Criminal Passion (1994)

This movie was fair; even though it did not have as much skin involved as I expected. Most of the time Joan Severance and three other detectives were trying to find a way to arrest a man of killing a woman, and suspecting that he had killed four other women. Her three partners were: a black fag - a fouled mouthed Latino - and a toothpick munching white dude. I hate those toothpick munchers. Eventually Joan gets sexually involved with the suspect and thinks that one of his ex-girlfriends did the current murder; but the toothpick'er keeps driving at arresting the rich guy (who is also the son of a senator). Overall, it's a watchable movie; mainly because Joan looks fantastic - that is, if you like mature sexy women instead of watching some blonde bimbo from down the street: that those Hollywood executives are casting as main actresses nowadays.

Which is the only reason it gets two stars and not one. Forget the story, the plot, the characters, etc...Joan stars as a beautiful cop (could she star as anything that isn't beautiful), because we all know that really hot men and women become civil servants pulling down 50K a year, right? But hey! Don't sweat it! We got Joan gearing down, and that's all we need.How she wasn't nominated for an Oscar is beyond me. Let's face it, she does some of her best work when she puts on a shirt to answer the door! I won't even bother telling you what it's about, other than to say this is right up there with such classics as "Hard Ticket to Hawaii", "Busty Coeds v. Lusty Cheerleaders", and "Busty cops." I saw this one night when I couldn't sleep on Cinemax at 3 in the morning. My insomnia was cured,because as bad as this was, it was like a train wreck: you shouldn't stare but you can't help it.Avoid this at all costs.

This film bored me. The only actor who didn't seem to mail it in was John Allen Nelson, as the baddie. I've heard that it's more fun to play the villain, so that's probably why. Joan Severance is a babe, but she was thouroughly unconvincing as the tough cop. For such a B movie, with Ms. Severance in it, I had hoped for more nudity. I notice that the director, Donna Deitch works mostly in TV. She needs a better script and better actors to see if she can do a good job on a feature film. I think maybe she could.

Haven't we seen this before? Soft core erotica film star Joan Severnce stars as a tough, take-no-sh*t cop who falls for a man who could be killing women after sex. "Basic Instinct" anyone? "Criminal Passion" plays like a sad attempt at making "Basic Instinct" with reversed roles and without the camp. But in no way is it as fun as "Basic Instinct." There is little buildup to the sex that Severence and the man take part in; they just seem to do it. "Criminal Passion" really isn't as bad as it could have been, but for grade-A B movie, check out "Basic Instinct."One-and-a-half Stars out of Four.