Cathouse

Utter garbage. Not because of it's subject matter, but the deceptive way it's portrayed.

The "customers" are actually reimbursed for their participation, and the "negotiations" are bogus. HBO plays up the sensationalist aspects, and the whole thing is an advertising scam for the Bunnyranch brothel, designed to attract ignorant and unwary men, at inflated prices.

It totally ignores the very real problems of prostitution, ones that exist even in legal brothels: pimps, drugs, disease, histories of child abuse, violence by customers (Vince Neil of Motley Crue plead guilty to assaulting a Bunnyranch girl), working-girl stories of coercion by brothel owners.

A waste of time , and about as close to a reality show as Star Trek.

Between March - April 2002 the HBO team went into the legal brothel that is the Bunny Ranch. We meet the owners and the staff as well as some of those coming to use the girls. With hidden cameras we see the girls discussing what the visitors want to do and the prices. Guest include a mother who brings her 22 year old son to lose his virginity, an 18 year old looking for his first time, two brothers who want to share a girl, a couple who go to separate rooms with two different girls and a couple who want to have sex with the same girl.

In the UK we really only know HBO for the quality drama series of Sopranos, 6ft Under, Oz and the comedy Sex and the City. Even the made for cable movies only get shown occasionally. The seedier side of things tend to gravitate towards UK channel 5 and then get lost in the mix of their late night soft porn output. However this `documentary' arrived on channel 4 and I thought I'd give it a watch. I did expect the film would tend more titillation more than it would towards balanced reporting but I wasn't ready for just the degree that it would go to. No-one has a word to say about the negative aspect of the business and everyone is happy and full of joy. The women are all likeable but also very sexually driven - boasting of how they have masturbated 4 times already in one day, getting other girls to use vibrators on them as they come on camera - it is all very shameless stuff to try and get an audience share.

The hidden cameras only show the girls seducing their clients and talking about the things they will do once the deal is agreed (we don't see any of it happily). They don't add anything of interest - what did I learn from seeing a teenager shyly discussing what he wants? Nothing! All the talking captured on these cameras is simply a substitute for seeing the sex and again it is all just titillation with no value. All I learnt from this is that the girls all seem happy with their jobs and have no problems with what they do and that the owner thinks he is the luckiest man in the world! To call this a documentary is to do a real disservice to the word.

No, this is not a documentary but rather a bit of T&A for the masses. We have no alternative view points in the whole film, nothing that would even hint that there is a darker side to the business. Even the johns are all `normal' people, albeit a slightly high percentage of white, mulleted trailer trash! I'm not saying that the film needed to bring in the moral majority to moan but a more open view would have been useful. Surely there is more to the girls than the smiling, happy faces full of love for their job that we are allowed to see in their brief interviews.

The film's only value is to see T&A. Nothing else is of interest and the hidden cameras' only purpose seem to be to inspire envy in the audience over the explicit acts that are discussed but not seen. A really exploitative waste of time.

I saw some of this over in the UK one night and it's just ridiculous. It tries to be a documentary but I agree with the user bob_the_moo (great critic), this is just a stupid erotic HBO special with limited appeal (and we all know what appeal that is). It's sick, twisted, and I turned it off.

An insight into what a legal brothel can do compare to the street, less about exploitation more about a mature honest trade. I want sex you sell it. Clean good and fun.

Let's face it, selling sex has been around a long, long time; nearly all of us do it and as the girl say some of us are clever enough to get paid for it.

I like the girls their attitude and what they have to offer, a bit of fun, some kink and some genuine education. What does a man really want; what's does a woman really want. Perhaps we can learn some tricks of the trade, pun intended. Where is the 'g' spot learn in episode one.