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Body Shots (1999)

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13 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Gets off to a great start, 8. April 2006

Author: djheroinchic von United States

Before falling off into oblivion. The first forty five minutes were good. It starts off in an interesting way and it's easy to become immersed in what is going on. Unfortunately the second half is poorly written. The driving force is killed off, and what follows only leads into the least anti-climatic ending ever seen. What's worse about the ending is that it fails to resolve any of the film's events. Which almost makes the entire movie a waste of a film.

The directing is great, way better than this film deserves. The acting was good. I liked Jerry O'Connell's performance. Tara Reid was surprisingly convincing in displaying her emotions. Amanda Peet could have done better. Ron Livingston was great, and is shown in a somewhat different light.

The film has a lot of wasted potential. I'm surprised that the last half of the script wasn't completely rewritten. It is as if the writer only planned out the first half before starting to write it. If it's a dollar rental, it may be worth it. Just to be safe, I'd only recommend it if it ends up on a subscription movie channel.

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11 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Intense sex, intense feelings, intense Ron Livingstone, 21. Januar 2002

Author: Silverskin von Stockholm, Sweden

Since it's so far apart between seeing good acting, you really get surprised when it just kinda' sneaks up upon you and shows you what difference it makes.

Hollywood has spent years of making movies with bad dialog and acting whilst trying to cover it up with special FX, one-liners and retouched images of whatever actor/actress is the flava of the month. In `Body Shots' you get an incredibly knit-together group of Americas finest, all young actors that has yet to become too big for their own good. That is to say, they can still take on riskier projects that perhaps a bigger actor would be forced to turn down by their management because it would not `go with the audience'.

My personal thanks here to Sean Patrick Flanery and Amanda Peet, whom on earlier occasions showed me that they dared (or did not get any other offers, who knows :) commit to smaller and often much more rewarding ventures.

Tara Reid hasn't really impressed up till now with movies like American Pie and Urban Legends, but here she really gets a chance to act out. Usually, dramatic scenes are edited into smithereens, but all over `Body Shots' you get long, really intense sequences, with all of the cast-members showing their thespian caliber. I was also pleasantly surprised to be taken in by Chris O'Donnell's portrayal of the horny party-jock, since the last time I saw him was in the abysmal movie `Dungeons & Dragons' which kinda' put him on my black-list.

Ron Livingstone is just plain weird, and therefore, marvelous. (That Alka-Seltzer-bit is going to haunt me for a while :)

The editing is first class. In basically all movies, when you see a club-scene, you're not convinced at all. YOU know what it feels like to be in a steamy, crowded club, surrounded by (and being) people in various stages of intoxication. It's seldom portrayed with as much realism as it was here, much thanks to the clever editing. The layout of the story as a whole is also refreshing - not saying that messing up the timeline hasn't been done before - but the cut-scenes between the girls gang and the boys gang, the constant meta-perspective of the actors relaying their personal views of the meat market, and the flashbacks helps to make this movie what it is.

But what struck me most of all was the sex. I can't think about when I last saw a movie with such convincing sex-scenes. It was all the small things YOU do, but they never seem to be able to put into a movie. The sucking of fingers, the difference of intensity in kissing, the touching, the grabbing of genitalia. Now, I'm not saying that showing more always is the best way to portray sex. But when it's called for by the script and the context, then hell yes! And if you're going to attempt to make an honest movie about eight hormonally hyped twenty-something's, then most definitively so.

All in all, I was very impressed. The story has been done before, but not with such pathos. Movies like these make me hopeful of the future. Perhaps we're going away from only producing predictable storylines, uninspiring actors that deliver lines like they have a nail through their kneecap and dialog that you'd never hear outside of the screenwriters head.

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10 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Yes, it's pretentious, but also entertaining, sexy and funny., 23. April 2002
Author: Car316

Yes, Body Shots is pretentious all the way, well done, but it's also entertaining, sexy and surprisingly funny. Ron Livingston is hilarious as Trent. There's also some highly steamy sex scenes. Overall, the movie never bored me, it's a perfect example of a guilty pleasure. *** (out of four)

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21 out of 38 people found the following comment useful :-
Body shots - I wish they'd shot some bodies .., 19. Februar 2001

Author: Clare von Melbourne, Australia

There is one word for this film, WOEFUL.

This film follows the lives of 8 people (4 girls, 4 guys) and one night and its aftermath. It's a simple enough story. 4 girls meet the 4 boys, 1 boy 'rapes' 1 girl, 1 girl bonks 1 boy (who is really in love with the 'raped' girl), 1 boy is bonded by 1 girl and the other 2 are happy in their relationship. YUK.

It's a silly story, even sillier script and the characters are completely unlikeable (even in the remotest sense). It strikes me as a film someone decided to throw together after a night on a huge bong with a weekend to spare.

Don't bother watching this.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
A pretentious movie which is only entertaining., 17. Juli 2006

Author: insomniac_rod von Noctropolis

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Great premise, not so good execution. I really dug into this movie after the first 10 minutes. It shows you the typical wild night lifestyle of young adults. On this particular night, MANY things happen, and one lead to another to a raping (or did it really happen?).

