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Wild Orchid II: Two Shades of Blue More at IMDbPro »

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5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Sexed-Up Soap Opera, 8 January 2000
Author: Ride-3 from Stockton, California

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Wild Orchid 2: Two Shades of Blue is a sexually explicit drama, which is essentially a teen romance. Young Blue travels with her father, Ham, while he plays jazz at nightclubs. One night Ham, desperately needing a fix, begins going through withdrawal. Blue then sleeps with a club owner for drugs, Ham uses it, and dies. Next, Blue accepts an offer from Elle, a madame, to enter a exclusive brothel, and she accepts. But fate intervenes in the guise of a high school boy Blue loves. Will she leave her life of prostitution for him?

Unrated for strong sensuality and nudity, some drug content, and for language.

Note: Unrated Version contains 4 more minutes of footage than the R-Rated Version.

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4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Better than soft-porn, 17 September 2008

Author: mligorio from United States

The story is about a beautiful young girl, Blue (Nina Siemaszko), who is approaching sexual maturity. In order to achieve a happy and fulfilling life she must avoid being corrupted and enslaved by sexual desire and lust, and ultimately find true love. But this is no easy matter in the cold, cruel world in which she suddenly finds herself virtually alone and defenseless. She becomes the unwilling victim of power hungry individuals who seek to exploit her as a prostitute. With help from more compassionate and understanding people, Blue struggles to maintain dignity and courage in her desperate commitment to be free.

While its true that the film has little connection with its predecessor "Wild Orchid", its main flaw seems to be that its just a little too cliché and at times hard to believe. This shortcoming is difficult to avoid, however, in most any book or film. To Zalman King's credit, the final outcome and the essential theme are not completely obvious from the very beginning. The exotic setting in the past also helps give the film a sense of novelty.

While the movie does have numerous sexually explicit scenes, which may offend some people, it exhibits far less voyeurism and wanton sexual intercourse that are typical of so called "soft-porn" movies. Whereas, I found Nina Siemaszko's natural beauty to be a refreshing change from the irritating plastic-boob floozies that are the main attraction of the aforementioned genre. Moreover, Wild Orchid 2 is a far more compelling human drama than stories about men from out of space who want to learn what love is, but seem to only be interested in sex. A rating of 2.8 hardly does this film any justice. I myself was quite found of the movie, and consider it worth viewing by those seek more tragic and melancholy overtones than what you may find in a typical romance.

Nina Siemaszko portrays of young "virgin", who is lonely, innocent and vulnerable, yet strong willed and independent, with higher moral values. She acted well enough to earn my sympathy, and I found myself routing for her throughout the film. Through Blue's trying experiences, we learn that in order to find true love we must be bold and determined, we must exhibit self-sacrifice and compassion, and, above all, we must look beyond outward appearances and fallacies, and seek the inner beauty that lies within ourselves and others we meet.

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4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
A really sexy movie, 19 July 2005

Author: debrasantiques from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I thought this movie was great. I loved how it all took place during the early 1950s. The atmosphere was down right sensuous, just like the Jazz being played throughout the whole movie. The way Blue is made to undress and is transformed into a different person was very dramatic and really shows the "two shades of blue". I really enjoyed how Blue and the lead guy fell in love and I liked how Sully tried to protect Blue. I didn't like the part where JJ Clark showed up at the brothel and Blue screamed, she looked really stupid. This is the only part of the movie I didn't like. I don't know why people think its a bad movie, I own it and watch it regularly.

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6 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
The story is about a young girl named Blue, 3 May 2000

Author: Falcon-51 from South Carolina

The story is about a young girl named Blue (Siemaszko) who takes a job in a brothel after her Jazz playing father (Skerritt) dies as a result of drugs. She later decides to leave and finds it difficult because of the dictator like headmistress (Hughes). The story is really weak and prevents the film from being any good. Then there is a lot of nudity and sexuality but it is not strong enough to keep the voyeurs attention either. Top it all off with poor acting and no imagination and you have "Wild Orchid II: Two Shades of Blue." So the film fails all around. The story has absolutely no similarity or connection to the original "Wild Orchid" starring Mickey Rourke which isn't much better.

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8 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Late Night Cinemax, 14 July 2003
Author: matlock-6 from Chicago, IL

A pretty bad movie, and despite what others seem to think, it was not as good as the first (which wasn't especially "good" either).

The whole attraction for the first Wild Orchid film is the awesome sex scene with Carre Otis and Mickey Rourke. Otherwise, it's a pretty dull and even pretentious movie.

However, the sequel has only one halfway decent sex scene in it, and the female character is not enjoying it at all.

Overall, both Wild Orchid films are of the sort one sees on Cinemax or Showtime at 1 AM. A minute or so of eye candy isn't really worth seeing the rest of the film.

