Masseuse (1996)

Have you ever been rubbed the right way? To pay back her cheating fiance, Kristy Cory (Griffin Drew) turns their luxurious home into a massage parlor. Kristy soon learns that the fastest way to a man's heart--and wallet--is through a long, slow massage... and more. Sometimes, revenge is a dish best served with warm hands and hot oil.

An unusually interesting straight-to-video flick.

If you know anything about exploitation film, you should know what to expect if you pick up a Fred Olen Ray or Jim Wynorski film: Lots of nudity, goofball humour, and bad acting. This one's directed by Ray under the pseudonym Daniel Peters, but surprisingly, the film stands out among the sleaze crowd thanks to an unusually satisfying story with a terrific ending.

The story centers around a rich womanizer named Jack (a suitably sleazy Tim Abell) who bullies every woman in his life into sleeping with him, from his secretary Diane (Robyn Harris) to his foreign maid Rosa (Amy Rochelle). He's engaged to voluptuous airhead Kristy (Griffin Drew), who starts to get an idea of what he's up to. Diane and Kristy meet through chance and make an alliance against Jack, resulting in a hilarious final 20 minutes that's almost pro-feminist (!).

All the sex scenes, as befits this genre, get tiring awfully quickly, and lead Griffin Drew is an atrocious actor. Her dialogue delivery sounds like she's reading the script for the first time. But there is a real saving grace in English actress Harris who, although more known for her eye-popping figure than her ability, has a way of chomping scenery that's highly pleasing and rare in this kind of film. Her character is also stronger than usual, rather than the usual sex object of video erotica. And Abell's downright sleaziness works well for the plot.

This is one of those few straight-to-video erotic films that actually entertains outside of its nude scenes. And it somehow manages to soften its misogyny (standard in this genre) with Harris' character. No woman I know ever truly likes this kind of movie, but this one would come close to appealing across the genders. Strange indeed! August 10, 2003

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