Staying on Top

An oldie but a goodie, this Playboy softcore drama from 2002 is one of the most entertaining examples of the genre, thanks to a surfeit of excellent sex scenes and attractive women. The plot is+ entertaining and does a good job of holding one's attention in between the numerous and well-spaced sex scenes, which for the most part develop fairly naturally and do not feel overtly gratuitous.

The cast is good, too, with Holly Sampson playing the ambitious young blonde. Sampson is a well-known genre fave, as is Holly Hollywood who makes a brief appearance about 2/3s into the film. In the end, it is the tanatalizing and beautiful Sasha Peralto who is the one to swoon over in this film, as she is so incredibly pretty and amazing to look at, and completely natural to boot! The rest of the women pale in comparison to her. Though the cast was obviously chosen for how good they look without any clothes on (which occurs very frequently; Peralto in particular hardly seems to have any clothes on at all in the last 1/3 of the film), their performances aren't bad at all.

Well worth seeing for genre fans, just make sure you get the unrated cut.

Rating as a softcore flick: A+

Staying on Top stars Holly Sampson as Katherine Phillips, an advertising exec who's shifted out of a big account by her scheming boss Cindy La Conte (Angela Davies). Upset, Katherine quits the agency and starts her own business. This is much to the chagrin of Cindy, who needs Katherine's creative input if she's to have any hope of landing the job. To try and stay one step ahead of Katherine, Cindy uses any means at her disposal, including coercing her assistant Tai (Sasha Peralto) into spying on Katherine. It turns out Tai, who is friends with Katherine but whose career is at risk if she doesn't do what her boss tells her to, may very well be the wildcard that determines who lands the account.

When I review softcore flicks, I usually don't put much emphasis on plot but I made an exception in this case for though the story here isn't particularly outstanding, it's genuinely enjoyable and kept me on my toes with plenty of fun twists and turns. There's actually more to the story than I mentioned, which includes subplots about Katherine's photographer boyfriend and Tai's new romance with Chris. Being a softcore flick, there's obviously going to be a lot of romantic pairings, but the one between Tai and Chris is the only one presented with a real sense of sweetness and charm.

The rest of the movie involves a lot of scheming and double-crossing with the cast turning in some solid performances. As Tai, the amazingly superhot and gorgeous Sasha Peralto is charming and sympathetic, easily the movie's most likable character. Making Tai the focus of attention in the second half of the film proves to be the right choice since we're given someone to actively root for (and also left wondering who she'll ultimately side with).

Holly Sampson, also a superhottie who's never looked better, does a good job as well and is a likable character towards the end, but comes off a little too cocky and arrogant in the beginning. Angela Davies is very believable as the boo-hiss villain, one of those rare instances in a softcore flick where I was actually interested in the outcome because I was hoping to see the villain get her comeuppance.

But of course, as surprisingly fun as the story and characters turned out to be, the sex scenes are really the standout moments here. The film opens up with a scene where Holly rides her boyfriend beside a pool and the scene is so incredibly hot that it's hard to believe later scenes actually match and, in one instance, even surpasses it. One such equally fantastic scene features Holly undressing (where we get the awe-inspiring sight of her in a g-string) and masturbating in the shower, a very stunning sight indeed.

But the boner-inducing Sasha Peralto steals the movie in her two sex scenes, both of which are great (with the former taking place in a hot tub) but the latter one (which also closes off the film) is simply the best scene in the entire film, a nighttime sex scene set beside a pool with Sasha and her boyfriend going through a variety of positions before riding him to utter bliss. This scene is incredibly hot, energetic, and romantic. I've mentioned in another review that I think Sasha is the hottest woman in softcore (maybe even the hottest woman period) and this movie only further asserts that belief. Her adorable face and gorgeous body ensure that just mere sight of her is enough to take one's breath away (and induce a massive boner), but add in the fact that she's constantly nude in this flick and delivers some of the most sexually enthusiastic performances I've seen and it's enough to make one forget about all the other hot women in this flick (or any other movie for that matter) combined!

Two other memorable sex scenes feature Angela Davies inside a limo and Leila Hashemzadeh starting out posing for a photo shoot before things get a lot more explicit. Leila's sex scene actually boasts one of my favorite fetishes, with her nice-looking breasts pressed up against a shower glass door. The production values are also quite high, with a nice variety to the settings, aesthetically pleasing lighting and photography, and just a general look and feel to the production that exudes eroticism. With a fun plot, memorable characters, and great sex scenes this is about as good as it gets for sexy softcore productions.

I didn't get much plot or characterisation from "Staying on Top", but I have to give it a positive review anyway, because it definitely works as soft core. I believe - though I'm not quite sure - that the movie is about a woman who decides to use sex to get to the top of her industry, whatever it is, and an evil scheming woman who tries to stop her. Lots and lots and lots of sex ensues.

About that sex. Some of these women are quite beautiful, especially one named Sasha Peralto, who is one of those natural beauties that really lights up the screen. You don't often get that in soft core. Usually it's women who are only passably attractive, augmented by thousands of dollars of surgery. The highlight is definitely a massage scene that turns into a lesbian sex scene.

There is also a surprise ending, which was fairly memorable, though I didn't get much plot leading up to it, and just barely understood who the bad guy (girl) was supposed to be.

I still say check it out.

I really enjoyed this video. Holly Sampson (2 scenes), Ava Lake (1 scene), and Sasha Rochelle (2 scenes) all look great. The sex scenes are, for the most part, very well done. This isn't one where the music covers up the sounds of the actors/actresses and there are no abrupt or awkward endings.

But there were some things that I would have liked to seen done differently. They should have cut some dialogue and fit in one or two more sex scenes. One of the scenes is in the back of a limo, which isn't the optimal location. The lighting in that scene wasn't very good either. And finally, during a couple of scenes, the director had a tendency to zoom the camera in too close to the action. We needed some full body shots.

But it's still easy to recommend.

We all know what type of flick 'Staying on Top' is and thirty minutes in spells it firmly out. Everyone screwing everyone both figuratively and literally. Well worn territory. With the amount of times muff showed up, I knew I had watched the unrated cut too. The female nudity, simulated sex you've come looking for is here, but it might not occur as often as you'd like. You also have to tolerate a largely boring story to get it.

Katherine Phillips (Holly Sampson) fresh out of grad school with some cutting edge ideas is courted by all the marketing firms but joins CBB. Her name alone attracts Lip Ink Cosmetics to have them do their next big line. Except exec Cindy La Conte (Angela Davies) - emphasis on that last name said slowly - won't give up power & control easily. When she unfairly sidelines Katherine and takes over, Cindy thinks she's won the battle. That is until Kat quits, discovers truths and decides to go after that contract for her own newly formed company.

The deception between the two ladies is one note, easily discoverable. There's typical cheating, use of seduction to get ahead. Way too many lines of bum dialog. Story issues aside, it's shot well where it counts. Sampson has sex nine minutes in then later the prerequisite shower masturbation scene. Davies has sex twice (limo, couch) ditto Sasha Peralto as an office secretary (bathtub, poolside). Holly Hollywood (as a masseuse) rubs down both Sampson & Peralto. Then Mia Zottoli (Kat's friend) gets the same treatment followed by some lite girl/girl that provides explicit kitty shots. A model (Leila R. Hashemzadeh) ends up getting naked, sex in a shower too.

'Staying On Top' is a low budget affair from Indigo Entertainment - a shell company Playboy used to release softcore titles - that explains why the first 40 secs look, feel, utilize familiar female talent. If you're going to give it a go seeing the unrated version is a must.