Reviews
Eu Te Amo (1981)
Braga Puts The XXX in Sex
What no one seems willing to admit is that "Eu Te Amo" qualifies as a XXX-rated hardcore film with almost every ingredient except for clinical close-ups. If this same film were produced in English in the USA or England it would have been tagged as porn and put on the shelf with "Debbie Does Dallas," but it gets a free ride because it is in Portuguese and comes across as "Sonia Does Sao Paolo". There is nothing wrong with raunch as long as it proudly proclaims what it really is, but this "Art Film" is deep down about as artistic as what used to run at The Pussycat Theater. Let the viewer beware.
BitterSweet (1999)
Tarantino Knock-off with One Saving Grace
Just when it seemed safe to turn on premium channels without fear of suffering another copy of a rendition of a portrait of a shadow of a reinterpretation of Tarantino's Tough-Talk-with-Gunfire-Punctuation formula, along comes the functionally worthless BITTERSWEET to waste the airwaves. Everhart needlessly exerts herself in the role of a small-time criminal(?) who serves time and gets paroled with revenge on her mind. Eric Roberts shows up for another paycheck. James Russo (EXTREMES) chews more scenery. After much soap-quality melodrama with folks screaming at one another how much they care (the kind of scenes aspiring actors love because they wrongly think that shows off their Acting skills), everything fizzles into a routine shoot-out in Roberts' house replete with gratuitous slow-motion and people firing one pistol in each hand (no wonder they cannot hit anything at which they aim!). The saving grace is Everhart's mighty effort to abandon her glamorous image and deliver some genuinely astonishing Natural Acting -- the subtle unforced kind missing throughout the rest of the actors' performances. Minus make-up, her red hair muted, her delivery fresh, she comes through the only winner in this instantly forgettable waste of celluloid.
The Gardener (1998)
Little Shoppe of Horrors Meets House of Wax
What starts off as an unfunny LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS retread eventually implodes into an unintentionally funny HOUSE OF WAX regurgitation with McDowell instead of Vincent Price and Everhart in lieu of Phyllis Kirk. In fact the only notable ingredient in this unremarkable formula pic is Everhart's evolution to budding Action Star in its earliest sequences! Shorn of the long red hair that is her trademark, she delivers more genuine strength than Sharon Stone does in her unwatchable rehash of GLORIA; she singlehandedly projects more serious intensity than the starlets in either of the two NIKITA remakes (POINT OF NO RETURN and that toothless teleseries); and she takes one giant leap toward establishing herself as a formidable Star when she finally makes the transition into studio Action Movies. Check it out under its current title SILENT SCREAMS to watch the progress of a future MovieStar in Everhart -- otherwise get the weed whacker.
Tir à vue (1984)
Bonnie & Clyde Meets Pretty Poison
Made before Sandrine Bonnaire became a French icon with San Toi Ni Loi (Vagabond), Tir a Vue is a solid and perverse contribution to the Young Gangsters in Love genre wherein wannabe Bad Guy meets up with not-so-innocent Sex Kitten who turns out to be The Villain he could only dream of becoming. Generous helpings of nudity, raunchy storylines, and that spicy grit only French crime movies can produce -- a genuine Lost Treasure to be found only in Quebec and/or French video shoppes.