The Sex Monster

This movie is moderately funny and humorous in spots.I would have liked to have "seen" a little more. It would have been nice to have seen Mariel Hemingway or Renee Humphrey or Missy Crider or any of the other actresses actually naked!!! I'm not talking about hard core or explicit scenes but just a little bit of what's supposedly going on on the bed between the women or even one of them walking around topless would have been okay. The sex wasn't there. The plot was however and the "monster" that was created by the husband's urgings became slightly funny. Not a great film but one that was amusing in some respects. Maybe worth watching keeping in mine that it's there for the implications and the laughs.

The Sex Monster does have one of my personal Top 10 opening film credits scenes. You certainly will enjoy seeing the lovely Mariel Hemingway dancing with a bunch of assorted beauties wearing a tight little number and carrying a corny but cute smile while doing it. The movie is another low-budget HBO type film featuring a cast of has-beens and never weres. It's much more bearable than the usual chintzy J-Lo or Meg Ryan romantic comedy but it doesn't have bring anything special to the table other than the "bisexual" angle. It has it moments but you still feel for Hemingway. She was at one time a great actress appearing in acclaimed films like "Manhattan", "Personal Best" and "Star 80". Still, it's leagues better than that film she did with her late sister Margaux called "Lipstick". As for Mr. Binder, he doesn't remind me of anything special but there are bits of Woody Allen in him.

Concept: Husband wants wife to sleep with another woman (in a 3 way), but doesn't know what to do when she starts liking the idea. This movie has a strong 'be careful what you wish for' tone and moral. The husband is the main character, and the camera follows him everywhere. Even the sex scenes occur off screen; as the viewer is lead into the kitchen after the the all-important man.

Since this is a comedy, it can be forgiven for being completely out of touch with the feminine side. The film has every right to make fun of the male predicament. Maybe someone else wants to watch this, but I'd be immensely more interested in a story that had the same sort of wit, but showed how a female misunderstood the other sex, and had the camera following *her* around.

If Binder sold HBO on his pathetic "Mind of the Married Man" series based on having written and directed and starred in this film, it wouldn't surprise me, as both had a lot of the same elements and ideas, and both were equally lame.

Binder is no Woody Allen. For that matter, he's no Albert Brooks either. He's not even a Gene Wilder, about the most unlikely actor for a sex farce I can imagine, but then maybe women see some kind of appeal to that sad puppy personna..

But someone must think Binder is funny, else they wouldn't be throwing money at him as HBO did..

Sex Monster (don't let the title deceive you.. this isn't a movie about Godzilla humping Tokyo).. can be taken as a prequel to Mind of the Married Man with one exception.. instead of fantasizing and visualizing in his mind, other women in bed with his wife, this film explores the possibilities in a very tame way. If you're looking for Mariel Hemingway nude, forget it. In fact for a sex romp, this film has alarmingly little nudity at all. Lots of tease shots, and women moaning and groaning behind a closed bedroom door, one almost topless shot in a swimming pool, that's about it.

Mariel Hemingway, still gorgeous after all these years, and quite a screen presence, plays Binder's straight and faithful wife to whom he pitches the idea of a second woman in bed with them.. most every guy's unfulfilled fantasy.. at first put off by the concept, she aims to please him, she warms to it, then dives face first, as it were, into it, to the point that he got what he wished for and now he wants to un-wish it..

The way this film was shot and edited reminds me of an even tamer version of the way "adult" hardcore videos are presented on tape, versus how they end up on channels like "Spice" where you see the tops of a lot of heads bobbing up and down..

I kept waiting and waiting for the big payoff.. but this is a sex film with no "money shot", both literally and figuratively.

It's a one line joke that somehow got stretched to an hour an a half, and it moves at such a glacial pace that I actually fell asleep the first time I tried to watch it.

Mariel Hemingway is still beautiful, still talented, and she deserves to be pitched much better scripts than this one, and someone needs to tell Binder that his fantasies are simply just not rip-roaringly hilarious..

Do not be misled by the title into thinking this is the latest in a long and star-studded line of the Playboy movie of week fare. This is actually an amusing if someone self-fulfilling and happy meal packaged film. Its focus is on a Husband (Mike Binder) and his subservient and submissive wife (Mariel Hemmingway) who is finally convinced her to give in to her natural female instincts and allow another woman into the marital bed. What starts off down the trail of many a male's fantasy quickly goes astray when it is apparent that he is no longer needed in the bedroom.

Mikes downward spiral is amusing as he goes from shear disbelief that he is living the playboy ideal to pleading with his wife to refrain from sleeping with his baby sister. The movie was written and directed by Mike Binder who acquits him self nicely as he takes on the role of protagonist and victim during the some 94 minutes running time. Though never fully rising above the straight to video look, the film does not bore or detract from the comedy of a now fully functioning sex monster wife, who is out to sleep with just about every woman she comes across. Mariel Hemmingway is rather amusing and begs the question, where in her career did she go wrong? She is both pretty and entertaining, qualities it would seem, should have destined her for Julia Roberts heights. Alack alas the movie gods are cruel by nature it would seem. Stephen Baldwin makes a fleeting appearance as a business partner whose wife appears to have been locked in a tower for most of her adult life.

Those looking to find something to pass time, have a laugh and have the message "be careful for what you wish, you may just get it" beaten into you, can rest assured you will find what you are looking for here. However for those of you, who may have seen the title and thought that it would be an excellent way to get your rocks of, I suggest you go find one of those Playboy movies of week I discussed earlier.