Review of Body Shots (1999) by James S — 25 May 2009

Body Shots seems to move along in an almost dream like sequence. It's randomly put together but quite enjoyable at the same time.

Beginning like a serious drama with a rain soaked Tara Reid turning up on Amanda Peet's doorstep claiming that Jerry O'Connell's Los Angeles Raider has raped her the film then almost side steps this for the majority of the first half of the film to make way for a lot of sexual talk point of views from the eight main characters, most of which is well scripted and entertaining.

I guess it's supposed to be showing the different attitudes towards sex that people can have.

The characters are engaging and interesting and the young cast are all pretty good, even the usually abysmal Tara Reid gives a fine performance. Ron Livingston's Trent injects some humour into the movie and as enjoyable as he is and all this rude banter is, it doesn't gel some much with the rape storyline.

When the story does reappear it's told in graphic fashion but then the climax feels like something of a cop out with no discernable conclusion really being reached, unless I happened to miss it.

Body Shots feels like a mixture of a lot of different ideas and themes, most of which are done very well, but the throw as much at the wall and see what sticks routine makes for a bit of a messy movie. The performances are great and much of it is well written and entertaining but some revisions would have been required to make this better.