Body Shots - Movie Review

Rating: 2 out of 5

Again, Hollywood has taken creative marketing to new heights with Body Shots. Judging by the trailers, the ads, even the tagline ("There are movies that define every decade!"), one would be led to believe that Body Shots is an incisive drama/comedy about twentysomething relationships, emphasis on the comedy.

Body Shots is not that movie.

You know it from the start, when a battered Sara (Reid) comes careening through the streets of L.A., obviously post-rape. Nothing starts a movie off quite like a rape aftermath, but in flashback, the film starts to look up. The next half hour tells us about the night before, when four guys and four girls go to a downtown club, all looking to hook up for the night.

Some of them do, and some don't. And one of these entanglements ends up badly. At first, Livingston alone provides comic relief as a semi-lovable loser who shows up in golfing regalia and can't get in the club. But on The Day After, Body Shots quickly degenerates into a Movie of the Week that would play better on Lifetime, with a he said/she said legal war that is never resolved.

While Body Shots has its moments, by and large it's a poor entry into the genre. Its "clever" photography and self-referential nonsense gets old, quickly. The speeches given directly to camera are silly and unrealistic: No one acts like this. Even the title doesn't make sense. There are no body shots in the movie. (The title was recently changed from the trademark-challenged Jello Shots, and there is no Jello in the movie, either.)

Eight Very Beautiful People acting ugly? Count me out. Check out Swingers or Go, which are far better treatments of the same theme.

Shoot me.

Facts and Figures

Year: 1999

Run time: 106 mins

In Theaters: Friday 21st January 2000

Distributed by: New Line Cinema

Production compaines: New Line Cinema, Colomby/Keaton Productions

Reviews

Contactmusic.com: 2 / 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 11%
Fresh: 3 Rotten: 25

IMDB: 5.0 / 10

Cast & Crew

Director: Michael Cristofer

Producer: Harry Colomby, Jennifer Keohane

Screenwriter: David McKenna

Starring: Jerry O'Connell as Michael Penorisi, Amanda Peet as Jane Bannister, Sean Patrick Flanery as Rick Hamilton, Tara Reid as Sara Olswang, Ron Livingston as Trent, Emily Procter as Whitney Bryant, Joe Basile as Bartender, Scott Burkholder as Man in Bar, Liz Coke as Girl #2, Allison Dunbar as Girl #3, Edmund Genest as Sara's Dad (as Edmond Genest), Adam Lieberman as Burger Joint Cop (as Adam Gordon), Mark Hicks as Bodyguard, Larry Joshua as Detective Richards, Elizabeth Liebel as Mrs. Drofsky, Marc Lynn as Disco Bartender, Lou Paget as Oral Sex Instructor, Adina Porter as Detective Thompson, Benny Quan as Burger Joint Manager, Brad Rowe as Shawn Denigan, Wendy Schenker as Doctor, Nick Spano as Jeff the Doorman, Sybil Darrow as Emma Cooper (as Sybil Temchen), Emmy Collins as Shopping Cart Man (uncredited), Cameron Glenar as Club Patron (uncredited), Phil Hawn as Club Patron (uncredited), Rich Knight as Dancer (uncredited), Cheryl Rusa as Club Patron (uncredited), Rob Steinberg as Michael's Attorney (uncredited), Heidi Van Horne as Waitress (uncredited), Dwayne Winstead as Body Guard #2 (uncredited)

Also starring: Sybil Temchen, Harry Colomby, Jennifer Keohane, David McKenna