Customer Reviews

Roxanna

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The establishment of Retro-Seduction Cinema is one of Seduction Cinema's most inspired ideas. Take an all but forgotten yet classic 1970s erotic film, release it on DVD, and make an all-new, re-envisioned version of the film starring the company's hottest starlets to go along with it. Now I know we're here primarily to talk about the lovely Misty Mundae, but let me first describe the original version of Roxanna. Directed by sexploitation legend Nick Phillips, Roxanna was the story of a young woman drawn inescapably down into the pits of perversion, drug use, etc. You get the complete, uncut version of the film; as it turns out, a 35mm negative of the film turned up only recently, and the film you see here is transferred from that. It's quite an unusual erotic film, a plot-driven and decidedly dark look at a young woman's emotional and mental breakdown. In between scenes of Sapphic delights, we see increasingly disturbing images from all sorts of unusual angles of Roxanna, whose self-destruction seems almost inevitable. The highlight of the original film, however, has to be the scene featuring Swedish sex-goddess Uschi Digart. Digart sizzles, to put it mildly. The film is quite uninhibited by 1970 standards, I'm sure, but erotica has come a long way in the intervening decades, as the 2002 remake of the film makes clear.

Misty Mundae is the new and improved version of Roxanna in the 2002 re-make. The film is built around the framework of the original, especially in terms of the music and the haunting images of a young woman descending into a pit of self-induced despair, but at the same time it is a completely different take on the subject at hand. Where the first film featured no dialogue apart from the commentary of an off-screen narrator, Misty's Roxanna features plenty of vocalization. Having already become a drug addict, Roxanna has her first lesbian experience with a young lady (played by the amazing Katie Jordan) at the behest of the man she is living with. Roxanna enjoys the experience immensely, and she soon has yet another addiction to add to her list of problems. Darian Caine and Barbara Joyce fill the roles of Roxanna's new lovers quite well indeed, but eventually Roxanna's cravings become uncontrollable, leading to an ending that, while far different from that of the original film, works quite nicely.

These aren't long movies: the original film is 51 minutes long, while the Misty remake comes in at some 37 minutes. The DVD includes a seven and a half minute interview with "42nd Street Pete," 1970s erotica expert (who gives the 2002 version of Roxanna a definite thumbs up), a short film called Despair, and trailers to additional Retro titles. Seduction Cinema has released some pretty bad movies in its time, but the new version of Roxanna is not one of them - this is an impressive, serious, weighty film. The fact that it features my favorite Seduction Cinema threesome of Misty Mundae, Katie Jordan, and Darian Caine, makes a great thing even better. Roxanna, in both of its forms, represents erotica at its very best.

"Roxanna" is supposed to be a re-make of a soft core porno from the 70's with the same name. It isn't a re-make at all, but just a loose hodge-podge of the amazing Misty Mundae (is she a Russian? I don't know but dasvedanya bolshoi!) having sex with three beautiful women: Katie Jordan, Barbara Joyce and Darian Caine. The "theme" that ties all this together is that Misty is a "Generation X" burned out dope-head, who can only "feel" things when she's being "dirty" with other women. I know how she feels. Anyway, the hairy and emasculative Josh Robinson plays Misty's perpetually limp boyfriend who introduces her to the fairer sex and then can't control the libidinal monster he created. The 70's version is more sexually charged and features Uschi Digart and lots of well-endowed blonde women who kiss each other. I thought the 70's version was more "real," but maybe that's the old Cinemax memories coming through. The interview with soft-core porn historian "42nd Street Pete" is worth buying the disc for, as he's a real authority on the subject and it's just amazing to listen to him spew his expertese. Cool! Anyways, if you are a fan of Ms. Mundae, the scene with her and Darian Caine is great and worth the price of admission. The other stuff....it's up to you. If you want a better movie of this genre with these women, check out "Witchbabe III." Now that's a blue movie....

OK, we got 3 stars here, one for the star, a pretty young girl with ace quality puffies, one for Uschi, who rolls around with the puffy girl just about as you'd like, a half star for another puffy girl later on (half star demotion for weird eye makeup), and another half star for all the playing around with the lead girl's puffies, which is precisely what you'd like to see.

Basically it's about the lead girl going crazy, presumably because of too much girl-girl sex, I don't know, I had the volume down. Anyway, every now and then it flashes to her doing weird things, once even drooling, but those parts are brief, especially on fast forward. There's some comedy in the form of portraying R rated girl sex in ways that don't really make anatomical sense, but mostly it's a soft core loop with really good girls and Uschi in one scene.

Let's see, there's also a 2002 version of the same loop, but don't bother, I'll save you the effort. And the bonus menu has a dumb thing called "Despair" that has maybe one sleaze scene that could be saved as a jpg.

