UNDERCOVER (3 outta 5 stars) Well, I assumed this was a "real" movie... the video box and plot description seemed to indicate that... but 5 minutes into the flick it becomes obvious that this is softcore porn (tipoffs: frequent gratuitous nude grappling, obviously phony names in the credits). The amazing thing to me was: it actually works as a fairly routine police thriller as well as a sex movie! Not a great thriller by any stretch of the imagination... but the acting is competent, the script is decent and the premise is actually explored with more candor and honesty than it would have been in a "real" movie. A sexy, tomboy female cop (Athena Massey) goes undercover in a high-class whorehouse to try and track someone who is killing off the girls. She is supposed to be sheltered from having actual sex by other undercover cops posing as clients and giving a secret password. Unfortunately the password turns out to be a little too commonplace an expression in a place like this and she finds herself having to deal with actual clients. Well, you don't expect the girl to break her cover, do you? This is her job after all... This has always been a favorite theme of mine in undercover cop movies... how far can/should a cop go in order to play their role? Usually in mainstream movies the issue gets side-stepped and the cop never has to actually go all the way to protect their cover... but that's not the case here. Nice performance by actor Tom Tayback as the police sergeant (something about his voice and manner made me think he was related to Bruce Dern).
