We’re going back to the year 2000, when MRG Entertainment released this softcore erotic thriller, which was written by Steve Martel and directed by Eric Gibson.

Tane McClure stars as Julia Collins, a radio talk show host in Los Angeles, she hosts an afternoon show called Talk Love. On this show she plays matchmaker for her listeners. Women call in and describe to Julia their ideal man, and what kind of date they’re interested in, and then men call in to go out with that woman and she picks one. And then I guess Julia exchanges their phone numbers so they can arrange to meet.

I have to say, right off the bat, I was scratching my head at this concept, it’s hard to imagine a radio show like this working, even back then. What woman is going to want to go out with some guy who calls into a radio show? It’s not like show vets any of these guys, they don’t know who they are, that’s crazy.

And sure enough, as the film begins the show is not doing well. We see Julia reading some fan mail she’s gotten from listeners who claim they’ve had successful dates after meeting through the show, but the ratings are still bad, and they’re having a hard time getting sponsors for the show, with the ones they have dropping off. Daniel Anderson plays Christian, Julia’s live-in boyfriend and the show’s producer. He’s constantly on her about the low ratings, and the need to do something special to attract more listeners. They’ve got two weeks before the next ratings report comes out, and Christian is worried that if the ratings don’t improve the show is going to be canceled and they’ll both be out of the radio business for good.

Now despite having a seemingly hot sex life with Julia, we see that Christian is not faithful to her. In fact, he regularly calls into the radio show using fake names and gets set up with the women who call looking for dates (Julia doesn’t recognize his voice when he calls, although he sounds exactly the same). When one of the women who calls into the show gets murdered that night, police investigate and discover the connection to the show, and start interviewing women who’ve called in to try to learn about the men they’ve dated, assuming it’s a man who listens to the show.

This story leaks to the press, bringing the show more publicity. And this somehow increases the ratings. That’s right, despite the possible danger, we see more people than ever trying to call into the show. And companies now want to buy advertising on the show. But the police are worried another caller could be the next victim, but can they catch the killer in time?

I don’t want to spoil too much. But Christian is immediately set up as the main suspect, although it was obvious to me that he wasn’t the killer. We see him have sex with a woman who called into the show and then he leaves her in bed sleeping. Then he cuts to later that night where we see someone, face hidden, walk into the room and smother her to death with a pillow (in a very unconvincing scene).

Brad Bartram plays Andy, he’s the call screener for Julia’s show, and a good friend of hers. He’s having a secret relationship with Alyssa, a secretary at the radio station (played by Michelle Von Flotow), which they’re hiding from their coworkers because they don’t want it to affect their job. But when he catches Alyssa having sex with Christian (that dude gets around) he threatens to tell Julia and becomes another possible suspect in the murder.

Bruce Lurie plays Paul, the lead homicide detective investigating the case. He and Julia hit it off immediately, and soon after they meet she has a fantasy of having sex with him right in her office. John McCafferty plays a reporter who’s reporting on the murder and its connection to Julia’s show. He has a secret source he won’t reveal who lets him know about the murder before the police made it public. This is what leads Paul to suspect that the murder was done specifically to help increase ratings for the show (which, again, it inexplicably does).

So Christian and Andy are the two major suspects as the movie proceeds. Plot-wise, I found most of this to be rather unremarkable, just a by-the-numbers softcore murder mystery. But I’ll admit, they stick the landing at the end. Again, not going to spoil it, but I was genuinely surprised.

But what makes this film worth repeated viewing are the sex scenes, of which there are 8 full scenes in total.

Tane McClure gets four, two with Daniel Anderson and two with Bruce Lurie. McClure is somewhat of an underrated softcore performer of her era, in my opinion. She’s gorgeous and a good actress, always giving a great performance in her dramatic and sexual scenes, and this film is no exception.

Michelle Von Flotow has two scenes, one with Anderson and one with Brad Bartram.

In addition to his scenes with McClure, Daniel Anderson has a scene with Angela Grant, who plays the murder victim, and he has a threesome scene with Lisa Throw and Stella Porter, two women who call in to Julia’s show.

Regina Russell Banali also appears in the film as a listener of Julia’s show and she gets naked in this film but, unfortunately, doesn’t have a sex scene.

Bare Deception isn’t what I’d call a masterpiece, but if you’re softcore fan looking for an attractive cast and hot sex scenes, this is worth checking out. Chacebook rating: FOUR STARS

Jason Majercik is selling this UNRATED DVD for $22.99. Email him at quinn_nash@hotmail.com for his softcore inventory list