Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

James Hitchcock I have never read Anne Rice's novel "Exit to Eden"- indeed, until I saw this film I had never heard of it- but I understand that it is an erotic love story set against the background of the world of sadomasochism. The film-makers took Rice's basic plot and turned it into a comedy, although still set against the background of the world of sadomasochism, and added a plot line about two cops in pursuit of two diamond thieves, thereby creating the world's first sadomasochistic buddy-buddy-cop comedy-crime-thriller.Elliott Slater, a professional photographer, books into Eden, an island holiday resort catering for sadomasochists. Unknown to him, he has been followed to the island by Omar and Nina, two ruthless criminals who are trying to retrieve the film from Elliott's camera- this was in the pre-digital era- which contains a shot which could identify Omar as one of the participants in a jewel heist. Also on the island are the two bumbling Los Angeles cops, Fred and Sheila. Another strand to the plot concerns the growing romance between Elliott and the resort's resident dominatrix, Mistress Lisa, even though the strict etiquette of her profession means that she is not supposed to fall in love with her clients. Sheila also finds romance at the end of the film when a handsome young stud, who also turns out to be a company Chief Executive, falls for her.Back in 1994 the idea for this film might have seemed like a good one, at least to the film-makers. It wasn't. The film proved a flop, both critically and financially. Dan Aykroyd, who at his best can be a very good actor, was nominated for a "Worst Supporting Actor" Razzie for his portrayal of Fred, and Rosie O'Donnell, as Sheila, won "Worst Supporting Actress". O'Donnell, who is hardly Hollywood's greatest glamour-puss, spends much of the running-time dressed in skimpy bondage attire, even though she has to compete with equally scantily dressed co-stars as attractive as Dana Delany and the gorgeous supermodel Iman. There should be a special Razzie for "Actress Most in Need of Less Revealing Clothing". Despite her good looks, Delany is not commanding enough to suggest that her character could make a career as a dominatrix, and Iman does little to counteract the widely held view that supermodels are generally ill- advised to exchange the catwalk for the film set. Several other top models were attempting to break into acting during the nineties, but Iman is no better an actress than the likes of Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell and Elle Macpherson. Indeed, she is probably rather worse, which is saying something. She comes across as the least menacing criminal I have ever seen. She can't even sneeze convincingly. As for Paul Mercutio- well, I really can't remember much about his performance. And I only saw the film yesterday.Dodgy acting is not the only problem with this film. It is supposed to be a comedy, but it is completely unfunny; I can't think of a single situation or line of dialogue which made we want to laugh with the actors as opposed to laughing at them. It is no classic of erotica, but there is enough suggestive dialogue and enough bare flesh on display to ensure it got an "18" rating, something unusual for a comedy. I felt that this was a mistake on the part of the film-makers. No film about sexual sadomasochism is ever going to be suitable for the family audience, but that "18" certificate means that it also excluded the sniggering adolescent audience, who are the only demographic who might find it in any way amusing. There may be some people who retain the sniggering adolescent mentality well after their eighteenth birthday, but there were evidently not enough of them to save the film from its well-deserved box-office failure.I was surprised to learn that this rubbish was directed by Garry Marshall, who had previously made romantic comedies and dramas as good as "Overboard", "Pretty Woman" and "Frankie and Johnny". "Exit to Eden" may be the world's first sadomasochistic buddy-buddy-cop comedy-crime- thriller. Let's hope it is also the last. 2/10

