"Forbidden" is a solid piece of softcore that starts off very good, gets even better as the film goes along, but fizzles out toward the end.
We begin at a bachelor party. Jason (Dillon Silver) is about to get married tomorrow, and he's getting quite a show from the two strippers dancing in front of him. However, there's a special surprise for him in the form of Monique (Renee Rea, aka Samantha McConnell), a woman he meets at the party and instantly connects with, in more ways than one. They end up going back to a hotel room to have sex. He wakes up the next morning, leaving her behind and vowing never to tell his future wife about it.
The action moves ahead, three years later. Jason is now married to Lisa (Tracy Ryan, quickly moving up on my list of favorites), and they're off to take a romantic trip to a cabin in the mountains. Accompanying them on the trip is Jason's friend, Andy (softcore regular Jason Schnuit) and his new girlfriend, Nikki (also Renee Rea). Upon meeting Nikki, Jason realizes he's met her somewhere before...and so does she.
This a good time for a spoiler alert....here's your warning.
As the rest of the story unfolds, Jason and Nikki rekindle the relationship they never had while keeping their significant others out of the loop. The dialogue sometimes gets over-dramatic, but they didn't quite go into "Married People, Single Sex" territory. At the end, two startling secrets are revealed and threaten to break up both relationships. Nikki is actually a call girl, hired by Andy to sleep with Jason as a "wedding gift." Andy remembered the kind of girl Jason liked and brought her on the trip to "jog the ol' memory." Furthermore, Andy and Lisa used to date--although Lisa tells Jason it was before they even got together. Lisa and Jason separate soon afterwards. In the final few moments, Lisa goes home alone, as well as Jason, leaving Jason and Nikki to re-introduce themselves to each other and start anew.
Although the dramatic portions of the movie sometimes overpowered the other stuff, the sex scenes weren't too bad. Tracy Ryan has a couple of good ones that show off her body well. Renee wasn't very energetic in her sex scenes, and it contributed to a less-than-stellar performance in that category.
In total, I thought the movie got a bit out of hand with the dramatic scenes, to a point where they stopped being effective and started being comical. It detracted from the whole film and kept it from getting an A. I consider "Forbidden" to be a solid film and tapeworthy, but it was missing a few things that probably would have made it great.
Women: B+ (Tracy Ryan and Renee Rea are it when it comes to female characters. Tracy Ryan gets most of this grade, although Renee Rea has a "teenage girl" kind of quality to her.)
Sex: B (Solid sex scenes, but nothing too spectacular. A couple of them looked pretty uninspiring. Tracy Ryan has the best ones.)
Story: B- (I liked the basic premise once I got to the end of the film. This fact also contributes to the final grade, in that the ending had something to do with the beginning. Logical storyline progression in a softcore film? That's unheard of! However, the over-the-top dramatic acting and some questionable dialogue get some points taken off.)
Overall: B (It makes the honor roll, but not Top 10 material. Tracy Ryan is quickly moving up my Top 10 list with each movie I see her in. She's not bad. Renee Rea was okay, too, but not quite as good as Tracy. The sex scenes were alright and the story didn't have any gaping plot holes in it, although it does have some cheesy dialogue. In short, "Forbidden" is a solid Skinemax movie with too much drama and not enough good sex scenes.)
We begin at a bachelor party. Jason (Dillon Silver) is about to get married tomorrow, and he's getting quite a show from the two strippers dancing in front of him. However, there's a special surprise for him in the form of Monique (Renee Rea, aka Samantha McConnell), a woman he meets at the party and instantly connects with, in more ways than one. They end up going back to a hotel room to have sex. He wakes up the next morning, leaving her behind and vowing never to tell his future wife about it.
The action moves ahead, three years later. Jason is now married to Lisa (Tracy Ryan, quickly moving up on my list of favorites), and they're off to take a romantic trip to a cabin in the mountains. Accompanying them on the trip is Jason's friend, Andy (softcore regular Jason Schnuit) and his new girlfriend, Nikki (also Renee Rea). Upon meeting Nikki, Jason realizes he's met her somewhere before...and so does she.
This a good time for a spoiler alert....here's your warning.
As the rest of the story unfolds, Jason and Nikki rekindle the relationship they never had while keeping their significant others out of the loop. The dialogue sometimes gets over-dramatic, but they didn't quite go into "Married People, Single Sex" territory. At the end, two startling secrets are revealed and threaten to break up both relationships. Nikki is actually a call girl, hired by Andy to sleep with Jason as a "wedding gift." Andy remembered the kind of girl Jason liked and brought her on the trip to "jog the ol' memory." Furthermore, Andy and Lisa used to date--although Lisa tells Jason it was before they even got together. Lisa and Jason separate soon afterwards. In the final few moments, Lisa goes home alone, as well as Jason, leaving Jason and Nikki to re-introduce themselves to each other and start anew.
Although the dramatic portions of the movie sometimes overpowered the other stuff, the sex scenes weren't too bad. Tracy Ryan has a couple of good ones that show off her body well. Renee wasn't very energetic in her sex scenes, and it contributed to a less-than-stellar performance in that category.
In total, I thought the movie got a bit out of hand with the dramatic scenes, to a point where they stopped being effective and started being comical. It detracted from the whole film and kept it from getting an A. I consider "Forbidden" to be a solid film and tapeworthy, but it was missing a few things that probably would have made it great.
Women: B+ (Tracy Ryan and Renee Rea are it when it comes to female characters. Tracy Ryan gets most of this grade, although Renee Rea has a "teenage girl" kind of quality to her.)
Sex: B (Solid sex scenes, but nothing too spectacular. A couple of them looked pretty uninspiring. Tracy Ryan has the best ones.)
Story: B- (I liked the basic premise once I got to the end of the film. This fact also contributes to the final grade, in that the ending had something to do with the beginning. Logical storyline progression in a softcore film? That's unheard of! However, the over-the-top dramatic acting and some questionable dialogue get some points taken off.)
Overall: B (It makes the honor roll, but not Top 10 material. Tracy Ryan is quickly moving up my Top 10 list with each movie I see her in. She's not bad. Renee Rea was okay, too, but not quite as good as Tracy. The sex scenes were alright and the story didn't have any gaping plot holes in it, although it does have some cheesy dialogue. In short, "Forbidden" is a solid Skinemax movie with too much drama and not enough good sex scenes.)