Strip Academy

It's really too bad that people think of "A Night In Heaven" as 'the male stripper movie,' because it's really not that at all. Yes the wife has an affair with her student, who happens to be a stripper, but this accounts for maybe 10 minutes of screen time. At it's center is a believable study of a marriage on the rocks, after a husband loses his job, and begins to completely alienate his wife. Lesley Ann Warren is good in her role as Faye, the wife who begins to feel insecure, and undesirable after her husband shuts her out. When she finds herself attracting the attention of one of her young, handsome students (Chris Atkins) she resists as best she can, but soon an affair ensues, that might possibly have some serious consequences.

The interesting thing about the movie is how the husband and wife interact. They have such different views of what is really happening. "A Night In Heaven" doesn't dissolve into a smutty exploitation film, nor does it deteriorate into some 'revenge flick' at the end. The husband is actually perceptive enough to see that his wife's affair was perhaps, his fault. Directed by the man behind the original "Rocky," some qualities of that film are evident here, as well as some themes. It's physical, and passionate, and it has a kind of urban grittiness about it. An odd, obscure film from the 80's, worth seeing for some quality drama and good performances...and yes, some very sexy scenes too..

A Night In Heaven rates right up there as one of the trashiest films ever made. But Christopher Atkins is so goldarn sexy in this I have to say that this film is a guilty pleasure of mine.

The Blue Lagoon Boy with no curls any longer plays a trailer park kid who is the main attraction at a male strip club named Heaven located in Titusville near Cape Canaveral. He's also going to community college where Professor Lesley Anne Warren flunks him in her Speech class. At the same time Warren is not getting any attention from husband Robert Logan and she's frustrated.

On a girl's night out, she takes one look at Atkins and Atkins sees the look Warren is giving him and the results are inevitable. I think you can figure where this is going, it doesn't take a genius. But the climax I will say rates high in the ludicrous cinema department.

Interestingly enough while Christopher Atkins won the Razzie Award for worst actor, A Night In Heaven wasn't nominated for Worst Picture. It was probably unfair to Chris since all he was asked to do was look sexy and be seductive. He succeeded admirably on both counts. I suppose the Razzies are as inscrutable as the Oscars.

But if your taste runs to trashy movies, don't let this one get by.

I know that in no means I'm trashing eighties movies. I grew up on eighty movies, and I have seen a lot of trash and a lot of superb films. When I think of A Night In Heaven, I think of Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, even that flunky movie Johnny Depp did with Morrow....Private Resort or something like that! I would depict this movie and dissect it with criticism, but I can't because I actually enjoyed this movie. What separates this movie from others that were in the eighties junkyard is that this actually had a convincing plot. Yes, I think Lesley Anne Warren is sexy, no I don't think Christopher Atkins is a heartthrob and I don't see what the big deal about him was, considering he is just that star that appeared with Brooke Shields in The Blue Lagoon.

What I like about this movie is that it doesn't play out as your ordinary dumb film like most eighties movies. You don't see anyone you think is from Revenge Of The Nerds or Just One Of The Guys(which I must confess I liked also), there's not much stupidity, no brain cells should be damaged in the process of watching this and one of my favorite scenes is actually in the beginning with Logan on the funky bike while Bryan Adams sings the theme song...after that I figured I was in for a 80 minute treat that I consider a very underrated, tarnished, bashed movie that didn't make the grade for reasons I believe just had that quality of being toooooo eighties!!! I recommend A Night In Heaven for it's chemistry between Lesley and Christopher and for something that's not monotonous and filled with low humor and bad acting, I recommend it also for how poignant love is between this teacher and her student and by the way who said she passed him just because she made love to him?

Oh and by the way you will love the ending which is another ingredient to the mix of this very, very underrated movie!!!

Heavenly, this film is not, but I must admit that it is one of my guilty pleasures.

The story centers on a community college speech teacher (Warren) with a recently laid-off husband. Her wild sister drags her to a male strip club one night where she discovers that her lazy student (Atkins) is the star attraction. Wouldn't you know it, eventually the teacher is getting private lessons from the student. It's really about temptation and devotion and the fight between the two.

While the plot and styles are incredibly dated, thee are some things to recommend about this film. Warren gives a strong performance, doing as much with the material as she can. Her transition from constricted and conflicted wife to released vixen is convincing. Her frustrated husband, Logan, also does a fine job. Atkins is Atkins and does nothing more than offer lingering stares and lots of skin.

What makes this film a guilty pleasure is the good use of Bryan Adams' music and one of the more erotic love scenes ever filmed with someone of Warren's stature (this was around the time she blew audiences away with her Oscar-nominated performance in Victor/Victoria). If you never thought of Warren as a sexual dynamo, stick around. Some cuts of the love scene contain a shot of Atkin's manhood, which shocked me even back then.

There are some dramatic elements involving the husband and his frustrations, as well as Warren's inner conflicts, but the film is far too short to go into these too deeply.

It's not a good film by any means but I do think it tried to be something more than the trash it was. Perhaps some of the plot ended up on the dance-room floor.

With a direction from John G. Avildsen ("Rocky") and a screenplay by Joan Tewkesbury ("Thieves Like Us", "Nashville"), one might expect more from this turgid drama about a married community-college teacher who discovers to her embarrassment that a male stripper she sees one night in a dance-club is actually one of her students. Lesley Ann Warren does what she can with a nearly unplayable role, but even her personal style can't dress up this flick with much class. The poorly-produced and edited film has become something of a cult item--mainly due to Christopher Atkins' nude shots--but the script and surrounding melodrama are inept and unfulfilling. * from ****