preppy-3 Photographer Elliot Slater (Paul Mercurio) is going to Eden--an island devoted to people who like S&M and BDMS. He's going to live out his dream as being a submissive man who loves being spanked. He accidentally photographs a vicious criminal named Omar (Stuart Wilson) getting drugs. Omar and helper Nina (Iman) follow Elliot to the island to get the film--and kill him. Police officers Sheila (Rosie O'Donnell) and Fred (Dan Aykroyd) are in hot pursuit. On the island the head--Mistress Lisa (Dan Delany)--takes it upon herself to "train Elliot--and starts falling in love which she has vowed never to do.This is an adaptation (a VERY loose one) of an Anne Rice book that is just about sex, bondage, S&M and the love between Elliot and Lisa. There's no stupid drug story. It's a very good and very adult book. The movie basically sanitizes the book a great deal (everyone's nude in the book--not here), throws the insights into sex out the window and adds nonstop wisecracks from O'Donnell. Now, I like O'Donnell and some of her lines ARE funny but the movie's tone keeps zigzagging between comedy, suspense, love and nudity. It's all over the place and never finds a comfortable footing. Also Iman is (to put it mildly) a terrible actress. Still I really like this! The island locale is just beautiful (it was shot in Hawaii) and the resort itself is incredible. There's plenty of casual female nudity--even Delany has a full frontal nude shot! There is some male nudity but mostly back views. Supposedly there were full frontal shots of Mercurio but they had to cut them or they would have gotten an X rating. That doesn't make a bit of sense...but the ratings board always is afraid of male nudity. Still, there are a lot of hunky guys wandering around wearing next to nothing. Also Paul Mercurio has a fantastic butt and you get plenty of views of it! In terms of acting this is pretty good. Mercurio struggles with his accent (it's half-Australian, half-American) but he's handsome, in good shape and has no problem in strutting around half-naked. His acting is good too:) Delany looks incredible and gives an excellent performance as a dominatrix. O'Donnell is throwing off jokes left and right. Some are funny and she does it so casually it makes them even funnier. Aykroyd however is wasted. Also the movie is a little bit too long. Still this is worth seeing for the beautiful locations, the casual nudity, some truly funny bits and acting. If you're easily offended by frank talk of S&M and nudity stay FAR away. A huge bomb when it came out but this (hopefully) might be rediscovered some day. There's also a cute joke at the very end of the closing credits. I give this an 8.

writerasfilmcritic This pile of dung is one of the worst movies I've ever sat through. As others have pointed out, the only thing in it worth seeing is a momentary glimpse of Dana Delaney totally nude, including her luxuriant growth of pubic hair, obviously shot back in the days before Generation X began dominating the media with their peculiar aversion to anything natural, especially hair. Still, her brief nude scene is not enough for this piece of drek to find a permanent slot in your video library even if you got it for free. That Aussie jerk ruined it from the first moment he appeared on screen. Whoever gave him the idea that he could act, that he understood the first thing about photography, that his "croc hunter" accent was somehow cool, or that his big fat ass was sexy and ought to be shoved in our faces for an hour and a half? If you're not a woman or hopelessly gay, a movie where beefcake men run around in thongs is what we used to call a real gross-out. Admittedly, there were a handful of scenes containing cute, half-naked babes that deserved a second look, but otherwise, this horrible excuse for cinema was a groan from start to finish, actually worse than a bad "Loveboat" episode, if that is possible. Rosie O'Donnel wasn't exactly good in it but she was far from its worst feature, and that alone ought to tell you something. When she kissed her "submissive" at the end, she was far more convincing as a straight woman than he was as a straight man. Put another way, whoever had the idea to pair a dike with an obvious fairy and call it erotic ought to have their heads examined. I had to ask my old lady three or four separate times if anyone saw her take this piece of tripe from the library sale rack and am embarrassed we watched the whole thing.

joebenaiah I have seen many of the uber bad movies on the bottom 100: You Got Served, Glitter etc and I think this movie is up there with them. You Got Served and Glitter are obviously bad, but this movie is subtly the worst movie I have ever seen. I think that after Basic Instinct some Hollywood exec thought: "Hmm this is the next big thing, mainstream movies with tons of nudity and sex!" The problem with this thought is that a)that wasn't the next big thing and b) this movie has none of the traits of a mainstream movie. The acting in this movie is horrendous, aside from Rosie O'Donnell and Dan Aykroyd who play second fiddle to a couple of porn rate actors, the plot is awkward because it has to squeeze in so much sex and the directing kind of feels like a porn movie. The plot is the worst part, in my opinion, there are two distinct plots in the movie that intersect a couple of times and finally conclude concurrently. Nothing all that unusual there, but both plots are so meaningless and free from suspense that the only plot device evident is the switch between soft core sex scenes to Dan and Rosie standing around waiting for something to happen. The only reason to watch this movie is if you really need to see some nudity, and even the sex scenes are nothing special. Most are just standard soft core porn, only in order to pass it off as a "mainstream movie" even those are cut short. I vaguely remembered when this movie came out and I was pretty excited when it came on HBO, but it was so bad that I could barely go to sleep. If you have any choice in the matter WATCH SOMETHING ELSE!