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Two Shades of Blue, 28 December 2006

Author: Scarecrow-88 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

To support her jazz musician father's heroin habit, daughter Blue(Nina Siemaszko)loses her innocence. He later succumbs to that habit leaving her with no place to go with no money. Enter Elle(Wendy Hughes)who offers Blue an opportunity to make real money where profit is certain considering her alluring looks. Elle is the proprietor of a high-class brothel where the establishment plays host to only the wealthiest clientèle. Blue tries to hold her harbored sadness and despair in check, making the best of an unfortunate situation. But, trying to adjust to the sordid life-style of a star-hooker is anything but easy, and Blue finds a savior in Sully(Robert Davi), a driver and bodyguard for Elle. Sully is on the verge of leaving Elle because watching innocent girls fall prey to domineering Elle has almost taken it's toll on his conscience. Blue almost becomes trapped in the profession's pull for lost young women with no niche they can see in the world outside their confines, but a chance couple of meetings with a young man her own age(ironically, she makes love to him as Blue the hooker, underneath a wig which is supposed to hide her looks, I guess)begins to persuade her that life might be worth escaping to. What pushes Blue ultimately over the edge is a Senator(Christopher McDonald, of all people)whose ferociousness, and desire to place her in an uncomfortable situation regarding some political associates of his, presses her motivation to quit the business for good. Sully helps her escape to a normal life of high school, but how long will it be before her past(and Elle)comes calling? The film is certainly morally ambiguous with King not entirely indicting the profession of being a call girl. He tries to put it under the microscope with us judging through Blue and her experiences with the profession, but I never felt totally convinced he made a real statement. The film's final thirty where Blue goes to high school is balderdash, I believe, because it's so overwrought and superficial. The film does show naked bodies in various positions, but does the life-style of this profession ever truly get true dissection? I don't think that flashy visuals and a soothing jazzy score can mask the film's major problems..unconvincing performances and this whole corny melodrama that ensues once Blue and her beau begin their courtship.

All that said, Nina is certainly easy to watch for an hour and 45 minutes and her beauty is quite intoxicating.

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5 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Unfair Rating, 12 January 2007

Author: Morgan D Lee (mdlee@suddenlink.net) from Onalaska, TX

I noticed that the overall IMDb rating for this film was a lowly 3.2. This seems a bit unfair. The story is good, not great, and may at times be bit predictable. But the acting is quite good with a very sympathetic performance by Tom Skerritt. Robert Davi shows a warm side in much contrast to the "heavy" he played in a James Bond Film. Wendy Hughes couldn't have been more cold and calculating in much contrast to the warm and loving character she played opposite Peter Falk in "Happy New Year" or the playful character she played opposite Pierce Brosnan in "The Heist." Lastly, Zalman King as a filmmaker has tried to elevate the adult genre to an art form. If not familiar, try to see his most successful series: "Red Shoes Diaries." Sometimes you can catch an episode on late night Showtime.

It might be said that not every film is meant to be "Gone With the Wind" or "Citizen Kane." There's nothing wrong about a shoot-em-up western where the gunfighters never seem to run out of bullets. And although "The Fast and the Furious" may never make IMDb's top 250 list, it was a good enough film for the producers to make two sequels.

It's all about entertainment and since the world's population is so diverse, we all like different types of movies. One could guess that some viewers who are offended by nudity may have been "turned off" by this film, which also may account for the low 3.2 rating. But the film is worth a watch.

Finally, Nina Siemaszko is excellent in this film. She brings across her vulnerability, frustration, disappointment, etc. Her performance must have been good, because other producers noticed and she had a nice supporting role in "The American President" and a recurring role for 3 or 4 years on "The West Wing." On a personal note, I would urge all of us to respect the IMDb and the lengths they go to provide this forum. Let's give fair comments to all films we view. We may actually affect the careers of some of the industry people.

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1 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Why are erotic films still not widely accepted in North America?, 6 August 2009

Author: L. Denis Brown (ldbrown1@shaw.ca) from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Zalman King is an actor and scriptwriter who expanded his capabilities in mid career to include both producing & directing (more recently he has also very successfully tried his hand at cinematography, to complete what today has become a rare fivefold). In 1986 the success of the strongly erotic film '9 1/2 weeks', for which he was both a co-writer and the producer, drew a great deal of attention and gave him a chance to build a reputation as the best known North American Producer/Director of erotic films. He accepted this challenge by co-writing and directing another very successful film 'Two Moon Junction', released two years later. Another year on and the first 'Wild Orchid' film with a script attributed totally to ZK was released. Its claim to be a true erotic film became widely accepted - largely on the strength of its last very intense love making scene between Carre Otis and Mickey Rourke. (They were married soon afterwards, and background publicity fostering an unlikely rumour that this scene was not simulated probably helped this) Two years later came 'Wild Orchid 2 - Two Shades of Blue', released in 1989. This featured another original film-script written by Zalman King, and its name was not derived from any previous literary or dramatic work, but was clearly intended to exploit the reputation which WO-1 had earned - no doubt its sub-title was also selected with the same objective. It has only achieved a relatively low approval rating from IMDb users, however as far as I am concerned it is a fine work that, despite some flaws, is the nearest approach to a true erotic film with which Zalman King has so far been associated.

