Mirror Images (1992) Poster

(1992)

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3/10
Less than average
Groverdox20 January 2019
"Mirror Images" is another softcore romp from Gregory Dark, the so called "Scorsese of B-movies". Do I even need to tell you that the protagonist is a neglected housewife of a powerful politician, who is putting all his energy into his career, and none into pleasing her?

Neglected housewives are soft porn's stock in trade.

The movie also features an early performance from Penthouse pet and b-movie siren Julie Strain.

An unusual twist is the inclusion of a rock band, and some glamour girl who dances on stage with them - the sister of the neglected housewife. These movies almost always take place among corporate executive types.

I guess the politician in the movie has reason to be focussed on his career. He apparently thinks that pornography is an acceptable way to advertise his campaign, and so doubtless must pay close attention to do damage control when it blows up in his face.

The bored housewife disguises herself as her sister, who, as a twin, is of course her polar opposite. The twin seems to return the favour (I think) and they both start having sex with each other's partners.

As if this wasn't enough, there's also a serial killer on the loose, running around with a mask on to hide his identity from people he's going to kill anyway.

I generally appreciate the way that the neglectful husband in these movies is generally shown to be a good guy, only "neglectful" because he's trying to make a better life for his wife and him. In "Mirror Images", though, there's really no attempt to make him likeable.

A director as limited as Dark shouldn't have gone for the old "identical twins switch identities" plot line. This would be confusing enough. Here it is so confusing as to be tiresome. You don't know who you're supposed to be watching.

There is a lesbian scene with Julie Strain which is surprisingly brief, and skimps on the nudity. It will be disappointing for any fan of hers.

John O'Hurley, known as J Peterman on "Seinfeld", has a small role, but even he, a wonderful comic actor, can't inject any life into the proceedings.

This is actually one of the more tedious straight-to-video erotic thrillers I have seen. It's impossible to care enough about the plot or even to try to follow it, and long stretches of the movie seem pointless.

Typically for '90s softcore, it ends seemingly without resolution. You only know it's over because the credits start rolling, not because the plot has been resolved. Unusual, though, that I was happy that that meant I didn't have to watch it any more.
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4/10
Wake Me When It's Over!
queenb8018 September 2005
I gave this movie a 4 and that is even after seeing the unrated version. I can only imagine how bad the rated version is. It's about a bored housewife (the lovely Delia Sheppard)who switches places with her promiscuous sister (Delia in a bad wig) and has sex with many people. It really has no plot and the sex scenes are boring. Mirror Images 2 is much more entertaining. Oh and from the "cry for help" department, John O'Hurley (yes, J. Peterman from Seinfeld)) plays a cop who really wants to have sex with Delia but has to wait till the movie is over. Even Julie Strain can't save this film! If you want to check out a good "bored housewife wants to have a good time" film check out Mirror Images 2.
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3/10
Impersonating a Twin Sister Who Has a Deadly Secret
Uriah4326 May 2022
This film essentially begins with a woman by the name of "Kaitlin Blair" (Delia Sheppard) having problems with her husband "Jeffrey Blair" (Jeff Conaway) due to the long hours he puts in as a campaign manager for a California gubernatorial candidate named "Carter Sayles" (Richard Arbolino). Then, one night, she gets a frantic phone call from her twin sister "Shauna Jameson" (also played by Delia Sheppard) telling her she needs money right away in order to get out of town fast. Quickly wiring the money to her, Kaitlin then decides to go to Shauna's apartment to try to talk to her before she leaves. When she gets there, however, she realizes that she is too late and, being quite bored with her own lifestyle, decides to don Shauna's clothing and impersonate her for a night or two. What she doesn't count on, however, is that there is a dangerous rapist who is stalking Shauna-and he has plans to visit her very soon. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this certainly had potential but the actors weren't given the script necessary for them to succeed. Not only was it badly written but the minimal plot and annoying saxophone music played every other scene didn't help matters either. Admittedly, there were several attractive actresses like Julia Strain (as "Gina Kaye"), Lee Anne Beaman ("Rebecca") and the aforementioned Delia Sheppard to keep things interesting but it just wasn't enough for me to rate this movie any higher than I have. Below average.
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5/10
Mirror Images
jboothmillard12 September 2005
This is one of those thriller type films that I only wanted to see for the chance of some good nudity or sex scenes. I remember there are a couple of good moments, no lesbians or anything, but some very good nudity content. Obviously I pay no attention to the story that is meant to be going on in this film and I don't know any of the actors or actresses. But I still become attracted to the woman in this film with her gorgeous body, that I unfortunately can't remember. Maybe if I saw this again I would remember just how much I probably liked this film. But for now, I'll just say that it probably is a very good film filled with some good nude and sex sequences. Good!
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3/10
Poor even by late night erotic film standards
med_197823 October 2007
This film was poor even by erotic thriller standards. I have seen a fair amount of the late night erotic thrillers on TV, Video & DVD. Most of them are not much and do not warrant a second viewing this was another of these.

