Night Eyes Four: Fatal Passion

I just wanted to give my two cents on this interesting movie. I just happen to be flipping channels early one morning not too many nights ago and this thriller happen to appear on my screen. Needless to say it was captivating from the start. The story-line mainly revolves around Angela Cross who has a break-in to her house and then continually feels threatened and hires a full-time security guard and things unravel from there; I won't spoil it, the whole story deserves to play out in its entirety, rather surprise ending. Overall, the writing was intriguing, witty dialog (when there was any), as well as suspense, sex, and just a good plain mystery. The other thing that should be noted on this rather interesting movie is that wherever the story-line seemed to lack in suspense, intrigue, or interest, it seemed like a magic switch was flipped, and hot, passionate, sex scene after hot, passionate sex scene was inserted, sometimes just plain out of nowhere! I had to keep from laughing at one or two points, but for sure the love scenes depicted were captivating and attention grabbing all their own.

Overall 3 out of 5

I've watched different direct-to-cable/video "erotic" thrillers, and they share the same qualities. Scripts in which the women more often than not are just easy pincushions or rude pincushions who quickly become easy once genitals enter the equation, as though there exists no complexity, just stereotypes and archetypes. Actually, that goes for the male characters too, who are always so willing to stick in a pin at any time with any woman (provided the writers/director find her their type). There are always mediocre, passionless sex scenes between boring, mediocre people with boring positions as an obnoxious saxophone goes off in the background. The characters are usually attractive to the mainstream standards of the time, the women moreso than the men. They're always white; the women are always thin with flat butts and little to no hips but pretty to beautiful faces and typically huge, beautiful hair. The men aren't particularly buff. And most of the time none of them have any charisma, just sex appeal (depending on your taste). The stories are laughable, but they pepper in enough breasts and boring sex scenes that a lot of people don't care. Rinse and repeat. And this film was no different.

The main female character was blandly played, with the actress totally coasting on her looks and voice, and the lead male character looked like someone's dad. The main guy's female partner was the only character I liked because she was competent and supportive (and had chemistry with the lead like they cared about each other), but they drowned her in drab suits when she should have worn more colorful clothing. It was clear what the director thought of her. The best thing about this film was that the women had great hair. I also liked some things about the "twist" at the end. But I fell asleep to it at one point. While it's not awful, it's also not good. Just kinda there. Mainstream erotic thrillers that become successes become them for a reason. The premise could have been better with different people behind it.

Oh, yeah, and the lead is the worst security guard ever. He's off-the-charts bad.

If there ever was a movie that used a silly excuse to portray sex on screen, this is it. In typical erotic thriller fashion, the film relies on a very weak story. In short its about a seemingly paranoid female psychiatrist being blackmailed. She hires Steve Caldwell of the Night Eyes Agency to protect her. The psychiatrist is joined by a very mad patient who barges into and out of her office like he owns the place and a couple who strip naked and have wild sex every time they are shown on screen. One thing leads to another and Steve Caldwell is procreating with psychiatrist lady like a rabbit. There are diversions like break-ins, sabotage and anonymous phone calls in addition to horrendous screenplay during the course of the 80 minutes and finally the person behind it all is caught...but that really isn't what this is all about right?

I might have watched at least another one of those, it is really tough to say. The 90s did have quite a lot of movies with similar stories. And a lot of nudity too. I know, how dare they? Oh wait you meant in a good sense? Well whatever floats your boat. Though to be fair, these movies were trying to titilate and wedge in a thriller too.

Paper thin story, paper thin characters. Apparently this being part four, we have a recurring character in this, who won't play a big part though. Not that it matters, because someone else fills in his shoes - quite literally and story wise too. So same things as in the movies before, with different "players". Beautiful women in front of the camera and a really mesmerizing main female character. You kind of can understand the dilemma and passion our main male character develops. No big surprises overall here (apart from Casper van Dien being in it, I reckon, of Starship Troopers fame). And one since there are so many sex/nude scenes I came to realize (sorry and seriously no pun intended), that the main actress very likely used a body double for her scenes. You never see her face with the rest of her (supposedly) nude body. Not sure if you care or if it matters to anyone, but these are probably some of the things you will begin to notice - unless you're a horny teenager and salivate every time you breast ... which happens quite a lot here. Story is ok ... I guess. Not much more to say really though

Andrew Stevens returns for the fourth and final of the Night Eyes franchise, only this time he's lost interest in the director/writer roles and has taken it upon himself to produce and offer minimal contribution in front of the camera.

Instead we have one of his co-workers at his security firm stepping in and protecting a woman who has come under attack from a masked assailant. Because of the increased severity he becomes her full time security guard/bodyguard and he begins to fall for her.

Did that sound familiar at all? Yeah? Maybe because that's the exact plot of the first three movies, only difference being that we have a different character this time.

So we have essentially the same plot for this erotic thriller, same mediocrity, same predictable twists and is less of a sequel and more of a remix.

This will appeal more to over sexed teenagers than anyone looking for an enjoyable film, it's probably best the franchise ended at this stage.

The Good:

Andrew Stevens completes the quadrilogy

The Bad:

It's the same movie