Hotel Exotica

USA • 1999 • 88m •

• Directed by: Marcy Ronen. • Starring: Landon Hall, Dutch Flaherty, Ahmo Hight, Chris Johnston, Taylor St. Clair, Steve Curtis, Nikki Fritz, Gal Lawrence, A.W. Anderson, Everett Rodd, Jeff Urban, Leslie Olivan, Alex Kochel. • Music by: Carl Dante, Wayne Scott Joness.

A psychic advises Carly to book a weekend at the Hotel Exotica to put life in her stale marriage to Doug, an over-worked attorney. He tells her he can go, but when he has to work, she goes instead with Rachel, her sister who's recently dumped her philandering boyfriend. Carly and Rachel arrive, they see couples at play, the atmosphere is charged with Eros, and both have dreams that awaken their sensuality. After their first night, Doug and his partner Frank join them, but Doug is still cold. Frank and Rachel don't get along either. Encounters with the resident fortune teller and with the lodge's hostess help get good things started, then it's up to Doug and Frank, Rachel and Carly.

Review:

This is one of those movies that really should have been better. First, take it for what it is worth - a jiggle film. Given that, the scenes are pretty risque: bottomless front shots of women and all that (that is, if you see the unrated version, I guess). The two female leads, Landon Hall and Ahmo Height, are both well suited to this type of movie. Height, a glamour model in her second movie, is particularly energetic in her roles. She reminds me of Lisa Boyle (Cassandra Leigh) from several years ago. Hall is clearly less concerned about emoting a performance, but then again, she's been around for a while. The men are, as usual, cookie cutter and unmentionable.

What I think is too bad is that the movie set itself up for interesting scenes, but then pulls back to the basic mid-range bed shots for the lovemaking. Why bother? Height's romp in the inn's kitchen is a good example. Rather than going whole hog 9 12 weeks-style with the props at their displosal, Height and her female friend (Taylor St. Clair) bump and grind on the counter. Again, watching Height is an experience (all 3 of her sex scenes have a definite attraction to them), but couldn't they have done something more?

Many watchers of this film will see other wasted opportunities. Given the physical talents of the cast, it just seems to be a waste to go to all this trouble, then not do something more interesting with them than what turns up.

Review by maciyver from the Internet Movie Database.

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