Dangerous Touch

Written, produced and directed by its star Lou Diamond Phillips, Dangerous Touch is an interesting debut for Mr. Phillips behind the camera. Certain parts of this film he did better than others, however.

Lou is a sexy career criminal who's trained his sites on lovely and voluptuous Kate Vernon who is a psychologist with a talk in radio show and a best seller. Kate's treating Max Gail a syndicate kingpin who is having issues.

Kate's a woman who loves sex with the joy of a Clinton era Mae West. She thinks she's found the man of her dreams when the mysterious Lou accosts and seduces her at a book signing. But he's all the time setting her up for blackmail, he wants her help to kill Max Gail by pressing on his neuroses so that he'll do it himself or his syndicate partners will out of fear that Gail will talk.

Lou's at his best directing what falls this side of a soft core porn film. The sight of a nude Kate Vernon is certainly enough to stir the young men in the audience.

Unfortunately the premise that she will be hurt by the exposure of her private sex life just doesn't ring true. Vernon's character is not Laura Schlessinger or someone who might work for Dr. James Dobson, someone who'd really be hurt by such a scandal. She comes across as a woman with a real healthy appetite for the erotic and exotic. Knowing that what happens in the end just doesn't make any sense.

Still Lou Diamond Phillips as director and star has nothing to be ashamed of. But he should have asked me about the script.

This is a classic 2:30am Cinnimax flick that makes you laugh when you're not supposed to laugh. Lou Diamond Phillips comes out of nowhere to seduce an attractive Sex Therapist into situations that she talks about with her patients on a daily basis. Kate Vernon is hot which keeps the movie going, yet the cheese sets in as the plot starts to unravel. As far as the directorial debut of L.D.P, it's hard to judge his work since the majority of the shots are in the bedroom. There are some funny lines in this movie, yet I don't think they are supposed to be funny. I would recommend somebody to watch this movie, only if he/she has a decent sense of humor. Very dirty in a good kind of way and a plot that doesn't make you think to much.

Lou Diamond Phillips in an erotic thriller?!?! I think he'd be one of the last people just about anyone would think of appearing in this particular film genre, except apparently for Lou Diamond Phillips himself, who not only wrote the script but sat in the director's chair. As you might expect, the sex scenes involving him are pretty silly, not just for the fact that he uses an obvious body double on several occasions. Other faults with the movie include that it goes on for too long. Still, while the movie may overstay its welcome, I can't honestly say that the movie became boring at any moment. I was curious enough to stay until the very end. Also, while this is a low budget movie, Phillips crafts the movie in a way to make the production values acceptable. If it comes on cable during a slow night, you could do a lot worse.

...and could actually be better than most of the vile garbage that comes out of Hollywood lately. Has an interesting premise, and at first you expect it to be another mindless "erotic thriller" (it did go straight to video), but the second half hour springs the "thriller" part that most of these erotic thrillers lack (or never had). Pretty interesting movie.

Direction isn't exactly innovative, but pretty fair. Richie Valens actually came off as threatening, hard to do since he's about a foot shorter than the female lead (nothing personal, but I think he could have done better if he didn't star in it, too). There were parts of this movie that had me bamboozled -- I thought it was going one way and it went the other way out of nowhere.

Excellent first try from Mister La Bamba. I wonder if he's done anything since...?

Here's another one of these low-grade, almost soft-porn type movies. Hey, I gave it shot hoping it would be a good, suspenseful crime film. In reality, however - at least the first half of the film - it turned out to be just an excuse for Kate Vernon to show off her face, body and to have sex. Hey, I enjoyed looking at her but really, folks, this is Grade D material.

The dialog in that first huor was so bad I had a difficult time caring about the rest of the movie. I don't even remember if I finished it. Lou Diamond Phillips was an actor who started off with promise but seemed to make nothing but these kind of second-rate movies.