Live Nude Girls DVD: Review By Brian Gallagher

One could imagine my initial elation in receiving a movie entitled Live Nude Girls, with Dana Delany, Kim Cattrall and Olivia D'Abo toplining here. I knew it wouldn't be what I thought it was, and the synopsis on the back confirmed it: yes, this was a chick flick... entitled Live Nude Girls. Of course, it's more about the girls themselves than them being nude or live, and it really isn't that good at all.

I honestly don't know why they put this movie out in an "unrated" version 12 years after its initial release, when it made a whopping $23,000. That's right. 23 thousand dollars. Besides the obvious demand issues, an unrated version of a 1995 movie is about equivalent to a PG-13 movie these days. We do see flashes of frontal nudity and a few sex scenes, but these days people would barely bat an eyelash. The whole movie they just talk about sex and relationships and troubles and blah blah blah. Again, there is some innuendo and a few fantasies/dream sequences played out, but today, the only way this would be shocking is if they aired it on PBS. Sure, back then this was probably racy as hell, with even a girl-on-girl scene! Perish the thought! But today, this "unrated" version just seems incredibly unnecessary.

It's not like the actual movie is much good either. It's basically the female version of The Groomsmen or The Wood or Beautiful Girls or any other reminiscing/wedding/guy flick. Secrets are revealed, rivalries are tested, drinks are drank, laughter is heard and so on and so forth.

While we do get some pretty damn good performances from the whole main cast of Kim Cattrall, Dana Delany, Olivia D'Abo, Cynthia Stevenson, Laila Robins and Lora Zane, we don't get much else. Sure, we get conflict aplenty from Julianna Lavin's script, but, unlike those movies I listed above, this movie doesn't, you know, resolve said conflicts. It appears that Lavin, who also directs here, wanted to push a few envelopes back in 1995, and just told a bunch of naughty stories and started a bunch of fights without ending anything at all. I do mean exactly that, too, because there is just an attrocious ending here, folks. If this is how women solve their own internal clique conflicts in real life, back then or now, let's just say that explains a lot...

No naughty features here, folks.

The chick flick is presented in the widescreen format, in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, enhanced for 16x9 televisions.

All the squeals and giggles can be heard all-too audibly in the Dolby Digital Stereo format.

Pretty bland design, considering the title. The front cover features the three main stars, Dana Delany, Kim Cattrall and Olivia D'Abo all laying next to each other in pajamas inside a big pink flower, with the title card below it. On the back we get a critic quote along with a brief synopsis, another quote, three random shots followed by the tech specs and the full credits. Blah.

Live Nude Girls has plenty of girls, barely any nudity and not a whole lot of life. This flick might have been somewhat taboo back in the day, but that makes it even more puzzling why they'd release it now. Still, the naughtiness or lack thereof aside, it's just a poorly conceived chick flick that wastes the talents of some fine actresses (there's also a glimpse at a young Amber Tamblyn, playing the younger Dana Delany) and emphasizes the chick way way more than the flick.