I watched these films about a year ago. The so-called remake is low-budget nonsense, albeit I think Misty Mundae is incredibly sexy and has "it"--that magical, elusive quality, whatever that might be. I just wish she had better quality control over her career because a lot her films (seemingly made with a cheap video camera) are really embarassingly bad. But this re-make of Roxanna is worth the half hour it takes to watch it, and Misty is really strikingly beautiful in a natural sort of way, my favorite way.

But, folks, the real story here is this 1970 version of Roxanna. This movie is clearly aesthetically significant. It has lingered in my mind for the past year the way Wizard of Oz did when I was a kid. It has a few ugly scenes (a bad trip, etc.), but overall it is an outrageously wild and sexy presentation which makes you wonder what someone might have slipped in your cocktail. What I'm most impressed by is the fusion of weird background noise (pulsating sounds, etc) that you might call the "soundtrack" coupled with highly charged, commanding voice-overs and sexually compelling imagery. It is very dated (the psychedelic 60's) but totally classic. This is an undiscovered gem.

I guess I'm mostly recommending this to afficiandos of film and art-house types, due to the creative presentation and concept. It obviously has high secondary appeal as an erotic film (softcore). In the voice-overs, Roxanna tells us what she likes and how she likes it, and what she likes doing with her time. The way she states these thoughts and preferences is so bold and intoxicating that I now have new respect for campy, B-level, low budget, obscure movies from the '70's!!. This movie deserves cinematic recognition. I love movies that make me feel like I'm doing something illegal when all I'm doing is enjoying the First Amendment. Thanks to Retro-Seduction Cinema for getting this out there.

Uschi Digart is incredibly sexy in this film. I can't even describe the things she does to herself, does to others, and has done to herself. You have to watch it and you will agree that this is the sexiest 70's sexploitation film ever. The remake also on this DVD is awful, don't even waste your time. There is a 1/2 hour independent film on here that isn't half bad. I liked it better than the Roxanna remake.

No doubt, this is a WEIRD movie! It's only about 51 minutes, but as another reviewer referred to, there's lots of action... especially with the "puffies". The reference to a scene which didn't make anatomical sense is explained IF you have the volume turned up. Speaking of which, all that's on the soundtrack, is music, and the occational voice-over of a woman telling the story of Roxanna. None of the actors are "miked"... so there are no sounds of sexual pleasure. Only on the 2002 Misty Mundae remake (which by the way, is only 35 minutes long) do we hear "vocal appreciation". The only scenes I didn't like were of Roxanna, seen "spazzing-out" in her white-room. These scenes and a few others, were somewhat nightmarish. Be that as it may, the film is a piece of celluloid history, and having been too young to see films such as this when they were new, it's interesting to see them now. Yes, it's soft-core (by today's standards)... but I was surprised that it even goes as far as it does!!

I got this one in a euro version that didn't include the same films as the American version but thats OK, I will just concentrate on "Roxanna".I hate to criticize anything that Misty does but in this on there is simply too much semi lesbo sex to make this a smooth film .There is a blond who I am not familair with but the usual crowd (especially Darian Caine) does more than an adequate job .My problem is length .Even though it is not a long film it simply drags in the midst of lesbian semi-love.Others have dealt with the plot so I won't bother other than to say it is a good one and the acting and photography are excellent.This would be much better as a real porno film as the kissing-sex scenes are limpid.Or the blond could be eliminated. The strong plot can't make up for the fact that our girl seems to be only mildly interested in the so called sex-scenes.Three lesbo scenes in a row is simply too much.The scenes with Robinson are great but they are too far apart for a balanced film.

This is probably the closest you can get to the old pee oh r n without actually being there.

The first movie on this disc is a remake of a 1970 film, Roxanna: this is a remake in name only--it really does not have the same plot. When Roxanna gets bored with her dishrag boyfriend, she plays with other girls, and fantisizes about her therapist. The boyfriend is actually suprised, when, after setting up one of Roxanna's games, she splits. Best line? "You gave me a taste, and I liked it."

The 1970 film is psych erotica--lots of cheese color and camera tricks. Pretty gaudy to watch now, but it's a retrocharm.


Overall good erotica.

The original Roxanna is worth the price of the dvd. The remake reminds me of the awful acting and dialog of a porno. The erotic scenes don't compare to the original and the switch of throwing in a boyfriend who commits suicide is pointless.

Bought an advance copy of this at a convention in Jersey, and got more than I bargained for! Roxanna, starring Misty Mundae, took every notion I had of a Seduction Cinema movie and threw it out of the window! A gritty drama about a gen-X type on an addiction fueled highway to hell! Misty gives her best performance to date, and Barbara Joyce sizzles as her sexy shrink! Haven't compared it to the original 1970 version (also on this disc) yet, but the remake itself was worth the cost! Director Ted Crestview brought a lot of vision to this one. Check it out!