(8/10)
Hands down, the best of the ‘Poison Ivy’ series – a dubious honor, to be sure, but this sex-drenched
soap opera gets its hooks into you early on and never lets go. This time out, the wise decision has been
made to make the characters mature adults so we can revel in the smarmy sexploitation of the story
without that creepy factor that made the first two installments featuring Drew Barrymore’s high school
vixen and Alyssa Milano’s awkward college freshman a little icky.
As usual, lots of nasty scenarios flood the story and it’s a blast. Then-unknown Jamie Pressley is hotter
than hell and actually manages to blow away any memory of Barrymore or Milano with her spiteful
dominatrix. Her only flaw is her wildly cartoonish expressions whenever she gets really malicious
(which would later serve her well as a comic actress).
We start off about fifteen years ago with the pool boy and the maid shtupping while the maid’s
daughters play with the lady of the house’s daughter upstairs. In walks the man of the house and he’s
enraged that the maid – whom he’s been cheating on his wife with – is cheating on him! This causes the
wife to walk in on the argument and learn that the husband has been screwing around and fires the
maid (as you would). Got all that? That’s just the first five minutes!
So the maid leaves with her two daughters and they promise to keep in touch with the couple of the
year’s daughter and a doll changes hands (didn’t fully get that part myself). Cut to the present-day, the
lady of the house has passed away and the father and daughter live alone with a decidedly unglamorous
new maid when one of the daughters rolls up in a taxi.
As you would imagine, she moves in with the family, and proceeds to screw and screw over everyone in
the house. As usual in the series the motivation is a little questionable, but who cares? When you’re
watching a straight-to-video sequel to “Poison Ivy” you know you’re watching garbage – what makes
this movie so good is that it’s tremendously involving and enjoyable garbage!
The cast seem to be having a great time chewing the scenery. As noted above, Pressley is
tremendously sexy and really shines in her star-making role, Michael DesBarres manages to be
surprisingly straight-laced as the dad, Athena Massey does a memorably sexy turn as the home-
wrecking maid and the legendary Susan Tyrell is a hoot as the current maid. Megan Edwards is a bit stiff
and unlikeable as the stick-skinny daughter (why are the nice girls always so boring in this series?).
Released at the height of the ‘unrated’ craze, there’s an R-rated and an unrated version with a few more
seconds of action thrown in. My advice, as always, get the unrated version, but there isn’t terribly much
difference, I’ve heard. The unrated version is available on the three movies on one disc edition that’s
available which is where I saw it and was happy with the purchase.
Hands down, the best of the ‘Poison Ivy’ series – a dubious honor, to be sure, but this sex-drenched
soap opera gets its hooks into you early on and never lets go. This time out, the wise decision has been
made to make the characters mature adults so we can revel in the smarmy sexploitation of the story
without that creepy factor that made the first two installments featuring Drew Barrymore’s high school
vixen and Alyssa Milano’s awkward college freshman a little icky.
As usual, lots of nasty scenarios flood the story and it’s a blast. Then-unknown Jamie Pressley is hotter
than hell and actually manages to blow away any memory of Barrymore or Milano with her spiteful
dominatrix. Her only flaw is her wildly cartoonish expressions whenever she gets really malicious
(which would later serve her well as a comic actress).
We start off about fifteen years ago with the pool boy and the maid shtupping while the maid’s
daughters play with the lady of the house’s daughter upstairs. In walks the man of the house and he’s
enraged that the maid – whom he’s been cheating on his wife with – is cheating on him! This causes the
wife to walk in on the argument and learn that the husband has been screwing around and fires the
maid (as you would). Got all that? That’s just the first five minutes!
So the maid leaves with her two daughters and they promise to keep in touch with the couple of the
year’s daughter and a doll changes hands (didn’t fully get that part myself). Cut to the present-day, the
lady of the house has passed away and the father and daughter live alone with a decidedly unglamorous
new maid when one of the daughters rolls up in a taxi.
As you would imagine, she moves in with the family, and proceeds to screw and screw over everyone in
the house. As usual in the series the motivation is a little questionable, but who cares? When you’re
watching a straight-to-video sequel to “Poison Ivy” you know you’re watching garbage – what makes
this movie so good is that it’s tremendously involving and enjoyable garbage!
The cast seem to be having a great time chewing the scenery. As noted above, Pressley is
tremendously sexy and really shines in her star-making role, Michael DesBarres manages to be
surprisingly straight-laced as the dad, Athena Massey does a memorably sexy turn as the home-
wrecking maid and the legendary Susan Tyrell is a hoot as the current maid. Megan Edwards is a bit stiff
and unlikeable as the stick-skinny daughter (why are the nice girls always so boring in this series?).
Released at the height of the ‘unrated’ craze, there’s an R-rated and an unrated version with a few more
seconds of action thrown in. My advice, as always, get the unrated version, but there isn’t terribly much
difference, I’ve heard. The unrated version is available on the three movies on one disc edition that’s
available which is where I saw it and was happy with the purchase.
 |
Rating;
| by Jim Haggerty |