The movie is pretty interesting because it clearly defines the personality of it's six main characters. Then, it's up to you to reach a conclusion. There are many clichés as you may expect in a movie that portrays a life style. We have the sexy smart girl with an attitude, the sexy dumb blonde whose life's a mess, the professional football player who is a fun jerk, the smart but boring girl, the drunken pervert who everyone likes, the lawyer who has a normal life style. and the pretty boy who just acts pretty when is on screen.

Well, all of our characters get really drunk, have wild irresponsible sex (hilarious scene involving Livingston), and get home. The day after, with a horrible hang over, they know about the unfortunate events involving the dumb blonde and the footballer. The movie gives you clues in flashbacks and it's now up to you to reach a conclusion.

In my opinion, Tara Reid's character wasn't "abused". Obviously she is a woman with BIG issues like an ex boyfriend who left her, her addiction to alcohol, and a slutty personality. She gets really angry after the footballer tells her the name of her friend. Anyways, this movie gives you the chance to think and choose the best ending option.

Watch it for it's decent and hilarious performances. Amanda Peet (always beautiful, classy) and Ron Livingston steal the show. This may not be a GREAT or revolutionary movie (because it's really pretentious) but it's very entertaining and deserves a watch.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Nice plot line, just not good enough back-up, 14. November 2000
Author: kaos161722

I previewed this about two months ago, and I was impressed a little at the beginning but it faded throughout the rest of the movie! I thought Amanda Peet and Sean Patrick Flanery had good roles but the rest of the cast seemed like they were hanging on the bottom of a kite! I was a little disappointed in Tara Reid, I was expecting more than what I got. She has done such a great job in such films as "American Pie", "Cruel Intentions", and "Urban Legends", but somehow this movie just didn't suit her artistically at all. The movie was filled with pointless sex scenes, and the explicit sex scene with Brad Rowe getting his groove in the parking lot of a club. But, I think the whole rape issue in the film could've been left out because it was just boring and a waste of film. The whole he said-she said thing has been drawn out to make a movie a big mess, the only time it has ever worked was in "The Accused" and that's about it! I think "Body Shots" could've have been unmade but I mean it's a good movie to watch if you can't go to sleep but other than that, save your time, and read a book or catch up on what you've missed on "The West Wing".

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Keep repeating, "At least there's no Melissa Joan Hart...", 21. Oktober 1999
Author: matthew wilder (cosmovitelli@mediaone.net) von los angeles (but not this movie's)

If you live in Los Angeles, you see them everywhere. Maybe they're combining margarita pitchers and seafood cigars in Manhattan Beach, or tottering toward their SUV, yakking up six lime-tinted martinis in Santa Monica. They're white, they're youngish, they're pretty, and--to borrow a great man's phrase--they're pretty vacant. BODY SHOTS is a dissection of their mating and mismating rituals. The fact that the octet of neo-yupsters collected by the screenwriter David McKenna are all thoroughly repulsive would be no problema if this were a film by Neil LaBute. However, the aspirations here are more toward a "lifestyle" article in Marie Claire embellished to feature length.

To be curt, the shtik here is date rape Rashomon-style; or, to borrow from the Kevin Bacon canon, he-said-she-said. The problem that a) you don't buy one of the participants' story and b) you couldn't care less seems not to have fazed the director, Michael Cristofer, who stages a hotsy-totsy encounter against a chain-link fence just as he did in his leery TV movie GIA. Cristofer, the author of the ghastly seventies play THE SHADOW BOX, seems to be building a career in his late middle age on serving up succulent young flesh, but the focus here is on dialogue meant to stir up conversation on the drive home. ("When you get your mouth down on it--y'know, on a guy?--it's like such a control trip!" Or somesuch.) Props must be given to the stylish photography and the presence of the always funny and undervalued Ron Livingston, a tourist from Planet Human.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Better than you'd think., 4. Januar 2004
Author: angrywizard von London, England

BODY SHOTS

RATING: *** (OUT OF ****)

With decent performances and unconventional storytelling, "Body Shots" is never boring, although it never exactly "defines a decade" either. More stars were in it then I thought there'd be. Tara Reid, Amanda Peet, Jerry O'Connel (who I can hardly take seriously after "Tomcats" and "Joe's Apartment") and Ron Livingston (that's right, the guy from "Office Space") all show up, and the result is a surprisingly involving, though occasionally pretentious, film.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Swingers gone weird, 20. November 2006

Author: bdonut von Vancouver, Canada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Well, its starts off kind of interesting as we follow 4 guys and 4 gals into this club...but then it takes a stupid twist and becomes a movie about a rape. Sorry, this just did not work at all. The setup was all wrong. Not that things can spiral out of control in real life like this but the way they ran the voiceovers, the character intros, the humor (Ron Livingstone going on in his golf gear) etc., you felt they were setting you up for a romantic comedy or a look at the mores of "youth." It lost me totally. Basically, two movies in one never works. What can I say? This flick had a good idea where it was going then got derailed along the way.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
WARNING: SPOILERS! "Sex without love = Violence" (my favourite quote from this movie). 8/10., 20. September 2002

Author: lizziebeth-1 von Sydney, Australia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

What is this beyond-reason, Zenlike denial of self, masquerading as sophistication that the new Millennium is having us wallow in? No, Body Shots (1999) is NOT about the uselessness of the he said/she said accusations over drunken date rapes. Sure, that's a point worth making, but it really belongs in another movie all its own. This story, if the editor would just leave it alone, is about the inability of humans to live amongst each other with any intimacy.

