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• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B001IF5V00
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3.0 out of 5 stars Softcore that almost, almost, ALMOST works as a real movie., November 22, 2010

By 

Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Lakewood, OH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Stripper Wives [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ] (DVD)

Stripper Wives (Toby Philips, 1999)

When I watch softcore, I expect it to be awful. It's like watching what used to be known as Sci-Fi Channel Original Movies; there was one phenomenal flick long, long ago, and you keep watching them so you don't miss the next Cube. Or, in the case of softcore, the next Black Emmanuelle--a movie that, when I first saw it almost thirty years ago, defined what sexy was for me. (To a great extent it still does, and there's no question Laura Gemser is still one of the most beautiful actresses to have ever graced a silver screen.) And when I watch softcore, it's probably not a surprise that that's what I'm expecting to find, on that rarest of occasions when I stumble upon one that might actually be worth a rewatch; I'm looking for the sexy.

And so the opening sequence of Stripper Wives blindsided me entirely. It's not at all about the sexy. It's set up as a series of interviews/auditions for a class on striptease being held at a nameless community college extension class. Every woman in them is nervous, but they're all nervous in different ways. It's not sexy at all, despite what ends up being quite a bit of nudity for an opening sequence, even in a softcore movie. But it's real. And it's actually subtle, kind of. It's well-shot in the sense that Toby Philips (who produced and directed, and has never stepped behind the camera again, according to IMDB) doesn't do anything to yank the viewer out of the idea that there's a stationary camera sitting there recording these interviews and another one behind the interviewer, and that footage from each was cut together in the editing room later. And I'm watching this and I start thinking "could this be not the next Black Emmanuelle, but the first Stripper Wives, a softcore movie that is actually worth appreciating as a movie?" I was unfortunately disabused of that notion after a while, but to say it's better than any other softcore movie I've seen in the past twenty years would be understating the case. And, needless to say, other reviewers are trashing it for this. Don't listen to them.

The plot (and yes, there's a plot!) involves a number of lovely young-to-middle-aged things who get involved in said striptease class for various reasons. (Ignore the title. Not all of them are married.) As the class goes on, they bond over various husband-boyfriend-pimp's reactions to what they're doing. (Yes, one is a call girl.) We also get various scenes of the ladies' home lives. And, of course, a big climax at the end where they put their knowledge to use.

And here's the movie's unfortunate downfall; writer Christopher Byrne (The Key to Sex) wasn't quite willing to give the character development all the time it needed, and so the women all sort of blend together. A pretty solid bunch of actresses showed up, as well; hardcore star Ashlyn Gere, who's also appeared in the remake of Willard and the Jet Li vehicle The One; Dexter's Sage Kirkpatrick; Lauren Hays (Trance); Amber Newman (Blood Sisters). Not a bad little cast at all, and easily up to the material they were presented with. It's a lot more challenging than the usual softcore mess. A bit more work and this could have stood as an actual movie, but I'm guessing the producers wanted more softcore, and something had to go. (The movie only has a handful of softcore scenes, something to be thankful for.)

I actually want to see Byrne and Philips reunite for a remake of this. I want to see what would happen with maybe one more rework on the script and no studio yelling about what needs to stay and what needs to go; I think this could actually be made into a serviceable erotic drama, a subgenre that's almost impossible to pull off. The potential is certainly here. ** ½