entirely on our gender. Guys will believe Michael and women will believe Sarah, and what implications are we to draw from that rather chilling impasse?

Ultimately, the problem with "Body Shots" is not that we are left to construct our own meaning from these events and render our own personal judgment as to whom we believe (with an emphasis on being able to explain why so that there is an actual articulation of reasons as opposed to going on a gut instinct based on gender), but that the approach of the first half of the film contrasts too much with the second. These characters are glib when it comes to talking about sex, but is this just a stylistic approach of the film, a way for the writer to show off with all the outrageous topics and thoughts he can have come out of the mouths of these characters, or is it a lesson in itself? Because if the second part of the film does not teach a clear lesson, perhaps the first half does. Maybe the second part is not the wake up call, maybe it is the first half and that when Sarah assures us that sex is "just sex" she has doomed her character to her fate.

The plot? Where? Tara Reid nude? Worth every penny! I recommend for that scene alone!

This film flounders by taking the serious subject of date rape and trying to mix it with the twenty-something licentious overdrive of "Sex in the City". Written by David McKenna ("American History X") and directed by Michael Cristofer ("Original Sin"), this screenplay has potential that is dissipated by trying to make it too sexy and hip.

The story starts with Sara (Tara Reid) coming to a friend's house in the middle of the night in her nightgown with face bloodied, claiming to have been raped by her date. We then shift to the events that preceded the alleged attack, as we meet our eight yuppies whose raging hormones are searching desperately for release by means of drunken stupefaction. Interspersed, we receive asides from each of the characters giving their honest and somewhat immature views on sex and relationships. This part of the film is utterly vapid and self indulgent, full of gratuitous sex and nudity, seemingly just to impress us with how shallow and hedonistic these young people are.

After a night of wild and lascivious dancing, everyone gets blotto and hooks up with someone for meaningless flesh pounding. Sara, who has been involved all night in dancing that can only be described as coital pantomime with pro football player Mike Penorisi (Jerry O'Connell), decides to take him home in a taxi after he finishes beating up a guy who bumped into him in the bar.

Fast forward to the present and each participant gives a flashback description of the events, Sara describing being forcibly raped despite her protestations, and Mike describing an nymphomaniac using him to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend and who became infuriated when he called her by the wrong name. The evidence supports both views, with Sara's behavior before the incident clearly provocative and slutty, and her emotional and physical state afterward extremely sincere and convincing. The picture is further clouded by the fact that both were extremely drunk and the reliability of their statements is questionable.

The rape storyline is fertile ground for an excellent drama, but Cristofer draws away abruptly just when the story gets interesting and returns to soliloquies of the various characters giving their reflections on the events that just occurred. The film thus leaves the viewer extremely unsatisfied with the outcome.

Ultimately, the film seems to be trying to make the point that this event was inevitable given the dangerous and irresponsible behavior of the characters. Cristofer tries to infuse the story with the moral that loving relationships are better than promiscuous drunken encounters, but his final scenes are too abstruse to make the argument with any power.

This is a good showcase for some young talent. Most impressive is Tara Reid, best known as Vicki in "American Pie". Reid gives a gut wrenching performance, sexy when she needs to be and utterly devastated after the incident. Sean Patrick Flannery is also good as the nice guy who feels that he has to act like a sex obsessed jerk to fit in with his friends. He has a couple scenes with Amanda Peet that are heartfelt and touching. Peet gives a surprisingly good dramatic performance that is a far cry from the ditzy parts for which she is getting known lately. Jerry O'Connell does well as the jock with the untamed libido. Ron Livingston is outrageously abrasive and droll as Trent, the obnoxious dweeb with an overblown sense of self importance.

This could have been a good film, but it takes the wrong approach to a serious contemporary subject. I rated it a 6/10. While the moral of the story is constructive, the presentation overemphasizes the very behavior it is criticizing, and neglects the true human interest story by skirting the serious issue. Some respectable acting performances, especially by Tara Reid, are reduced by the film's superficiality.

Well, if you have only watched 10 minutes of this movie, I will just let you know now that Tara Reid driving around in the Mercedes in the rain, with the cut on her forehead claiming to have been raped is about as far as this movie went to describe what happened. If you think you are going to get the answer to this controversial question------GUESS AGAIN.
That's all I have to say, and that the movie drags on and on.
P.S. Tara Reid got me to see the movie because I think she's really great---otherwise I don't think I would have seen it in all actuality.
Thanks,
C

I saw this on the big screen and I was very disappointed. The producers were going for a film which would leave it's audience questioning their own views on sex and love, but it did not. Throughout the movie the cast remarked about life, love and sex trying to sound profound but succeeding in sounding fickle. The most interesting part, and the reason I gave it 2 stars, was the way the cast protrayed the recollection of the same event by two different people of the opposite sex. The film should have focussed on that plot and developed it further. The rest of the movie was actually a waste of time.

This movie is pretty brutal. Irritating characters talk to the camera and tell you the laws of dating as if they could maintain a relationship for more than Mardi Gras weekend. At one point a character says "Sex without love equals violence." No, this movie without alcohol equals violence.

A group of guys including Jerry O'Connell (I liked him better when he was the fat kid), head out to hook-up with some fly honeys, yo. But that's all whack, yo. Ahem. Obnoxious, isn't it. Jerry goes home with Tara Reid and they have sex. Or was it [violation]? There is a lot of other sex, but the story seems to focus...actually it doesn't focus at all. It's just a series of vignettes. ... I like Tara Reid when she's herself, but she's played so many unlikable characters I'm beginning dislike her. Ditto for Amanda Peet.

Highest recommendation to avoid. If you need dating tips, try [someone else].

I have the movie Body Shots it started out just about them having sex. About the middle of the movie the plot just changed It suddenly became about a mystery and trying to solve it. Great acting (Tara Reid, Amanda Peet) TERRIBLE ENDING does not even have an ending you expect the movie to start after the credits. I liked what they were doing with the movie at the beggining but then it got jumbled and confusing. If you like rape sex movies with bad plots then this movie is for you if not dont waste your time.