The characters have more sex than they appear to know what to do with, because their sex lives are still at odds with who they are, or aspire to being. All natural warmth is absent. People vaguely comment about their constant loneliness, but it doesn't bother any one of them nearly enough.

Amanda Peet as Jane is much too stereotypically thin and toothy, and it's getting irritating to have that always work. Enough! Why can't she be cast as the girl who gets bedded and not called back?

Women who look like her in real life are being used like tissues, by men with I.Q.s lower than the tissue. Guys just like Rick (Sean Patrick Flanery), pathetic "professionals" who suck at even their own jobs and who are skating on bull, but somehow in the corrupt business world they're still paid enormous paychecks that they will never, ever, deserve.

So out here, not only is marriage on the way out, but so are male-female love relationships. That's what Body Shots is REALLY about. (I don't know how gay relationships are going; I can only wish them more luck.) Straight men are becoming totally lost, subhuman, autistic. Arguably abnormal. Alright, too many women are, as well. Maybe it's something in our food. Some late-onset autism cases were traced (in real life) to essentially food allergies, an inability to metabolize staple foods. Autism affects males 5 times as often as it does females, so maybe there's something to all this...

The ever-so-slightly-hopeful approach towards the only really normal (nice) guy of Body Shots, Shawn Denigan (Brad Rowe) is a) ineffectual because he's stopped fighting against the offensive/criminal hosing-guy jerk, Mike (Jerry O'Connell), and b) even his possible girlfriend, Sarah (Tara Reid), is too stupid to take him for what he is: a normal human being; complaining that his niceness is just too much for her! Hello! ... She even says an astoundingly stupid thing to camera: "And you just kinda fall into bed with them. It's safer. It's just sex, you know?" -No, you idiot, "Just sex" is diametrically opposed to "safe".

This is NOT sophistication. It's naïve. Getting involved is what we're supposed to be doing! We're supposed to accept people with faults, because the real world is not a virtual play-environment; that's not reality's job. If we over-control our relationships, how will we ever learn to be fair, as opposed to a little tool fit for no-one, like Sarah?

With characters this far out of whack (and it really doesn't matter what they look like, does it? They're all beautiful, unhappy, lonely idiots- I'm pretty sure that's the point), it's surprising and laughable that the healthiest "relationship" happens between the universally (amongst this ship of tools) disliked Trent (Ron Livingston), and the sex-goddess, Whitney (Emily Procter). When she gets kinky on him, he reacts with self-deprecating humour! I really like every bit of thesping Ron Livingston does in Body Shots. It's obvious that he's the best actor among them. The rest are playing characters that are not such a stretch. Livingston's performance is very natural and easy. I especially liked the way he talks about his "chew toy". (For those who don't know, Ron's the elder Livingston; his younger brother John did some nice work the same year in The Sterling Chase (1999). Both Livingston brothers are pretty charismatic).

But the best scene surely has to be the grittiest, and kudos to David McKenna for his gutsy original story, as well as Michael Cristofer for his direction. The staccato beat of drumsticks as Shawn allows pure horniness take him and his companion, Emily (Sybil Temchen), over on the bonnet of that car, is very, very effective; it's exactly how I would have done it (-the soundtrack; with the sticks, people!). Moreover, I really like that the scene happens to the supposedly shyest, most normal guy, Shawn. It gives him balance, and shows us Sarah's ridiculous underestimation of him.

But why does he claim he doesn't drink when he does? Is he a recovering alcoholic? If so, why is there no mention of that? ...Plus I have to take issue with the sudden appearance of the c*nd*m.

There was no time... I need to see the Director's Cut.

I am sorry that Emily (Sybil Temchen) feels ripped off, denuded, used, drunk, lost, afterwards. She hadn't chosen any of it. Yet again (I realize she talks about sometimes not wanting to choose so you don't have to berate yourself for how things turn out, but she still ends up berating herself, DOESN'T SHE?). So Emily and her self-esteem are back at square one. Watch her rueful facial reaction when Shawn rushes over to Sarah's side. Despite the shared night of shame between him and Emily, he can ignore it all, because he has someone else to care for, to go to; to cleanse his guilt. She DOESN'T. So Sybil Temchen is the other great thespian.

Once the date rape happens, it affects all the close friends. Specifically it suppresses the not-well-justified fledgling relationship between Jane and Rick, who are now in opposite camps. Irresponsibility leads to regret. And impotence. Note their ennui/chasm in bed.

So this is a good cautionary tale. Unfortunately things are already just as bad, or worse, in the real world, and everyone is asleep at the wheel. Sleepers, wake! Resist this much self-indulgence!

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