Southern Comfort 2

Actress/producer Christi Lake made two films back to back, overall title "Southern Comfort", in 1995 and this one plays as a parallel world sort of a prequel to the other one, which was released as "Sex in the Deep South". Bud Lee directed both in tongue-in-cheek fashion, but missed the boat on this one.

In the 21st Century we are used to the movie concept of "rebooting", as adapted from the world of computers, in which movie concepts are regurgitated with some tweaking. What Christi has done, alongside scripter Carl Esser and helmer Lee is to re-jigger the story and characters in a fairly confusing way, and then louse up the needed transition from one film to the other.

"Deep South" was about sisters Kylie Ireland and Anna Malle, living with a white-suited "Big Daddy" styled Southern patriarch played by Mike Horner. He inherited the family plantation Whispering Walnuts after marrying their late mom.

In "Sex Southern Style", Malle is still a central character but has different sisters: Christi Lake and Missy, both of whom appeared in the other film but in different roles. Kylie is absent, and Bud Lee's wife Asia Carrera has a small supporting role.

While Malle was married to (now missing from the script) Nick East in the other film, here she is engaged to Horner (rather than being his step-daughter), the marriage just two weeks away. If that's not confusing enough, John Decker, who was Kylie's love interest in the other movie, is back as a different character this time, ready and willing to have sex with the lovely ladies.

Esser's script has a lot of amusing Southern films references, hammily applied by a cast having fun with their fake Southern accents. One scene establishes the time frame as 1965, as Horner discusses the impending "invasion of Beatles", referring not to local bugs but rather the Fab Four's upcoming concert at Shea Stadium.

Sexual infighting and treachery is not much fun in this film, though the able cast provides quality sex scenes, especially Malle delivering an out-door d.p. Unfortunately the feature has no ending, just leaving the viewer hanging, as if there were another film in this fake trilogy. But of course, the 2 extant films do not really go together, but play more like a repertory theater in which many of the players adopt new roles for a new production, though quite similar to the ones they've just essayed.

Horner gets some sex this time after merely acting in the other feature, and exec producer Lake's role is much more significant in this one. She and her husband Hank Armstrong (his acting is quite poor) are plotting against Mike and Anna in what passes for a dramatic arc.

Each film is billed as a "Bud Lee joint", sort of a tribute to Spike Lee's innovative credits a decade earlier.