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The Love Machine (2016)
I Love Retromedia, But...
I'm a big fan of these softcore, erotic Retromedia movies, but this is probably the worst one I've ever seen. But I don't blame Dean McKendrick (the director / editor) at all. I think that a lot of what happened with this movie was beyond his control.
The movie "stars" Jennifer Korbin. Umm... why? Sure, she is in the movie, and she is the antagonist, it's just that when someone "stars" in a Retromedia flick, I expect them to get naked and have at least 2 sex scenes! Not the case here! Jennifer Korbin does go topless once while kissing on an unconscious Alice Haig, whom by the way, is absolutely gorgeous!!! I commend Retromedia for casting her! She is by far the one good thing about this movie. I hope to see more of her in the future for sure! But anyway, Jennifer Korbin is kissing on her, if you could even call it kissing, it's so bland and clinical! I've seen mothers kiss their babies with more eroticism than this! And it sucks too, because we've seen Korbin do some pretty hot and erotic work before. She starred in the Cinemax series Lingerie a few short years ago and that show was awesome and she was (in my opinion) the biggest reason for it! I know, I'm digressing here... back to the movie: Korbin goes topless, kisses Alice Haig and the scene ends. WTF? These scenes never just fade out like that! Not in Retromedia movies anyway. This is one of those things that I think was out of the hands of the director. No doubt, he would have liked to do more with Jennifer Korbin, but it's my guess, that Korbin wasn't comfortable with the sex / nudity. And what she says goes, because she is the biggest name in the movie. Again, that's just a guess.
The sex scenes in general are pretty weak, compared to other Retromedia and MRG movies, but again NOT the fault of the Director. That's on HBO / Cinemax. The last couple of years or so, they have been cracking down on the explicitness of the sex and nudity of erotic films that air on their networks. They want their soft porn movies to be more family-friendly now! Yeah, I don't get it either! Another thing this movie does is that it recycles material for flashback and/or fantasy scenes from other Retromedia movies. I hate that crap! Another thing beyond the Director's control perhaps? But I get it, I understand the reasoning behind it; it saves the studio money. But still... AAARRRGGHH!!! I'll end my rant on a positive note though. I really do appreciate that Retromedia is sort of expanding their boundaries. Usually, they make these goofy, erotic comedies but now, they're going for more of a dramatic, thriller type feel and I've been wanting to see them go this direction for a long time!
To Die, to Sleep (1994)
Not That Terrible!
Minor spoilers ahead...
Well, looks like I might be the only person in the world who's going to defend this movie! Here goes...
I first saw this back in the mid 90's when I was a teenager myself. I fell asleep on the couch watching TV one night and this movie came on around 2am. It was one of those movies that you wouldn't normally be into, but you sit and watch 5 minutes, then you want to see the next 10 minutes, and the next, and so on. Anyway, I woke up in the middle of the movie and for some reason I cant explain, I was captivated by it! (Since then, I have watched the movie in it's entirety a few times!)It's about these 2 guys, Phil, a suicidal teen junkie, and Dumar, a former musician with a history of depression, though he seems to have moved past it. They recognize something in each other, and a friendship forms between them.
Before I go any further with the plot, let me just acknowledge some of what other reviews have said about the movie; Yes, the production values are pretty terrible. It looks like somebody filmed this with an old VHS camcorder or something! Looking back now, I think maybe that was why I was so drawn to the movie when I first saw it. It just looked so different from everything else on TV then, I had to see how it ended! The acting is passable, save for Ami Dolenz's performance. *minor spoiler here* There is a scene early in the movie where she commits suicide in the bathroom of some night club. The scene basically serves as a jumping-off-point for Phil and Dumar's friendship, in that, it succeeds, but the scene itself, while meant to be dramatic and tragic, comes off as more unintentionally comical.
Phil and Dumar's friendship is what drives everything GOOD about this movie! Consciously, Phil seems to think suicide is a cool thing to do and that it must take a lot of courage to go through with it. But deep down, sub-consciously, he wants to live, so he spends a lot of time grilling Dumar about his past and what his beliefs are about life, death, God, etc... Dumar doesn't give him much at first, after all he doesn't know this guy well enough to trust him with his deepest feelings about those subjects. But as time goes on, he does share with Phil more and more about his past. The friendship between them, how it began and how it progressed felt very organic. That aspect was very well written in my opinion! The end, as other reviewers have mentioned, does get a bit heavy-handed with the religious overtone, but really, that stuff took a backseat to the friendship of these guys. Their relationship here, was the point of the movie. Not the Jesus!
The movie takes place over the course of a single weekend, maybe longer, 3 or 4 days. But with everything these characters go through, it seems more like a month! I mean that in a good way!