Delia Sheppard is quite attractive but an extremely bad actress. She has actually appeared in mainstream film most notably Rocky V. This was however an extremely bad performance, nowhere near as bad as Anna Nicole Smith, but certainly not in the class of erotic queens Shannon Tweed & Shannon Whirry. The supporting performances are equally bad.

The plot was badly executed, hackneyed and uninteresting. The same sort of storyline has been seen many times before, and done way better. The sex scenes are very dull and not very erotic.

So basically on every level this film fails. Watch this if you want to be put to sleep as that is the only thing this film is sure to do for you.

If you are interested in Erotic Thrillers there are a great deal of these that are more worthy of your time than this garbage. It is an embarrassment for all concerned and better left on the shelf.
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1/10
Violates most principles of good cinema.
rsoonsa29 November 2001
This film's script tells a tale of identical twin sisters, played by Delia Sheppard, who have little to link them other than appearance, and of how one must pay for attempting to usurp her sister's place when the latter disappears. Kaitlin, although unhappily married, has wed into wealth and resides in a mansion; meanwhile, her sister Shauna is a stripper in a sleazy bar who mysteriously tells Kaitlin she needs money with which to immediately leave town. Kaitlin impulsively takes Shauna's place during the dark hours and soon discovers that everything is not quite all right with her sister's life style, which includes sexual and drug excess. While she more or less frolics, complications abound, including murder, and Kaitlin becomes increasingly aware that her nocturnal impersonation does not provide compensation for the difficulties with which she must deal. This scenario wobbles about as it is merely an interstice for the doffing of garments by Sheppard and others preparatory to thrashing about in various sexual liaisons, one or two of which might possibly have something to do with the plot, such as it is. There is nothing fresh here as one illogical scene follows upon the other far too slowly, to the viewer's discomfort, with the abysmally poor dialogue and tiresome exposure of flesh merely resulting in an example of softcore pornography, and that devoid of any real eroticism or any other purpose.
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TAXI!!! TAXI!!!
jonpd22 November 2002
Jeff Conaway is a long way from his TAXI and GREASE days but he is the best thing about this slow-moving erotic thriller which features pretty decent sex scenes. Hippolyte was on a role in the early 1990s with his chain of erotic thrillers featuring more dialogue scenes and non-penetration sex scenes to disguise the pornographic tones that he would normally suggest as Gregory Dark. Nonetheless, this one is probably the best of his series. And don't forget to watch Dick Van Patten's son, Nels, embarass his father by repeatedly ordering Delia Shepperd to "Say my name! Say my name!!" 4/10
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4/10
No Comparison Required
refinedsugar6 August 2023
'Mirror Images' was one of the first T&A flicks I picked up off a video store shelf as a young man. It's not hard to see why. The movie box told you what you were in store for and they weren't lying I'll give them that. However this didn't deliver like I wanted it to.

