The sultry Filipina actress SYREN is one of my favorite softcore actresses. I’ve always loved her looks and her accent, and she proves to be a capable actress in all of her roles, so she wasn’t just cast for her looks (and willingness to get naked on-screen). What’s funny is that she’s also a hardcore adult film actress, but I discovered her in softcore films first, and to date I’ve still seen a lot more of her softcore work than her hardcore work. She’s still gorgeous today although it looks like she’s retired from acting altogether now. Today I’m reviewing a softcore film she was in from 2002.

Written by Geoffrey Cohen and directed by Dante Giove. Syren stars in this film as Kristen Reed. She’s married to Jim Roger Reed (Richard Neil), a City Councilman who is running for governor. But he’s having an affair with a woman named Lena (Tamara Landry). Kristen knows as we see her secretly following Jim and watching him as he meets Lena at her house.

Franky Stein (yes, that’s the name he’s credited as, and it’s his one and only acting credit on IMDB) plays Lena’s husband Paul. He’s hiding in the closet secretly videotaping her and Jim having sex. After Jim, Paul comes out of the closet and he and Lena watch the tape and have sex. The next day Paul leaves for work, and after he leaves we see someone knock on the door and shoot and kill Lena when she answers. Then the killer searches the house and finds and steals the tape of Lena and Jim having sex. We only see the gloved hand of the killer, and the scene is shot from their POV, so we don’t know who it is at first.

When the police find Lena’s dead body, they also find Jim’s wedding ring (we saw earlier that it fell off when he and Lena were getting ready to have sex. He also accidentally scratched her on the leg. So with that evidence found at the scene, Jim becomes a prime suspect and is taken in by the police for questioning.

Paul is also questioned, as it’s discovered that Lena was wealthy, being worth around $10 million from her father, and Pauls’ business was in financial trouble, but with him due to inherit Lena’s estate, that takes care of those problems.

Belinda Gavin plays Tina, a newly hired local D.A., Burke Morgan is Dan Thomas, her boss, who assigns the murder case to her when Jim is arrested. Maya Devine plays Paul’s secretary Charlene, who has a significant role in this story. Charles Allen plays the lead homicide detective investigating the case.

The problem is that I really can’t say much about the plot of this film without spoilers. It’s supposed to be a bit of a mystery with us the audience being in the dark about who killed Lena. The film does a halfway decent job of throwing us a few curveballs throughout the film that keep us guessing. But for the most part, the actual story is pretty week.

The problem is that characters keep acting in ways that don’t make sense, especially in the sense of if they’re trying to hide or get away with someone. Right from the start, Jim is so worried about getting caught having an affair, but he meets Lena outside of her house and they begin making out right there on the sidewalk before going inside. He might not have known that his wife was following him, but as a major public figure wouldn’t he be worried about paparazzi? Tina’s main story arc is that she was previously a private defense attorney who had successfully defending criminals that Dan was trying to prosecute. Now she feels guilty and that’s why she wants to be a D.A., but Dan doesn’t completely trust her because of her history, so she’s determined to prove herself to him. Despite this stated lack of trust, Dan immediately gives her this major case. And then when Tina first goes to interview Paul we find out that the two of them had a relationship in the past, which Tina doesn’t choose to reveal to Dan when he gave her the case. You’d think she’d want to be open that. And despite insisting that he was a loving husband (he says he and Lena had an “open marriage”, that’s why he knew about the affair with Jim) and is grieving her death, a couple of times he actually tries to come to Tina while she’s interviewing. The body’s not even cold yet!

I won’t say more, but it’s just safe to say this isn’t the best-written film. The acting is pretty good, they’re all capable actors, especially Belinda Gavin, whom I’ve also enjoyed in many films. But, as for the story, I’d give that a Chacebook rating of THREE STARS.

But what saves this film are the sex scenes which are, of course, the main reason we watch these softcore films. There are nine sex scenes in this film, and all of them are very hot. The problem is I realize that I shouldn’t break down each scene, telling you the participants like I usually do, because that could spoil some of the plot if you know it in advance because some of the characters hooking up reveals their secrets. So I’ll just say that the four ladies in the film, Syren, Tamara, Belinda, and Maya each get at least two sex scenes, eight of which b/g and one is g/g. Those scenes are what make this film worth watching and I give those a Chacebook rating of FIVE STARS.

Jason Majercik is selling the UNRATED DVD for $27.99. Email him at quinn_nash@hotmail.com for his softcore inventory list.