Unfortunately most of his more recent works have been directed more towards television presentation than to the cinema and do not provide a lot of competition. His company has created two different sets of short films for television both comprising independent episodes based on a longer feature film that provides a more detailed background for the complete series. The best known of these is probably the Red Shoes Diaries series. It started with a 1992 feature film of the same name which explained the significance of both the red shoes and the diaries. This has spawned an ongoing series of about fifty short TV episodes that have been continuing ever since. The very similar Chromium Blue series featured fantasies associated with the visit of a billionaire's private cruise ship to various exotic Mediterranean resorts, and probably had a higher unit budget. For me, most episodes from both these series were partly spoiled by the use of cinematographic techniques that are usually regarded as associated more with music videos than with the cinema; in addition their short running times makes it difficult for them to convey any meaningful message.

Unlike these later short productions, Wild Orchid 2 succeeds in involving the viewer in a story that is sufficiently disturbing to provide genuine emotional impact. The film is best described as a movie equivalent of the 'bodice ripper' paperback romances which appeal most strongly to the fair sex but men often also enjoy, and when televised they provide ideal entertainment for a couple. For me Wild Orchid 2 remains far the best of the many works with which Zalman King has been associated. Although the story is rather far fetched the film has an excellent cast and is very well acted, so most of its viewers probably enjoy it. (Some IMDb users have criticised the acting of its star, Nina Siemaszko, but this performance successfully established the foundations for her very productive acting career which has covered numerous TV productions as well as significant feature films - so enough said). The films ending is rather prolonged and is also somewhat weak, this is particularly noticeable because of the strong meat which preceded it, but Zalman King does deserve credit for ensuring that it was not made glaringly obvious long in advance. Watching it, I wished at times that he had had the training as a cinematographer which Russ Meyer received in the U.S. army. The modern cine camera is a technological marvel, capable of providing clear easily viewed images of even the most complex scenes. Unduly short sequences handicapped by excessive or inadequate contrast are used today by too many directors when attempting to create atmosphere or mood; ignoring the fact that this mood can be irretrievably lost once the audience starts wondering what they missed in the lost parts of the screen image. Despite these criticisms, Wild Orchid 2 is a fine film which successfully captured the trauma faced by a young girl being reluctantly but irretrievably drawn into a life of prostitution, whilst lacking the courage to break away and face the world on her own. It provides viewers with much more 'meat' than any of King's other recent films (except perhaps for his own performance in St Francis - another noteworthy film, but a serious study of the drug culture rather than an erotic work.)

I believe WO-2 deserves a far higher rating than it has currently been given by IMDb users, this rating seems to be the victim of what appears to have become a double standard, the upgrading of any excessively violent films (even those showing scenes of torture) because they display the freedom of film to uncover aspects of society which are normally kept under the carpet; but the downgrading of any showing intense sexual situations because they might unduly influence young people.

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3 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
better than the first, but still pretty poor., 24 January 2000

Author: cygnus x-1 from roanoke, va

While the first film gained notariety due to it's allegedly real sex scenes, it otherwise was a boring waste of time.

the sequel (which has nothing to do with the first film other than the name) offers more of the same. it's slightly improved in that it actually has a plot and the explicit sex scenes are better integrated into the movie.

the acting is average with the only benefit being the presence of the extremely pretty and sexy Nina Siemaszko as 'Blue'. her performance is well done and the sex scenes featuring her are the better ones in the film.

overall, strictly for fans of writer/producer/director Zalmand King and boring sex flicks.

rating:3

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4 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
not bad, warning about DVD version., 18 April 2006

Author: mchlanda from United States

According to someone, this not bad sequel (Nina looks hot), otherwise, not a bad movie, no sequel (or most) do not equal the original (kinda like some remakes). Anyway, DVD cuts some minutes (according to some reviewer on Amazon.com); I've got the unrated VHS. I think I'll follow the suggestion that if the unrated version (with the additional material) comes out on DVD (one day, hopefully) to get it then. If the additional footage doesn't matter, I guess some people might buy it now. Viewer's choice. That's a problem with some movies. Unless someone puts both versions of a movie on the same disc, it might be better to wait. Also, the viewer has to beware of some manufacturer's discs. I bought a version (from Canada) of a movie called Terminal Island and it cut everything, language and the ladies' scenes (you know what I mean). I had to buy it again and can't even give the other one away. Ugh! A bit of advice for buyers/viewers of movies (if they want the full unadulterated versions of movies). You've been warned.

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