**Spoilers Ahead**

This 2012 film from Mainline Releasing is written by Tina Hawthorne and directed by Austin Brooks and stars Amber Rayne as Mia, a woman who is celebrating her 25th birthday. Todd Tetreault plays her boyfriend Tyler, whom she’s been dating for a year. After waking her up with some hot birthday sex, he gives her a present in a little black jewelry box. Clearly thinking it’s an engagement ring, Mia is quite disappointed when she opens it and finds a key. Tyler says it’s a spare key to his place, so she can come and go whenever she wants. This is not the commitment that Mia was hoping for, thinking it was time for them to settle down after she points out that when her mother was 25 she was already married with a child. But Tyler thinks it’s too soon to be talking about marriage, so Tyler says it’s over and kicks him out.

Sadie Katz and Misty Anderson play Mia’s roommates Kristen and Sara. Mia tells them what happened, and Kristen is sympathetic to her heartbreak, but Sara is a cynic about love, who thinks all men are scum.

Ryan Driller plays Sara’s private yoga instructor Mike who comes by their house later that day to give Sara a lesson. She asks him if he thinks she’s a “cold bitch,” pointing out that she hasn’t had a date in over 6 months, and wonders if it’s because she comes off as unapproachable. Mike assures her that he isn’t and the two of them have sex. But once it’s over, she tells him that it’ll never happen again, and he says that no she’s indeed coming off as a cold bitch and leaves in anger.

Brandon Ruckdashel plays Mia’s coworker Simon, who greets her at the office with coffee and a chocolate muffin for her birthday. He notices that she’s down, and says he understands because he turned 25 a few months earlier, and it made him re-evaluate his life too.

Sheesh, what’s with the people in this movie acting like 25 is so damn old?!? Speaking as someone who is…a bit older than that, they still seem like kids to me!

But I digress.

Mia tells Simon about breaking up with Tyler and says she has no birthday plans beyond drinking at home with her roommates that night, and she invites him to come over and join them. Simon brings a bottle of champagne and he and three ladies are drinking and laughing in the living room when Tyler suddenly shows up (apparently he has a key to their place, as he just walks into the room. Tyler asks to talk to Mia in private so they go outside by the pool. He tells her he doesn’t want to break up with her, and says he may have changed his mind about getting married, but Mia is smart enough to realize that this is just desperation on his part, she knows he’s not really ready, and doesn’t want to get married like that, so kisses him goodbye and reiterates that it’s over. She then goes off to brood by herself. Meanwhile, Sara takes Simon to her bedroom to hook up with him, and Kristen ends up taking Tyler to her bedroom to hook up with her.

After Sara and Simon finish, Sara brags to him that the only reason she came on to him is because she could tell that he was secretly interested in Mia and wanted to prove a point that men can’t be loyal. As Simon opens the bedroom door to leave, Mia is walking down the hallway and looks shocked and hurt to see him with Sara.

But it’s not like it’s cheating or anything, Mia and Simon were just friends and coworkers, and before this scene, there wasn’t any indication that either of them had feelings for the other, so why is Mia upset?

The next morning the three women argue, as Sara spits out that Kristen slept with Tyler, and then see Mia sitting alone in her car, crying. Tyler shows up in his car, then gets out and then into Mia’s car with her. He admits to her that she’s right about him not being ready for a serious relationship, he just wants to have fun, but he hopes to remain friends and if that means she doesn’t want him to see Kristen again, he’ll stay away. But she gives him permission to do so.

Tyler talks to Kristen, who is worried about being a rebound, and he swears that she isn’t and gives her the key to his house that he made for Mia.

But…he just said he didn’t want anything serious? This isn’t making sense.

Sara later apologizes to Mia, admitting she was jealous of the fact that Simon was into Mia. Sara then calls Mike to come by and apologizes to him, saying she’d like to try seeing him again and he agrees to that.

In the end, Mia and Simon are working late in their office together on some kind of project. Simon admits to “sleeping with the wrong girl,” and that part of his resolution when he turned 25 (which, again, is still very young) was to go after what he wants, and what he wants is Mia. They have sex and, I guess, are set to live happily ever after? THE END.

Yeah, this story was lame. Like several of Tina Hawthorne’s scripts, including the recently reviewed HIDDEN TREASURES, there’s some potential in there, this could have been a strong character drama about relationships and friendships, but so much of the characters’ actions in this film feel random. And worse yet, there’s a lot of bad acting in her. Amber Rayne tries, she has several somewhat convincing crying scenes, but she’s not strong enough to carry this film as she should. Brandon Ruckdashel is the only really decent actor in this film, the rest show little emotion and often come off like they’re reading from cue cards.

Sadie Katz is particularly disappointing, as she did a decent job in Hidden Treasures but not so much in this movie, which was filmed a year prior. Thankfully her acting progressed. I also have to notice that this film was shot before she got the breast implants that she sports in the other film and, sorry, she’s just not as hot without them.

This cast also includes Tanya Tate and Alan Stafford. Tanya plays Mia and Simon’s boss, Mona, who runs a PR firm, and Alan is her assistant, Frank, whom she’s secretly banging. But these characters are completely irrelevant to the main plot and don’t add anything to the film.

There are 8 sex scenes. Amber has one with Todd and one with Brandon. Sara has one with Ryan and one with Brandon. Sadie and Toff have two together, and Tanya and Alan have two together. They’re decent (especially Tanya’s scenes), but not enough to elevate the quality of this film.

Chacebook rating: THREE STARS

Jason Majercik is selling this UNRATED DVD for $19.99. Email him at quinn_nash@hotmail.com for his softcore inventory list