China Moon (1991) is a grade B thriller, reminiscent of Body Heat, but without the noire atmosphere, clever plot, deliciously evil villain, great supporting cast and clever dialogue. Replace dumb lawyer Hurt with smart homicide detective Ed Harris, and evil mobster's wife Turner with abuse bankers wife Madeleine Stowe, leave the story in Florida, and you pretty much have it. Stowe shows breasts close up, then full frontal from a distance, Theresa Bean shows full frontal as a corpse, and Patricia Healy shows breasts in a dark scene during the opening credits.

Critical consensus is 2 stars, and IMDB readers say 5.9 of 10. US gross was $3.038M, The DVD has both Widescreen and 4/3 versions, and is a reasonable transfer. It is not Body Heat, but it is not that bad. C.

New Releases:

Fires Within is roughly equivalent to a TV movie of the week, except with Greta Scacchi naked. Come to think of it, Scacchi's flesh is a pretty solid improvement. I might watch TV movies if women like this got naked. I don't know if it was ever released theatrically, but I don't know why it would be.

• Scacchi (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Updates:

VERY minor encyclopedia updates: Helen Mirren, Sophie Marceau, Shannon Tweed 

Louise Vallance & Rebecca Dewey

Rebecca Dewey getting it on with Dynasty's Christopher Cazenove. Boobs and bum, but dark.

Louise Vallance & Rebecca Dewey are seen covering up in some topless sunbathing photographs.

More "Hankster Lite" with Shannon Elizabeth topless in "American Pie".

Maybe I am crazy, but she reminds me of Jessica Biel on TV's "Seventh Heaven".

-Hankster

"Stickmen" (2000)

This could be termed a "reverse buddy" movie - the story of three mates - Jake, Wayne and Thomas - who enter a local pool tournament for a prize pot of NZ $ 20000. As the tournament progresses they grow apart as a result of their experiences. They encounter love, friendship, betrayal and obsession during journeys of personal discovery. It addresses issues of life and relationships from a unique perspective. Sounds reasonable for a low budget production. This is probably the story that was sold to the New Zealand Film Commission to obtain funding. Here is what I think really happened:

A group of mates, containing wannabe actors and filmmakers, like to hang out in bars and play pool. When one of them is made redundant he decides to write a script about a group of mates who hang out in bars and play pool! He is inspired by the story of the real "Stickmen", who guess what: are mates who play pool. The writer together with his mates Mr Director and Ms Producer embark on procuring the finance necessary to produce the film. This would appear an impossible task as a film about pool is unlikely to be a commercial success. However, as this is a local film involving local talent they can qualify for a grant from the New Zealand Film Commission. However, not even a film commission is likely to approve funding for a film exclusively concerned about a group of guys playing pool. They introduce the "serious" issues - love, friendship, betrayal and obsession - pocket the funding and Stickmen becomes reality. Come to think of it, the movie may have been better if the first part focused on how the movie came about as opposed to two extra games of pool.

Back to the movie. The guys play pool, meet girls, play pool again, break up, and play more pool. Spot the trend? A measure of diversion is provided by two girls - Karen (Simone Kessell) and Sara - entering the lives of Jake and Thomas, respectively. The girls clearly have an agenda that the boys fail to realize.

This is and was always going to be a film about pool with the consequence that the story is largely predictable. There is too much pool - surely not every single shot in every game had to be shown. Being a low budget movie it seems that the only special effects they had were the pool shots and wished to maximize this. The "serious" issues mentioned above served as mere window dressing. The filmmakers missed the opportunity of doing something unique - looking at life through pool. However, it is unlikely they ever had any intention of doing so. Being revealed 15 minutes prior to the intended denouement dilutes the one major plot twist, involving the girls. The acting is good and the cast does an excellent job of keeping the viewer interested. This is aligned to good character development, largely due to the cast, and there are interesting cameos. The filmmakers deserve an award for one thing: the film was test screened to a group of 16 year old male media studies students! This is a practice that must be made compulsory in Hollywood.

I score this 53/100. It is decent and pretty good for a film about pool but not a must see by any means. IMDB rates it 6.1 with 75 votes.

Region 2 DVD. Many additional features including a making of documentary, commentary with writer and director, cast biography, photo gallery and trailers.

Nudity: (most images appeared in the 12/22 edition of the Fun House)
Simone Kessell has an extended topless scene in bed with Jake.
Angie Meiklejohn is briefly topless in a dark sex scene.

Let's put it this way, "The Hard Truth" only has 3 names that I recognize in the IMDb cast list. Lysette, Eric Roberts, and Michael Rooker. That should pretty much tell you all you need to know about the quality of this film.

The nudity...these 'caps are very dark, but thankfully Lysette's breasts are large enough to be seen, even in bad light.

Smaller versions.
(1, 2, 3)

Link #2 has some partial bum exposure, and maybe the very slightest hint of areola. In #3 she's cupping her bare breasts.