This film lucks out at being a comedy and sexy, though at times there are some saucy sights of lingerie and high heels. Believe it or not, this is from the same novelist of Interview With The Vampire. Though it's curiously different, and the movie's existence is curious too. This film's break for Paul Mercurio, doesn't do much for him, and he doesn't put in much a performance, surpassed by the other three leads, Ackroyd and O'Donnell the best, providing most of the funny moments. Elliott, (Mercurio) who's had failure of relationships, heads with many other fulfilled people to the island of Eden, a sex school/retreat, where a suppressed group of shy people can work out their mishaps, in different sexual scenarios with different partners. Sounds a lot like Sex World, right. Yes, only Sex World was better. Unfortunately our photographer Mercurio, has snapped too many photographs, one involving a drug exchange by a very dangerous woman and partner. So now we have them being chased down by gangsters This one off for Marshall, is entertaining in the birdwatching sense. We even have a rollerblading contest, and you'll guess the prize, Duh? As well O'Donnell catches the eye of a male someone. Yes this film is bad, not overly bad on the account of being different. I mean we do some full frontal shots of Donna Dixon, etc, and some dominatrix activities plus a flashback scene, featuring John (Hazzard) Schneider as a professor who re educates Delaney in the ways of love. Also another funny moment has Mercurio wiggling his tousche naughtily. Wants how he gets punished too.

Photographer Elliot Slater (Paul Mercurio) is going to Eden--an island devoted to people who like S&M and BDMS. He's going to live out his dream as being a submissive man who loves being spanked. He accidentally photographs a vicious criminal named Omar (Stuart Wilson) getting drugs. Omar and helper Nina (Iman) follow Elliot to the island to get the film--and kill him. Police officers Sheila (Rosie O'Donnell) and Fred (Dan Aykroyd) are in hot pursuit. On the island the head--Mistress Lisa (Dan Delany)--takes it upon herself to "train Elliot--and starts falling in love which she has vowed never to do.This is an adaptation (a VERY loose one) of an Anne Rice book that is just about sex, bondage, S&M and the love between Elliot and Lisa. There's no stupid drug story. It's a very good and very adult book. The movie basically sanitizes the book a great deal (everyone's nude in the book--not here), throws the insights into sex out the window and adds nonstop wisecracks from O'Donnell. Now, I like O'Donnell and some of her lines ARE funny but the movie's tone keeps zigzagging between comedy, suspense, love and nudity. It's all over the place and never finds a comfortable footing. Also Iman is (to put it mildly) a terrible actress. Still I really like this! The island locale is just beautiful (it was shot in Hawaii) and the resort itself is incredible. There's plenty of casual female nudity--even Delany has a full frontal nude shot! There is some male nudity but mostly back views. Supposedly there were full frontal shots of Mercurio but they had to cut them or they would have gotten an X rating. That doesn't make a bit of sense...but the ratings board always is afraid of male nudity. Still, there are a lot of hunky guys wandering around wearing next to nothing. Also Paul Mercurio has a fantastic butt and you get plenty of views of it! In terms of acting this is pretty good. Mercurio struggles with his accent (it's half-Australian, half-American) but he's handsome, in good shape and has no problem in strutting around half-naked. His acting is good too:) Delany looks incredible and gives an excellent performance as a dominatrix. O'Donnell is throwing off jokes left and right. Some are funny and she does it so casually it makes them even funnier. Aykroyd however is wasted. Also the movie is a little bit too long. Still this is worth seeing for the beautiful locations, the casual nudity, some truly funny bits and acting. If you're easily offended by frank talk of S&M and nudity stay FAR away. A huge bomb when it came out but this (hopefully) might be rediscovered some day. There's also a cute joke at the very end of the closing credits. I give this an 8.

I enjoyed watching this movie, even though I know it's not a great movie.I thought the acting was good, and the island of Eden was gorgeous. The erotic scenes were a mixed bag...there were a couple that were extremely erotic (got some good ideas there!) but others were Luke-warm at best.I think what kept this movie from being a good movie is that it was trying to be all things to everyone. It was a crime story, a comedy, an erotic sexcapade (sort of) and a romance. It also had too many morals to it (it's OK to explore your wild side, it's OK to relinquish control in certain situations, and the ever-popular love conquers everything).I haven't read this book (written by Anne Rice under the pseudonym of Anne Rampling) but I have read other erotica by her and I'm sure the book HAS to be better!

I have seen many of the uber bad movies on the bottom 100: You Got Served, Glitter etc and I think this movie is up there with them. You Got Served and Glitter are obviously bad, but this movie is subtly the worst movie I have ever seen. I think that after Basic Instinct some Hollywood exec thought: "Hmm this is the next big thing, mainstream movies with tons of nudity and sex!" The problem with this thought is that a)that wasn't the next big thing and b) this movie has none of the traits of a mainstream movie. The acting in this movie is horrendous, aside from Rosie O'Donnell and Dan Aykroyd who play second fiddle to a couple of porn rate actors, the plot is awkward because it has to squeeze in so much sex and the directing kind of feels like a porn movie. The plot is the worst part, in my opinion, there are two distinct plots in the movie that intersect a couple of times and finally conclude concurrently. Nothing all that unusual there, but both plots are so meaningless and free from suspense that the only plot device evident is the switch between soft core sex scenes to Dan and Rosie standing around waiting for something to happen. The only reason to watch this movie is if you really need to see some nudity, and even the sex scenes are nothing special. Most are just standard soft core porn, only in order to pass it off as a "mainstream movie" even those are cut short. I vaguely remembered when this movie came out and I was pretty excited when it came on HBO, but it was so bad that I could barely go to sleep. If you have any choice in the matter WATCH SOMETHING ELSE!