Researching the new definitely not improved version of SEX WORLD, I came across an interview with director Lee Roy Myers (he of parody fame) and stopped reading after a few disparaging remarks he made about the original classic '70s film by Anthony Spinelli/Sam Weston. Well, now it's my turn.
An extremely well-made takeoff on Michael Crichton with a solid cast, Spinelli's 1978 SEXWORLD was quite interesting throughout, balancing its sci-fi storyline with concise, arousing sex scenes. Myers literally throws out what was good about the original and substitutes bloated, boring sex footage and ends up with a trivial junker that never even got an IMDb listing until I submitted the raw data last month, 4 years after its release.
Poor production values are a drawback to start with, and in place of Spinelli's "plays like a real movie" use of exteriors and many different camera setups we have shooting in the minimalist gonzo style. Retained is the robot theme, of Crichton's famous WESTWORLD, but instead of suspense, the sex-bots are revealed (with cheap special effects) in the very first scene.
Several of the vignettes are adapted from Spinelli's film, but ruined. In the original, Sharon Thorpe was magnificent as an introverted plain-Jane (with some real pathos developed) who goes to SEXWORLD to fulfill her desires at long last, but here it's just another character and just another bit of sex filler starring Kimberly Kane.
Even a favorite of mine, Zoe Voss, is wasted in a typical threesome scene.
Lessons learned: don't tamper with a classic, and please send these untalented auteurs like Myers and Braun fils out to pasture once the Gonzo Parody craze wears itself out.
