Cyberella: Forbidden Passions (1996)

Director:

Jackie Garth

Writers:

Randall Fontana (writer)
Randy Fontana (writer)

Genre:

Romance | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Your wildest fantasies are possible in this look at afterlife encounters. This cyber-seductress uses...

Plot Keywords:

Virtual Reality | Afterlife | Erotica | Female Nudity | Virtuosity

Cast

Debra K. Beatty	...	Mara
Marshall Hilliard	...	Bob
Rebecca Taylor	...	Amy
Daniel Namath	...	Cal
Landon Hall	...	Cindy
Lesli Kay	...	Jana
Kevin Patrick Walls	...	Brett
Shayna Lee	...	Sandy
David Millbern	...	Stephen

Also Known As:

Forbidden Passions

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexuality and brief language.

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

UK:18 | France:-16 (TV rating) | USA:R

Company:

Twilight Movies

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the first scene the girl checks the oven as if making dinner but there is clearly nothing in it.

Reasonably 'Erotique' sci-fi tale

You always have quite a lot of spare time being a University student, and so, last night, on my return back to University after a weekend at home, I decided to sit through this 'Erotic sci-fi tale' once again. And yes, even though it isn't very well acted, even though the direction is frequently bland and pretty clumsy, and even though the special effects aren't exactly state-of-the-art, "Cyberella" still remains an entertaining little movie which even finds a bit of room for a spot of intelligence. Honestly!

Still, when you come away from watching "Cyberella," you can't help thinking that if the makers had been able to play it straight; if they weren't making an 'Erotic Adults-Only' movie, and if they'd been able to avoid the all-too obvious conventions that one must comply with in this genre (e.g. A sex scene every ten to fifteen minutes minimum), there really could be something special here.

But what we DO have just about does. Debra Beatty is Mara, the likeable computer programmer who discovers that her boyfriend is a selfish idiot, whose not only after one thing from her, but is also stealing her computer software designs for his own means. After an argument, he leaves and she hops straight onto her PC for a spot of virtual reality. Within a couple of minutes, she finds herself face to face with an Angel, who informs our young heroine that she was actually killed in a fire whilst on her PC, and she must now partake in a mission to "Learn a lesson" before she can go onto a superior life after her life on Earth. If she fails the mission, she must return to Earth reincarnated....

Whether her boyfriend was involved in Mara's death remains unexplained; what the film is most interested in now, is just what Mara's lesson that she must learn IS, and how she goes about learning it. Indeed, the Angel sends Mara back to Earth and instructs her to travel across the internet, helping all the lost Souls and Computer geeks who apparently need her assistance.

Doesn't sound that bad, does it? Well, yes, it's silly enough, but this movie never takes itself too seriously. The quite amazingly gorgeous Debra Beatty may not be even remotely convincing as a Computer Programmer (The day I find a Computer Programmer who looks like her is the day I give up my Media & Film Degree and start a Computer one), but she's perfect as Cyberella, and, yes, she can act. She does her performance like much of the cast in this movie - Completely tounge in cheek. And why not? Actually, there's one stand-out decent performance in this movie - That comes from the guy who plays the Computer geek who fancies a student from his Polytechnic (And no, I don't say he's a good actor because I relate to the character of which he plays!). He's genuinely funny and convincing and he makes a good joke about Cocker spaniels.

Whilst I daren't give too much away about the movie's plot, one of the people Cyberella helps is a lesbian dance teacher. Following their chat, there's a pretty lengthy lesbian scene between the heroine and her latest student. When they've finished, Cyberella returns to heaven with the belief that her lesson was to please other people, even if it's to make love to people of the same sex as her own (Though Mara isn't a lesbian herself). Of course, the Angel says this wasn't the lesson she should have learnt at all, and, we, as the audience, immediately understand that the whole point of the last ten or so minutes has simply been an opportunity for us to have watched Debra Beatty have a spot of lebsian sex. Not that I'm complaining or anything....

The movie has a nice little theme tune although you get bored with it by the end as it keeps being played. Whilst the special effects aren't completly terrible, they look cheap and the majority of sets are clearly nothing more than sets. The 'Heaven,' Mara arrives in, for instance, looks like nothing more than a darkened stage. Without getting too nasty (I still quite like this movie!), the film is pretty blandly directed, and, although I didn't go looking, it didn't take long to spot continuity errors. But then, I wouldn't have thought the makers of "Cyberella" were looking for a film that they could eventually submit for a contender at a Film Festival. This is cheapish entertainment and is definitely above par for a movie from this sub-genre. It also, really and honestly, puts forward a number of decent questions and thoughts about the afterlife. Really! This movie CAN and DOES set you thinking.

All in all, it's lots of inoffensive fun, and there's even a decent and genuinely 'Erotique' little conclusion to top things off nicely. Hell, I liked it.