Stripteaser

I was surprised by this movie. It's not bad at all. It's basically your standard "psycho-in-a-strip-joint" movie, but this time the psycho is pretty memorable. Oh, and the main stripper is Maria Ford, who is incredibly gorgeous.

As movies set in strip joints go, this is nowhere near Exotica (obviously) but much better than Showgirls or Striptease.

This film has a few good things going for it and a few bad things as well. First, Maria Ford (as "Christina Loren") was fantastic. Her acting was solid, her dance routines were top-notch and she was very sexy. The other dancers, Nikki Fritz (as "Sandra") and Ann-Marie Holman ("Kitten") weren't quite in the same league but at least they provided some entertainment value. Additionally, Rick Dean (as the psychopath "Neil") performed exceptionally well. At least at first. But eventually his constant diatribes got very annoying and towards the end I hoped he would turn the gun on himself. Anything to get him to shut up. I also didn't care for the character "Carey" (Lance August) or the two cops who just sat in the car taking up valuable time and film footage. They detracted from the film more than anything else. Especially Carey. Even so, this film wasn't too bad. But Maria Ford couldn't carry the entire movie by herself and Rick Dean had too much film time as it was. Perhaps if the writer (Duane Whitaker) had devoted more time and energy to a few other cast members (other than Lance August that is) this would have been much better. But he didn't and the film suffers accordingly. Still, for an extremely low-budget production and all of the aforementioned flaws I suppose it was okay and merits an average rating. But just barely.

This movie has an interesting premise. A supposedly blind man (Rick Dean) enters a strip club. You wonder for what purpose. Clearly he can't see anything behind his shades. Perhaps, he's there for the drinks. Or maybe, he has an acute sense of smell. This is after all a fully nude strip club. Well, to make a long story short, the answer is OBSESSION. You can't blame Rick. Maria Ford, the lead dancer, is a 9/10. She's all-natural, but her best assets are her lovely face and legs. A beautiful woman is a wonder of nature. In a sea of a thousand faces, hers is the one that stands out. Your libido is aroused by her every move, you can't wait to put $100 in her garter. In one of Maria's dance numbers, she wears high-heel sneakers. You know, the kind Little Richard or Mitch Ryder rhapsodize about. Every beautiful stripper has more than one admirer, though. Lance August plays a stuttering customer, who apparently comes to this bar just to see Maria. Naturally the plot develops to the point where Lance and Maria become strange bar-fellows, who must cope with madman Rick, when he draws a gun on the bartender, patrons, and other dancers. This movie has something for all fans of exploitation films to savor. In addition to a gun crazed loonie, a sexy blond, and a shy geek, you also have two lesbian or bi-sexual strippers (one being tiny, and the other buff), the usual horny drunks, two cops who half-work, and a cozy venue for all to interact. Without going XXX, this is about as realistic a depiction of strip clubs as you'll find in any film. Forget about Showgirls (Elizabeth Berkley) and StripTease (Demi Moore). I wouldn't give those ladies a $1 tip.

The late, great Rick Dean carried nearly the full weight of this film, imho. Other than he and Lance('C-C-C-C-Carey') August, the entire cast needed changing. Kinda-pretty Maria Ford's acting was as stilted and amateurish as ever - and She clearly needed cast against a stripper's pole about as much as Mr. T does. Now, I cherish all Women and especially pretty Ones in high heels and lingerie - perhaps even more than most guys - and I was let down to see Her as the lead. I mean, Ms Charlize Theron would have been WAY more fun to watch in a strip club than Ms Maria ever could be - AND they surely could have afforded Ms Charlize easier, back then - of course, in '95, She was only 20. But, nearly any Pinup from back then would have done this movie much better than our Ms Maria was able to.

HOWEVER - I DID enjoy it, I'll NEVER forget it. If you can yawn past Ms Maria's halfhearted performances on both the pole and Her dialogue - as well as tolerate the hokey directing - it's actually a damn cool film.

It's also got several chuckle-moments in it, too - i.e. Rick's clumsy entry into the club - that was worth a few rewinds, right there, hahaha!

-Just focus on Rick's character (he's topping his game, here) and the strippers (other than Ms Maria, hehe) and you'll be fine.

In a nutshell: This is a flawed-but-memorable film; a fun, dark, attention-holding watch.