Lust Connection

We've all grown accustomed to the term "erotic thriller".

While the genre has an outright classic in Paul Verhoeven's steamy A-lister BASIC INSTINCT, the category is as much associated with those naff Shannon Tweed films that used to be on channel 5 not too many years ago. LUST CONNECTION is perched somewhere between these poles. Despite being as cheesy as anything I've come across in recent erotic film, this Seduction Cinema offering has a very serviceable story that seldom gets repetitive - thanks to set pieces involving the lascivious Glori-Anne Gilbert, who can bounce up and down with the best of 'em, from an impressive array of different angles and positions.

Miss Gilbert is a sexual gymnast, and she can give us some Phys Ed any time. We wish…

Following the murder of his actress wife Susan (Glori-Ann Gilbert), her husband Rick Taylor (Frank Harper) becomes the prime suspect. An Internet millionaire, Rick had cheated on his wife Susan by meeting women on erotic online chat rooms, and having sex with them afterward. Believing that the murderer could be one of the women he'd been fooling about with, Rick flashes back to some truly steamy encounters to discover the truth. Harassed by a police detective, Rick must fight to save his name. Joined by Susan's attractive sister Jenny, will Rick's race against time be sidetracked by inflamed lust?

Perhaps unexpectedly for a SOV production, LUST CONNECTION is an extremely slick piece of work to look at. Part of this is down to the Hollywood setting and the beautiful scenery; much of it is also due to the highly competent cinematography, emphasising as it does shiny surfaces - which is extremely crisp. The sun-kissed exteriors are captured with beautiful clarity, a revelation for DV. This sleekness carries over to the sex scenes, which are ultra stylised, especially at the beginning. Designed to show off Gilbert's candyfloss hair (she's normally a brunette), enhanced boobs, beach bronzed skin and sloping curves, the sex scenes are astonishingly clean: this soft core movie, with no spurting or pubic hair, is designer sex all the way.

While the storytelling can at times be crude, it does have a structure that allows for plenty of hot action. The scenes involving the detective are desultory to say the least, especially when he advises Taylor, his only suspect, "as they say on TV, don't leave town." But this film has plenty of eye popping and energetic action, and the film's flashback structure, in which Rick must recall and decide which of his former sex partners is the killer, is all the justification needed for the feature's true concerns. LUST CONNECTION has a magnificent array of female stars, ranging from Monique Parent, Julie K Smith, Chasey Lain and Jodie Moore, all of whom steal our attention away from the lacklustre male lead.

Played by Frank Harper, Rick does very little during the film's abundant set pieces, most of the time ending up in a static position while the athletic ladies bounce up and down on him with extreme energy and litheness. Well shot and scored to some persuasive music, we can't help but admire the physical prowess of the women, a marked contrast to the hairy, vaguely flabby Rick. Indeed, much of the time Rick appears as he doesn't know what to do with all the great stuff he's got his hands on! The focus on the women is everything needed for a hetero male viewer, although we may find Jenny's obsession with Rick hard to swallow, after spying on one of his 'meetings' through a closet. He's an uninspired, passive fucker. Unlike Glori-Ann Gilbert and co.

At an hour and eighteen minutes, LUST CONNECTION isn't the most substantial piece of work, even though it has plenty of lengthy and thorough set pieces. As well as the audio commentary with director HR Burberry and star Gilbert (don't expect filmmaking 101 here), a one-hour bonus feature film is included - basically Gilbert slowly stripping off. Not as stylish as the main film, it also lacks the 'pump action' but will suffice for fans of Glori-Ann.

Review by Matthew Sanderson