Another 9½ Weeks

Surprise! I actually liked love in Paris. I think it was much darker than the first one, but I respect the writers ideas and can see where they were going with it. What alot of people don't know is Mickey was disfigured from boxing when the movie was made. And he still hasn't fully recovered yet. It took guts to go on filming in such a superficial business. But he always shows his fearlessness, and that makes him a great actor. And Everhart wasn't bad. She's a good actress and can only grow as long as she continues to believe in herself. The scenes between John and Lea said just what they needed to say. Use your imagination and feel John and Lea's pain! This darkly romantic film made sense as it showcased John's inability to love again. Sorry, but there is someone who did enjoy this film.

All that really stands out in my mind is the poor acting from "Lea". This movie lacked all purpose, and what made it worse was the poor excuse for acting from an otherwise talented model. Slow moving, lacked any depth in it's scenes, and made the first movie look like a masterpiece. Overall, not very good at all.

There aren't enough words to describe what a disappointment this movie was. As a staunch fan of 9 1/2 Weeks, I was dubious about a sequel, but even my low expectations couldn't match the reality of "Love in Paris".

Nothing about the movie was reminiscent of the orignal. The role of John Gray seemed more pathetic than anything else. In addition to his "impotent" personality, was the fact that Mickey Rourke had gotten so out of shape that he was never allowed to take his shirt off. (Thank God)

Angie Everhart was true to form with her poor acting skills, and the plot was so weak that several scenes were obvious and badly revamped copies from the first movie.

The sad part is that they couldn't even get the scarf right. How hard is it to find/make a scarf to look like the original? This goes to show that Love in Paris is NOT a sequel. It is a movie that must stand on its own, lest it tarnish the memory of that first and great movie that it is loosely based upon. Trust me, if you experienced any type of titillation/attraction for the first movie/original characters...you do not want to see Love in Paris. Not only will you be disappointed in it, but the images of a paunchy and washed-up Mickey Rourke will erase any pleasant memories of you have of charismatic John Gray.

Another 9 1/2 Weeks (1997)

1/2 (out of 4)

What on Earth were they thinking? John Gray (Mickey Rourke) travels to Paris to try and track down Elizabeth but after learning that she's now married he starts up a relationship with a young fashion designer (Angie Everhart). I think 9 1/2 weeks in hell would be much more pleasant that trying to sit through this film. It has one of the worst reputations in the history of sequels and it's easy to see why. It would be like trying to make a Friday THE 13TH film but instead of violence, gore and Jason you threw in singing, good vibes and Barney the dinosaur. I'm really not sure what the producers were thinking but this here is perhaps the most unerotic erotic movie ever made. They clearly were just wanted to cash in on the notoriety of the first movie and I understand that. I'm fine that they were simply wanting to make money but for the life of me why would they deliver something like this? There's very little sex, little nudity and there's nothing erotic that happens. The majority of the overbearing 105-minute running time features the two stars just going into various clubs and getting in trouble. They flirt, they talk, they talk some more and then they go home to do nothing. Director Anne Goursaud might have been given an impossible task but she didn't help matters any. The pacing of the film is downright horrid, the lack of style just made for an ugly mess and I'm really not sure why she decided to make everything so dark. The entire film just seems like a bad nightmare that you can't wake up from and this includes the two leads. Rourke and Everhart have zero chemistry together and Rourke appears bored out of his mind and wishing he was anywhere but in front of the camera. ANOTHER 9 1/2 WEEKS is a really bad movie on all levels and it's even poor when compared to much of the direct-to-Cinemax trash that was making the rounds during this period.

9 1/2 Weeks, the predecessor, wasn't much but it was a masterpiece compared to this film, which is incoherent, unerotic and much too long. In other words, a colossal bore on every count. I never did think much of Mickey Rourke as an actor but he had a certain magnetism when he was young. In this movie, he looks like a dissipated wreck and he never exhibits any attractive characteristics that would explain the behavior of the young women that throw themselves in his destructive path. In the version I saw it was called, not Love in Paris, but Another 9 1/2 Weeks, and it seemed more like Another 9-1/2 Years.