Virgin Territory

A young man engages in debauchery and swashbuckling adventures in 14th century Italy. This film is mostly harmless, but an incredibly lame attempt to make a sex comedy set during the time of the Roman Empire as Europe is devastated by the Black Plague. The script and direction are so amateurish that it looks like a low-budget TV movie. It is difficult to buy Christensen as a swashbuckling hero, as he looks about twelve and has little screen presence. Roth looks embarrassed to have become involved with this project. The only selling point here is that there are some quite attractive women in the cast and they tend to disrobe with some regularity.

Virgin Territory is for secondary and high-school teens. If you're older than 18, you can't get any taste from this work of fiction, or wise to say, a tale.

Tim Roth, Mischa Barton and Hayden Christensen form a love triangle. Tim Roth is the bad guy, the grim Roman knight; Mischa Barton is the princess popular with her virginity; and Hayden Christensen is an adventurer exactly seems like Robin Hood. By the way, we have a narrator, our storyteller who also plays a role, too.

The tale takes place in feudal Europe, at the age of Roman Empire, and in the most leisured class of this empire: Florence. It's the epoch just before the invention of the gunpowder. Nevertheless, there is no historical coherence in this movie; for it's a fantasy. An absolutely complete fantasy of a craftsman working at the construction of a cathedral, who is also our narrator. While he was drawing artistic figures to the ceiling, he dreamed of an erotic and desirous fantasy of one man and a full nunnery of nuns playing the doctor-and-patient game altogether.

If you're not from this world or have never watched a B-movie about nuns teaching sexology to a lad yet, then this could be a movie for you. The eroticism factor of Virgin Territory is very modern. Within a negative view, it's purposely making fun of the people who don't believe in sex before marriage. In an optimistic view, love still exists; at least whoever in love with someone, stays in love with the same one at the end.

A funny and total shameless teen adventure movie for both boys and girls is what you will find. Don't worry if it's disturbing, obviously it's not. It's basically a modernization of 80s' eroticism epoch. New generation youth wouldn't watch Emmanuelle, right?

This isn't exactly "The Grapes of Wrath" or "Citizen Kane"...but so what? I found it a very adequate period-piece comedy that even occasionally had a hint of Monty Python humor. The musical soundtrack was decidedly 21st Century...but it "worked" for me.

The cinematography was surprisingly well-crafted, in my opinion, and the acting was perfectly adequate, albeit nothing exceptional. All the actresses were decidedly attractive -- why do I think that 14th-Century nuns in an Italian convent during the Black Death were maybe not quite so hot as depicted here?? -- and Mischa Barton proves once again that she is a truly gorgeous young woman (although she was NOT one of the several females who had any nude scenes).

Bottom line: worth a rental, and also an OK "date movie".

It seems the other reviews either love everything about this, or hated it...

Well, I have to say for what it is, it is OK and watchable if you know you just want a no brainer evening.

It doess a real sense of fun without too much silliness and even a definite charm.

It is sexy, and has a fair amount of nudity, but it's all done in a spirit of fun...

It is a bit of Carry On, a bit of Romeo and Juliet, with sexy romance, and dashing sword fights, some decent one-liners and some running gags it all works if you're in the right mood.

The plot is a take on the Comedy of Errors, three suitors, one girl, but one is mean and nasty, the other falls in love with another girl, and one is her true love... it ain't Shakepseare but it is fun to see what happens next.

Nicely shot with good costumes and settings this is one to just enjoy for what it is: escapist comedy reasonably entertaining and fun...

I laughed (out loud) once. I hardly think that constitutes a 'comedy' for me.

There are a few witty one-liners, and a touch of situational humor, but most of the humor is pretty stale and dry. I think they were trying for something along the lines of The Princess Bride, but missed the mark entirely.

There were a few sword-fights, but that hardly supports an entire 'adventure', and the plot was utterly formulaic and you could see 10 minutes ahead of the film at any given point.

As for the romance, well, the ONE romantic idea present in the film just wasn't enough to qualify it for a romance film either.

My hat is off to anyone who can find an ounce of drama in this movie either...

So, what is it? Something to pass the time if you literally have nothing else to do. As I mentioned before, I'd recommend watching the Princess Bride if you haven't, or watching it again, rather than watch this.

I gave it three stars because the acting wasn't terrible, there were those witty one-liners, and I did manage to laugh once.