If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Absolutely Fantastic

A Major Disappointment

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This movie is like a precursor to the HBO series "Sex and the City", except it's less cutesy, less melodramatic and not at all obsessed with puns. If you'd like to see what Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte looked and sounded like about a step earlier on the evolutionary scale, you'll find it in Live Nude Girls.Less a story and more an extended monologue on women, sex and relationships that's been split between 6 different characters, this film is about the night some old friends have a bachelorette party sleepover. I don't know if a group of women all pushing up against 40 getting together for a slumber party was considered normal in Los Angeles in 1995 but it's the nail this story is hung on, so you've just got to go with it. Georgina (Lora Zane) is a confused bisexual who's thinking of switching back to men. Jill (Dana Delaney) is the raunchy one with the happy marriage that's never really talked about. Rachel (Laila Robins) is Jill's uptight sister who's staring down spinsterhood. Marcy (Cynthia Stevenson) is the awkward one who ends up banging her house painter, who then starts stalking her. Jaime (Kim Cattral) is the neurotic B-movie actress who's freaking out about her impending third wedding. Chris (Olivia D'Abo) is Georgina's current girlfriend and one of the least convincing lesbians in cinema history. A cross-dressing Benny Hill would have been more believable.The entire film is essentially these 6 women sitting around and talking about sex, with occasional cutaways for flashbacks and fantasies, with undercurrents of Georgina's sexual indecision, Jill and Rachel sniping at each other, Jaime's overwrought case of cold feet and a couple of secrets that, of course, end up blurted out before the night is over. There's also a decent amount of female nudity, an embarrassingly bad gay stereotype and a weirdly sympathetic view of men for this sort of film. Nothing in this story ever gets resolved or figured out or fixed. The movie just starts and these women yap away until it's over.If you want to watch women yapping about sex and relationships, you'll probably enjoy Live Nude Girls. If watching "Sex and the City" feels like someone is trying to suck your brain out through your nose, you probably won't like this movie. There's nothing wrong or bad about it, but it's entirely one of those things you either really like or you really don't. You're going to have to make that call yourself.

The tragedy is that some people -- men *and* women -- will watch a movie like this and think that it reflects the truth -- "how women really feel", etc. It's utter baloney, and the fact that a woman wrote this garbage is testament to one woman's willingness to write anything in order the appeal to the lowest common denominator and make a buck. Same goes for the performers involved.This flick was apparently a precursor to prettily-packaged toxic waste like "Sex in the City" -- and the tragedy is that, watching material like this, gullible men end up thinking that women enjoy degrading, unpleasant sex acts, and women, God help us, end up thinking they are *supposed* to enjoy them. Saddest of all are the little girls who see this stuff on TV and have developed no defenses against it.

I remember liking this movie when it came out, and thinking what an odd and somewhat misleading title (just ask for it at Blockbuster and watch the funny looks they give you). Except for the great and recognizable cast when looking at the box, one would expect a more prurient, less substantive, late-night cable skin flick from a movie so titled. But the title though is appropriate as the movie is about friends, behaving like the "girls" of their childhood, sharing laughs, gossiping, and candidly baring their psyches at a bachelorette party. It is interesting, funny, sexy, and even innovative (like, it was a good idea to do an entire film focused on women just conversing candidly -and the viewer is an eavesdropper). Having just seen the newly released DVD version, it occurred to me how reminiscent the dialogue and style is to Sex in the City, which started its run several years after this movie. It is not a great and serious film work, but it is good, interesting, well-made, and may be a good conversation starter.

"Live Nude Girls" appears to have been the blueprint for 'Sex in the City".This extremly funny movie was never released in theatres as apparently it was considered to sexually frank for 1995.My how times have changed, with the subsiquent succses of the above mentioned show its high time this brillantly acted,written and directed film got the attention it deserves.Career best performences are put in by most every actress in the film.Discussing the film in detail would rob the viewer of the suprises that help make the film such a treat.I strongly recommend the film to any and all.