Kiss Games

Cut from the same cloth as Private Lessons (1981) and Risky Business (1983), coming-of-age teen sex comedy My Tutor is pure male fantasy fulfilment, in which virginal teenager Bobby Chrystal (Matt Lattanzi), desperate to pop his cherry, is handed the answer to his problems by his parents when they hire sexy tutor Terry Green (Caren Kaye) to help him pass his French exam.

Having had several sleazy but unsuccessful sexcapades with his equally desperate best friend Jack (the always excellent Crispin Glover), Bobby is more than happy to start learning about 'les oiseaux et les abeilles' from his tasty teacher, who not only knows her way round a french verb, but being a decade older than him, is also pretty familiar with the workings of a man's body!.

Opening with a roomful of women suggestively wriggling, jiggling, gyrating and thrusting their way through an aerobics routine, My Tutor is all about the irresistible allure of the female physical form, and barely a minute passes without some gratuitous female nudity on screen. Naturally, this makes for perfect fodder for hormonal teenage boys, but in addition to all the bare bums and breasts, the film also manages to pack in some remarkably solid performances from its likable leads (whose acting careers really deserved to have been better) and quite a bit of heart as well, Bobby not only discovering how to have fun on his back but also learning to stand on his own two feet against his overbearing father (Kevin McCarthy).

While it's a little far fetched, perhaps, to believe that the young, athletic and clearly very handsome Bobby wouldn't be the centre of attention for girls his own age (maybe it has something to do with his somewhat effeminate voice), My Tutor is still extremely enjoyable nonsense for the duration.

This movie first came out in the 1980's era of "stupid teen flicks" but really if it were to be released this year would seriously be a nice "date movie" that anyone could enjoy because it seriously is a movie that would be very relevant for anyone out there in the relationship world who needs to see how to be a nice person. The movie starts out with the young boy "Bobby" who is obviously very overly hormone driven finding out that his summer is going to be spent with a woman tutor who is going to teach him French. "Karen Kaye" winds up being his beautiful tutor who over the course of the summer winds up teaching him how to be nice and respectful of women. She basically holds the whole movie together and does an excellent job of it. She was the perfect choice for the part. Once the two of them do fall in love, even the love scene that everyone is waiting for is done tastefully. Terry does a wonderful job of teaching Bobby how to be a "real man". You actually enjoy watching them together. This movie is now available on DVD and is worth getting and watching with that "someone special".

Lovers of the 1980s sex comedy genre should have a pretty good time with "My Tutor". It's quite likable and amusing throughout. It's not exactly in the same mold as something like "Porky's", and doesn't really deliver any belly laughs, but that's not the point, as it treats its central relationship with a surprising amount of sensitivity. Handsome Matt Lattanzi stars as Bobby Chrystal, a teen who has flunked his French course. Since his dad (Kevin McCarthy) is stubbornly determined to make his son go to Yale and study international law, the course must be passed. So the dad hires a live-in tutor, Terry Green (the lovely Ms. Kaye) to instruct the boy for the summer. What the virginal Bobby doesn't expect is to fall in love with the young lady. While "My Tutor" isn't as raunchy as some viewers may hope, it does have its entertaining farcical moments here and there, many of them courtesy of co-star Crispin Glover, as Jack, one of Bobby's two buds who accompany him on the quest to experience sex. It's quite a hoot to see Glover strapped to a big wheel by a whip wielding dominatrix; also early on in the picture Bobby is paired with an extremely well endowed prostitute (Kitten Natividad, whose main assets can be seen in all their glory.) But providing a solid anchor for the movie is the portrayal of the evolving relationship between tutor and student, and it's beautifully played by Kaye and Lattanzi. Adding to the appeal of "My Tutor" is its obvious made-in-the-80s feel, complete with upbeat theme song. The actors are all good, with Arlene Golonka playing Bobby's mom, Jewel Shepard ("The Return of the Living Dead") as the sexy phone booth girl, and future director Katt Shea as one of the mud wrestlers. One subplot with Terry's stuck up former boyfriend (Bruce Bauer) trying to worm his way back into her life does have a mildly entertaining payoff, but one has to wonder why another story thread - that of finding out that the Chrystals' hired help have been putting on an act - was created, as it never really goes anywhere. By the end, we can't help but feel good for Bobby when he finally decides to stand up to his dad and vow to go ahead and study astronomy at UCLA, which is what he really wants to do. The characters are engaging, and with some of the female cast members showing off their bodies, one can't really ask for much more than that. Overall, "My Tutor" is pretty good for its genre. Seven out of 10.

My Tutor would have been another useless teen sex movie if not for the superb performance of Crispin Glover. There are some funny moments throughout the film, and it's definitely worth 90 minutes of your time. Be sure to check out the freeze frame at the end of the movie, it's ludicrously tragic, and tragically ludicrous. Success!

One of the more prominent teen exploitation sex romps of the early 1980s. My Tutor is the same type of thing we saw in Private Lessons. It's all basically a teenage boy's fantasy about having an affair with a beautiful older woman. Every so often you hear about this kind of thing happening in real life, so there may even be a little more to the concept than pure fantasy.

Matt Lattanzi plays the lucky young man in this film. For those of you who may have forgotten about this guy, he was kind of the Kevin Federline of the 1980s. He was a back-up dancer on the set of Xanadu who somehow won Olivia Newton-John over. The two were married for several years. Lattanzi plays a young man named Bobby. He seems nice enough, but is very shy with women. He also has just flunked his final exam in French class, and will have to re-take it and do very well or Yale will not let him attend in the fall. Bobby really doesn't want to go to Yale. He'd rather study astronomy at UCLA. Not a bad choice actually. I'm sure the women there are much better-looking! His father will hear nothing of astronomy, though! He hires a beautiful older woman to teach Bobby French, but Bobby is understandably more interested in winning her over! Caren Kaye plays Terry Green, the tutor. She is a stunningly beautiful woman who shows us plenty of what she has to offer! Yum! The bulk of the film details her attempts to teach Bobby French, and his attempts to become her man.

The film has a few dumb subplots that go nowhere. One deals with Terry's idiotic ex-boyfriend trying to hook back up with her. Another deals with Bobby's mother and their domestic help pulling the wool over her eyes. Crispin Glover is pretty funny as Bobby's best friend who is frantically trying to get laid. (weren't we all back then?) My Tutor is very, very light on plot. It mostly exists to titillate the audience, but there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing pretentious, and nary a serious moment in the entire romp, unless you count Bobby's wreck of his motor scooter later on.

The film is hurt by some really really awful music and songs. It is also badly under-lit. Lattanzi is a better actor than you might expect. His voice is a little high, but that fits this character pretty well. The film is filled with gobs of nudity and sexual situations. Take my word for it... you will get what you paid for in terms of t&a.

Considering what this film tries to be, and what it actually accomplishes, it is worth about 6 of 10 stars. A harmless romp from a much more innocent era of film-making.

The Hound.