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There is more, I think, to this film than most people give it credit for. Sure, it's full of sex and naked people, but it also manages to be erotic and sensual at the same time. It's certainly not the commercialized absurdity that you'll find late night on certain premium channels. More than that, though, is that it's a decent psychological study of a man who's completely divorced himself from reality. Like so many celebs of our time, money and success has allowed him to distance himself from whatever parts of reality that make him uncomfortable. Emily's naive and honest approach manages to reach him. His speech near the end, before the final 'scene,' is really impressive, and Mikey really is a great actor. Sure, Ms. Otis leaves something to be desired, but she's working in a role where her lack of comfort helps the part. Emily is out of her element, just is the actress playing her is, and even if this makes her transparent, it also makes her believable. Jaqueline Bisset is wonderful as always. All in all, if you watch this film without fast forwarding from sex scene to sex scene, you'll see a fairly human story mixed with a sexual journey that I think Zora Neale Hurston would have appreciated.

Wild Orchid... I saw this in early 1990 at a $1 theatre. I had seen ads for it on TV and had wanted to see it but until the cheap theatre, I didn't go.

Now, I was 21 at the time and knowing what was "supposed" to be in the film, I couldn't wait to "see it all".

Needless to say I was quickly let down. I expected a realstory to be with it of course but, I couldn't follow whatever was supposed to be going on with the characters and found the dialouge just downright tedious to pretentious. (Even boring.)

As for the actual sex scenes? Probably I got into "that" at the time (you find few 21 year olds who wouldn't). I know I stayed to the end though, although I had a valid enough reason to walk out, although I don't know why I stayed for the closing credits. .

Maybe the people behind this thought that since it's geared twords sex and Rourke's issues or hers...or both, they had to make little effort in better story writing. I wonder how the director found these acting performances to be good enough. Or anyone involved.

What I find wrong in the movie's characters, is that I have no valid reason to care anything about them. In a movie, we're supposed to be able to understand and maybe even like the characters.

Even more simply put, they dont seem like honest human beings, they're like soulless entities that don't have any emoting ability beyond speaking and 'impersonating' what should be a believable reaction.

I found a video of this sometime ago, in pretty good shape, bought it and gave it a second look. I was thinking, "Hey maybe it wasn't as bad as I recall."

Well, the acting was still as forgettable as it was then and it's overall look , now seriously dated and the movie itself, beyond irrelavant .

The sex scenes , now seemed lifeless and / or robotic.

For me, 1 star . I donated the tape and I'm done watching it for good. (END)

Lawyer (Carre Otis) is sent to Rio to help her boss with a real estate deal (Jacqueline Bisset) and gets herself mixed up with her client (Mickey Rourke) and throwing her morals out the door in the process. Steamy and very erotic with some very hot sexual encounters and a great looking cast, but empty and with little to offer besides lots of hot sex and lush cinematography.

I felt that this was a good movie. It was very erotic to me. I saw it several years ago and just recently watched it again at a request for the movie by me. Mikey Rourke left a very sensuous impression on me in this movie whereas before I never looked at him in this way. I thought his role was very well performed. He was both mysterious and complicated. I would recommend this movie for couples to watch together. I felt that it was a very romantic and arousing movie. I believe that the review that I read was very harsh. I have found that many times when I watch a movie that doesn't get a lot of stars in its review, I seem to watch them and form my own different opinion. Wild Orchid is one of them. It fills the impulsive fantasies that some people have.

Back in 1990, people didn't have to deal with the horrible slate of fly-by-night movies that die at the box office after one week. So many movies that would have been rejected by the studio heads for mainstream distribution back then have been allowed in (Glitter, Freddy Got Fingered, Tomcats, Ready To Rumble, the N'SYNC movie, Teen Movie, and 30 lame horror films, etc.), and then throw in the over-hyped blockbusters. Altogether, a good enough reason for a true lover of cinema like myself to stay clear of movie theaters.

Because of all that, I think this movie deserves to be looked at again. If it was the worst film for 1990, then yes, it's a contender. Carre Otis is very beautiful, but her presence as an actress is awful. She either stands there and looks pretty or delivers small lines in a forced manner. Mickey Rourke, playing the same character he portrayed in the "pre-quel" 9 1/2 Weeks, just walks around trying to be cool. Jacqueline Bisset and Bruce Greenwood do a good acting job, but their role in the film are to support the growing sexuality between Otis and Rourke. And yes, the storyline is nothing but an excuse for Zalman King's arty sex coupling.

BUT, if you compare this film with the drivel coming out these days, then this movie is much better. First, it was highly controversial (for a reason or two). Second, I think the sensuality is very erotic, because of the behind the scenes relationship of Mickey and Carre, or in a lot of the other assorted scenes. Third, Rio is a truly beautiful setting for sin, and the movie depicts it's partying attitude in spades (almost too much). And finally, this movie doesn't lie about it's intentions. If you wanted a sexually charged erotic drama/thriller, it doesn't disappoint. Yes, it's pretty slow, but the it's erotic build-up is very good. Bonus: no fake bodies.

Bottom line: It's not Citizen Kane, and for 1990 it was terrible, but for 2001-02, it's a heck of a lot better than today's releases.