A tepid story of a bored, rich housewife fulfilling sexual fantasies at the dark end of the street care of her runaway stripper twin sister doesn't go anywhere exciting or noteworthy. It's b-movie 101. Typical story aside, the sex didn't make any impact and that's saying something. I wasn't exactly picky in those days.

Delia Sheppard as the dual roles provides skin as does total babe and genre mainstay Julie Strain, but this isn't explosive stuff. You can catch John O'Hurley (Yes, I'm J. Peterman) in an early role as a police detective. While adult hardcore director Gregory Dark filmed this under a pseudonym which was fashionable back in the day.

Bottom line. You're not here for the story. You're here for the nude bits, but there's much better found elsewhere. A standalone sequel followed a year later featuring Shannon Whirry and another take on the twin sisters formula which was much better where it counted the most.
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7/10
A 'Basic Instinct' imitation that is actually superior to its' inspiration
Joxerlives17 March 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Needless to say after Sharon Stone uncrossed her legs there was a tidal wave of copies flooding the straight to video market. Most were rubbish, Root of Evil, Secret Games plus sequels, Animal Instincts plus sequels (and in fact anything featuring Andrew Stevens in any role whatsoever) Inner Sanctum, Sins of Desire et al. Most delivered what they promised on the video box cover, notably Night Rhythmns, Indecent Behaviour and anything in the Andy Sidaris guns and Playmates genre or by B-movie schlock merchant Fred Olen Ray. Some were actually quite good, Undercover/Undercover Heat undoubtedly the best of the bunch but honourable mentions to Angel Eyes and Mirror Images.

First and foremost this film belongs to Delia Shepherd, she is beautiful, sexy and classy, much prefer her as the redhead rather than the blonde twin. There's also something inherently appealing about the idea of this prim and proper housewife who cuts loose from her neglectful husband and has this sexual adventure. Second best thing in this film is the wonderful Julie Strain and the lesbian fling Delia has with her is truly astonishing, especially if you like tall girls. We also have mainstream actor Jeff Conaway in his B-movie phase between superstardom of Grease and Taxi and his career eventual resurgence with Babylon 5. It's a nice touch that in the end the two very different sisters kiss and make up. Oh and don't bother with the sequel, it's rubbish, no Delia, no dice.
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6/10
Mirror Images
BandSAboutMovies22 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I mean, yes, we have seen this before. A woman changes identities with her identical twin sister, finally getting to sip from the fountain of the fantasies she's kept hidden in her vanilla marriage, but if I've learned one thing from a week of Gregory Dark mainstream movies, it's that dream life has a dark grey lining under every silver cloud.

Directed under the name Alexander Gregory Hippolyte, somehow this movie brings along Kenickie and J. Peterman into the world of Dark, a place usually occupied by Delia Sheppard (who plays both twins), Dominique Simone, Kelly Royce and Julie Strain, who somehow has the sheer level of universal appeal that allows her to straddle - seductively straddle at that - the light side of the softcore force that is Andy Sidaris and the darkest of the dark that is Gregory Dark.

Where Sidaris presents a world that only exists in Dallas, New Orleans, Hawaii or Savage Beach, places dominated by jacuzzis, men who can't shoot and the occasional remote controlled weapon interrupting synth-driven touching, Dark's world is one where the forbidden fruit bites back, where getting to live the filthy life of your darkest dreams ends up decimating your vanilla white picket fence life, but along the way you get silky lingerie, gorgeous framing and, yes, lots of saxophone. I've been discussing the usage of saxophone in these movies all week and the only person who loved sex and sax more was probably Lucio Fulci, who showed us just how a woman can really enjoy one in The Devil's Honey.

Look, I know the internet has all the dirty filth you want, but why is no one making movies like this any more? I mean, a bunch of hacks ape giallo and everyone loses their mind over it and people add some neon and synth and everybody thinks they're Carpenter. Be brave and try to make one of these movies. Maybe they don't make them like this any more. And sadly, Julie Strain is gone and while I want her to find the eternal rest she deserves, I wouldn't be sad to discover that she's become a sexy ghost.
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