CASUAL SEX?

title: CASUAL SEX?

year: 1988

cast: Leah Thompson, Victoria Jackson, Mary Gross, Andrew "Dice" Clay, Stephen Shellen, Jerry Levine

rating: **

Sometimes I wanna slap Woody Allen for popularizing the first person narration (character looking into the camera and narrating the movie i.e. breaking the fourth wall) because, even though he - and a few other filmmakers - did it well, it's often misused: like in the case of the John Cusack's "High Fidelity" and this sex comedy centering on two completely different girls: one a slut (Leah Thompson) the other a whiny baby-voiced prude (Victoria "One Trick Pony" Jackson). The slut doesn't know she's a slut and the prude doesn't want to be either. The movie attempts originality - both girls narrating not only during actual scenes but in sequences set against a black backdrop, almost seeming as if they're in outer space. After we learn both girl's do's and don'ts (Thompson's "Do", Jackson's "Don't") our heroines go to a special single's resort to hook up with their "dream men". There they meet some obnoxious losers, like Andrew "Dice" Clay in a somewhat funny turn as a... you guessed it... sleaze-bag from New York... and both eventually fall in love with two handsome too-good-to-be-realistic instructors seemingly made for each of them. This is the main problem... If we dealt with the girls continuing to put up with various single men who are in the same boat and as messed up as they are, it'd be much more interesting - and a true study of the film's title (giving the question mark purpose). But things get much too predictable after we know who they want and who wants them. Then it's all about fate, destiny, and all that other chick-flick drivel. "Teen Wolf" fans will enjoy seeing Jerry "Stiles" Levine as the nice-guy instructor who digs Victoria Jackson, only he doesn't wear T-shirts with coffee mug catch-phrases, sorry.