Snake Eyes II

Though the Roman Numeral "II" signifies a sequel, this is merely another soggy drama in which Cecil Howard brings back four principal players from "Snake Eyes" in completely different roles. Its mixture of overacting dramatics with unconvincing Walter Mitty fantasy devices is hard to watch and utterly unrewarding. So of course the porn industry gave it meaningless awards.

Story is related by Jerry Butler, pouring his little heart out to his shrink Sharon Mitchell, while eyeing her shapely legs from his perch on the psychiatrist's couch. He's separated from his beautiful wife Laurie Smith (who's living now with their kids and a new beau, a cop played charmlessly by Joey Silvera). It seems Jerry is hallucinating, constantly finding himself with women he knows and having sex with them, but only in his overactive (and uncontrollable) imagination. Sounds like a porno plot, right?

The girls humping Jerry include his wife (unbelievably), uppity secretary (Tasha Voux), old girl friend (Beverly Glen), a dream girl (Rikki Harte, shown in a stupid music-video style segment that is a completely dated attempt at style) and even Mitchell. None of it is true, all fantasy, and quite repetitive, as if director Howard feels he can surprise and fool the viewer over and over and over again. A 100% extraneous sex scene involving Jerry's older brother (Jack D'Arcy) and two bimbo stewardesses (Melanie Scott and Marita Ekberg) is thrown in as pure filler.

Butler is encouraged to overact (why not, when a phony award is just waiting for you in porno circles?) and becomes tiresome in a hurry. I got the feeling Howard was showing him having endless sex with every woman but revealing it as entirely fake hallucinations in order to frustrate the viewer naturally identifying with the hero. Thanks, Howard. Ending is truly insulting in this regard, delivering frustration pure and simple.