Zebra Lounge

The upper middle class Wendy Barnet (Brandy Ledford) and Alan Barnet (Cameron Daddo) are married with children and live in the suburbs. Alan is disputing a promotion with his co-worker Neil Bradley (Vincent Corazza) but his relationship with Wendy is boring. They decide to buy a swingers magazine and contact an attractive couple to rekindle their sex life. The couple Louise (Kristy Swanson) and Jack Bauer (Stephen Baldwin) schedule a date with them at the Zebra Lounge and they go to a place where they swap wives. Wendy and Alan feel satisfied with the encounter but Louise and Jack want to meet them again. Soon they find how persistent Jack is.

"Zebra Lounge" is a sexy but lame erotic-thriller. The story is predictable and full of roles. But Kristy Swanson and Brandy Ledford are very sexy and make this film worthwhile watching. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Encontro Secreto" ("Secret encounter")

I really liked this movie. Sure it was a TV movie in its day, but it was quite a turn on. The women are attractive, and the men not bad either. I have heard people give reviews about the only people who'd watch this are those who aren't old enough for x rated movies. Not everyone is in to watching people jump in the sack with no story behind it, or close ups of swollen genitals. Men like porn and wonder why us ladies don't. For me, it had a beginning, middle and end, and enough erotic material to get the mood happening. I recommend this to women to watch with their husbands, and I recommend it to men who cant find erotic material that their ladies enjoy! I don't recommend watching this with your parents, or your kids for that matter. Or with anyone you don't feel comfortable with sexually.

Caught this on cable last night (part of my self-inflicted double feature with the much-better Cellular), and needless to say, it started off promising but deteriorated far too quickly into spineless, unimaginative drivel, and not enough sex (steamy or otherwise) to justify it. Found myself making a list in my head about what I needed to buy at the supermarket during the sex scenes, in fact, and during the other scenes, where the 2 virgin swingers find themselves relentlessly pursued by the deranged Baldwin brother and his lunatic wife (way to go, Kristy - you sure can pick 'em), I was going over my strategy for a Neopets game in my head.

Besides the lack of steam, the whole concept makes no sense. For a mutual partnership to evolve, there should be some sort of trust and attraction between the people, but why would one couple keep on pursing this relationship when the other couple obviously is not going to give the same in return? It is no better than going to a professional escort service which would provide you with all the needs and even make believe that they actually care for you. When it comes down to the point of threats, is there a point in continuing the relationship? We're not talking about some obsessed person who cannot leave a relationship, but professional swingers who seeks someone who they are comfortable with and whom they could trust. And after the first few bad encounters, all those qualities in this relationship is gone.

As for Kristy Swanson being in the role of the seductress, it is all cold shower from her. The real steamer role comes from Brandy Ledford, who is suppose to be the wife that reluctantly went along with the swinger idea. She had all the body cues to entice even the stiffest of corpses while Swanson acted more like a tomboy or dominatrix.

In "Zebra Lounge" a married couple decides to try "swinging" and gets more than they bargained for. Although offering an okay complement of second-tier acting with the emphasis on drama over sexsationalism, "ZL" has the look and feel of a soap opera with a naive screenplay, too many plot-holes, and obviously scripted characters. Very ordinary stuff for hard up channel surfers.