Barely Legal

This is the first film I have knowingly ever seen from everybody's favourite exploitation/mockbuster studio out of Los Angeles, The Asylum. These people can do more with $200,000 than others who get $50,000,000 can do.

This is another homage to the 1980's teen sex comedy craze that was ushered in by Bob Clark's Porky's back in 1981. Three teenage girls who just happened to be born on the same day and seemingly were all from families of privilege since they live in a huge mansion with no other people like a butler or maid, decide that they will all lose their virginity on their 18th birthday.

Lexi (Lisa Younger) is a slutty girl who certainly doesn't act chaste for a virgin. She is looking for somebody named J.J. who "felt her up" several days earlier. Cheryl (Jeneta St. Clair), the most level-headed of the three, already plans to "do it" with her greasy boyfriend Jake (Morgan Benoit). Sue (Melissa Johnston), a very devout Roman Catholic, doesn't want to go through with this and has apparently never "pleasured herself".

So while these three attempt to follow through, the people they invited to their party are certainly not shy when it comes to underage drinking, public sex, pot smoking and rabble rousing. It's droll to see Lexi, Sue and Cheryl oblivious to the 100 other people they invited having a good time.

As expected, the acting is atrociously bad, save for Myko Olivier's Eric, who plays the reserved, shy and uncomfortable Eric that is a major part of Cheryl's story arc. However, there's something to be said about seeing a movie in 2011 filled with college kids who aren't worrying about a bad economy making it tough to find work after graduation. You're just seeing a good representation of what goes on at a college keg party.

If there'e ever a snowstorm or a slow night ahead, this actually wouldn't be too bad to screen. It's just as good as any overblown Hollywood production.

Another reviewer clearly must be kidding with the cinematic masterpiece review he (or she?) has written. That is my take on his Shakespeare comparisons and more. On the other hand, there are certain things that really work for the movie. One of them is that this is not baiting or teasing you without delivering. So while other movies may promise skin and deliver nothing, this does give you that ... satisfaction.

And there is also the fact that you have three female protagonists. Now you may feel that this is not representing women or womanhood correctly. But is that what the movie is here? An educational how to do it? No sir (and miss/missus etc)! This is supposed to be a comedy about girls coming (stop snickering) into adulthood. Maybe it is worth snickering. Again, this is not meant to be seen as anything serious and while it is far from "a cinematic masterpiece", it also isn't a disaster at all.

None of the Asylum teen sex comedies are particularly good, so saying that Barely Legal is the best of them is probably not saying very much. It never does reach the atrociousness of Sex Pot and Celebrity Sex Tape and Milf and 18 Year Old Virgin weren't much better either. Barely Legal does at least have Myko Olivier, who does bring likability to the only really relateable character in the movie. It does have a decent soundtrack and is thankfully not as vulgar or intelligence-insulting as the other Asylum teen sex comedies. Nothing stands out visually though, the movie can have an over-saturated look to it and the camera work was flat-looking. I was not expecting the dialogue to be any good, it was one of the worst things about all of Asylum's teen sex comedies and has never been a strong point with The Asylum either. That doesn't excuse it being so banal, unpleasantly smutty and embarrassingly cheesy all the time, the way it's delivered too it sounds improvised and any lines so any lines meant to be funny or memorable just didn't have the impact. The comedy literally doesn't exist, and some of the attempted sexiness is enough to make anybody cringe. The story was a disaster to the extent that there was hardly any at all. What there is of it is incredibly predictable, but even worse is it feels too much of an excuse to string along lots of sights of tits, nudity and such. Everything just felt shallow and half-hearted. The characters are also swamped, with the sole exception of Eric Barely Legal is the kind of movie that doesn't let you root for them, and nothing whatsoever is done to develop it. They're just there as stereotypical ciphers. And the acting is atrocious really, the girls are hot but their acting talents certainly are not and there didn't seem to be a lot of real chemistry between them. In conclusion, not a good movie at all but compared to all the other Asylum teen sex comedies seen it definitely could have been worse. 3/10 Bethany Cox

A film about 3 girls trying to lose their virginity at a birthday party. What could go wrong!?

The first 15 minutes are pretty awful, in almost every way. The acting is pretty poor, probably due to a bad script and some things just don't make sense, e.g. All the morning drama and sex, then suddenly its only 6:30am! And the fact that 3 18yo girls can own that house with a pool?!

Once the party kicks off, the movie kinda does too. It does actually have some funny moments that aren't so cringe-worthy that it just falls flat. The acting remains hit and miss throughout for pretty much every character, bar maybe the character of Eric who was probably the best of the lot. It's most likely the tamest pool party you'll ever see in these kinds of movies.

If you want to see a lot of boobs and a bit more at times, then this movie will be enjoyable to you. The 3 leads are very attractive and you get to see quite a bit of them. Given who made the movie (The Asylum), it's not actually that bad, and decent by their standards.

If you have 90mins to waste on a forgettable yet OK movie, that does provide some laughs, and tonnes of boobs, then this might whet your appetite but it's not one you'll ever watch again after.

Cheryl, Lexi, and Sue are best friends since birth when their mothers met at the hospital. It's their 18th birthday coming up. Cheryl plans to lose her virginity to boyfriend Jake. Sue is religious and shocked at Cheryl's plan. Lexi is sexually promiscuous and does everything except losing her virginity. After a misunderstanding in confession at church, Sue agrees to join the other two in the virginity plan.

This is pretty low quality in almost every aspect. The acting is weak although the girls are willing to show some skin. The writing tries to be funny. It has some outrageous moments that are almost funny. The production is really low budget. They seem to have rented a house and made the movie all in that place. This is a low-budget indie version of a sex romp. It's on par with one of those other alternate American Pie movies with less money.