Secret Games - Verbotene Reize

Having long been a fan of low-budget, independent movies, I was pleasantly surprised by Secret Games II. Martin Hewitt as performance artist Kyle Lake shows a side of his acting that we haven't really seen before, and we are witness to an interesting psychological tug-of-war between his art, erotic call girls, and the hard, revealing truths behind their dangerous "games." As he sinks deeper into this world, it is Kyle's art (videotapes) that becomes the vehicle for the answers he seeks -- done ingeniously through dialogue directly to the audience. Add Amy Rochelle, Sara Suzanne Brown, and Marie Leroux, and the erotic quotient goes up considerably. But perhaps most exciting aspect of the movie is the reappearance of the writer Russell La Valle, whose skills I first noticed on his film Sins of the Night. Once again, La Valle shows a talent that stands above the rest in this genre. After "Sins" I would often come across other, non-entertainment writings of his and always came away with the feeling that here is a writer who deserves assignments that are commensurate with his talent. I can only hope that someone else takes notice of his capabilities and hires him to tackle movie projects of larger scope and importance. Until then, I will continue to champion these low-budget cable features whose entertainment value has been undervalued and under-appreciated for too long.

This film has nothing to do with the first film, which also starred Hewitt. Hewitt is cast as an unemployed married guy who tries to become a conceptual artist by video taping his life and talking to the camera. He orders a hooker, and becomes drawn to her, as she treats him like nothing. He also has a affair with a married woman, so he treated her like the same way the hooker treated him. He says some interesting speech like how dating a woman is like getting hooker, and how she didn't care about irene and all she was to him was a hot thing. Funny scenes and lines, and this is one of Hewitt's best roles. The unrated version seems to go on forever and is really boring, but the "R" version is shorter and runs better.

Kyle is a bum who imagines himself a "performance artist." He mistreats everyone in his life, and whines into his camera about how horrible his life is, in long, tedious monologues.

This picture would have been much more satisfying if a maniac in a clown mask had burst in and hacked Kyle to death with a huge knife. Or if the hooker turned into a werewolf and mauled him. But this isn't a Hitchcock picture so everybody doesn't get what they deserve.

Amy Rochelle didn't do much for me, but Sara Suzanne Brown pulled off a great combination of innocence and sexuality as the housewife Irene trapped in a marriage to a guy even duller than Kyle. She's hot, hot, hot here, and it's the only sympathetic character. However, I found it hard to believe a babe like Irene would fall for an obnoxious loser like Kyle.

See this picture if you like Sara, and for a great three-way scene where Amy's hooker brings Kyle another hooker for his birthday. (Of course this might be missing from the "R" version.) Fast forward the rest, unless you like to watch jerks feeling sorry for themselves and whining about how badly the world treats jerks. If only it *did*!

Note to the writers: Asides (characters addressing the audience) work as jokes in _Rocky and Bullwinkle_. Shakespeare was able to make them work in serious drama. You're not that good.

What truly held this movie back was it's "innovative" method of stopping the movie so the characters could talk to you. It was almost like watching a bad play. Amy Rochelle was very hot in this flick, and her various sex scenes are almost worth the price of renting it.