Written by Louise Monclair and directed by Lucas Riley, this film was released in 2001 from Surrender Cinema and Playboy TV. It stars Amy Lindsay and Richard Neil as Olivia and Harry, they’re a wealthy married couple. One thing they’re known for is throwing exclusive wild weekend-long parties in which they play various games that are designed to get certain couples together. Olivia likes fixing people up, and they enjoy manipulating people to see what happens. At the beginning of the film, Olivia is planning their latest party, discussing the potential guest list with Harry.

Frank Harper plays Troy, a lawyer at Harry’s law firm, and Gina Ryder plays Janice, a new associate at the firm who is working for Troy, although she doesn’t enjoy it because he’s a bit of a hard-ass. Both of them get invited. Olivia’s friend Shandra, a romance novelist played by the legendary Monique Parent, gets invited along with Shandra’s assistant Alex (Eddie Jay). And Olivia also invites their new next-door neighbors, a married couple named Danny and Gwen, who have been having marital problems lately and are played by Joe Souza and Mandy Fisher. Rounding out the cast is Dru Berrymore as Olivia and Harry’s maid, Antoinette.

At the party, Oliva and Harry instruct their guests on the game they’ll be playing, They’re going to do a role-play improv game revolving around the murder of a man named Foster Mayne. They’re each given new outfits and bios to explain the character they’re supposed to be playing and shown to their rooms. Janice plays Foster’s girlfriend, a former stripper. Shandra plays a clumsy nurse. Troy plays Foster’s bookkeeper, a shy 28-year-old virgin. Alex is Foster’s womanizing nephew. Gwen plays Foster’s mistress, and Danny plays the detective investigating Foster’s murder. The premise is that all the suspects are beneficiaries of Foster’s estate because his last Will is missing. It’s believed that before he died he cut someone out of his Will, and that is why he was killed, so no everyone has to try to find it to win the game.

Or something. Whatever.

See, the problem is, that’s a pretty interesting premise that could have led to some intriguing plot twists but once it’s introduced it’s not really explored. It comes off like just a plot device to get various characters to hook up, none of them really take it seriously. In fact most of the time the characters are complaining about having to do this.  So, storywise, this film feels like one big missed opportunity. By the time it gets to the end and the mystery is solved, I didn’t even care. So the story just comes off like one giant missed opportunity.

But the saving grace of this film is the sex scenes, of which we get seven of them.

Monique Parent has two, one with Danny Pape, who plays an I.T. guy who comes to her house to repair her computer, and a lesbian scene with Dru Berrymore.
Dru also has a scene with Frank Harper, and he was a scene with Gina Ryder.
Mandy Fisher and Joe Souza have two scenes together, and they are the highlight of this movie.
And Amy Lindsay and Richard Niel have one scene.

They’re all hot scenes, but even then they could have made better choices. Like I’d cut out the scene with Danny Pape, to include a scene with Richard Neil, as Shandra mentions that Olivia and Harry are swingers and she intends to seduce Harry, but then she never does. And even though I love the Mandy Fisher scenes, I would have cut one to give a scene of Eddie Jay and Gina Ryder, since their characters end up together in the end (spoiler, I guess), and why include Eddie in the film if he’s not even going to get a sex scene?

Despite the stellar cast, I can’t call this film anything more than just average. It’s watchable, but could have been so much better. Chacebook rating: THREE AND A HALF STARS

Jason Majercik is selling the UNRATED DVD for $26.99. Email him at quinn_nash@hotmail.com for his softcore inventory list.