Kirikou and the Sorceress (1998, Fr./Senegal, 2003 US)) (aka Kirikou et La Sorcière)

French writer/director Michel Ocelot's astonishing, sexually-mature French children's (?) film was based on West African mythical lore. It was a transparent parable for sexual politics and adult responsibility.

The unrated film was controversial in its unabashed nudity and sexual themes, and its depictions of bare-breasted and semi-nude West African villagers (children, teens, adults, and the elderly). The director was asked to draw bras on the women in his film and to cover up the title character - but he refused.

The title character was a completely naked, anatomically-correct, precocious, small-statured young boy named Kirikou, who could already walk and speak after birth.

He ultimately "conquered" the wicked, blackmailing, and castrating sorceress Karaba who devoured human flesh. She was maliciously terrorizing the villagers because she had a literal thorn in her back. The tiny and brave Kirikou cured her by removing the thorn, and immediately became an adult.

New Rose Hotel (1998)

Abel Ferrara's mind-bending R-rated film was an adaptation of William Gibson's short story about corporate espionage. The uneven, moody and stylistic film was complete with plentiful nakedness, including an erotic swimming pool scene between stars Dafoe and Argento, and a birthday party thrown for Dafoe by Walken, involving four Asian prostitutes.

It told a futuristic, post-cyberpunk tale about two freelance corporate espionage agents specializing in orchestrating defections:

• Fox (Christopher Walken), wearing a wrinkled white suite, also had a limp and walked with a cane, the result of a previous beating that broke his back
• X (Willem Dafoe), very gullible

They were involved in a 'kidnapping' scheme of a Japanese geneticist-scientist named Hiroshi Imori (Yoshitaka Amano), who was working for the Maas Biolabs Corporation, a multinational conglomerate. Fox had accepted a $100 million offer to persuade Hiroshi to go over to the rival genetic company Hosaka Corporation, through high-priced seduction: "There's an old saying: 'The hair on a snatch could tow a battleship.' All you have to do is feed his grandiosity, and play on his horniness."

Seductive, nubile Italian accomplice Sandii (Asia Argento), a singer and prostitute, was hired as a hooker in Tokyo to seduce the scientist living in Marrakesh, Morocco, while at a conference in Vienna. Fox enticed her to accept their plan, and to pay her $1 million:

"This is your ticket outta the boneyard. You're dead, in case you didn't know it. You just don't have the sense to lie down."

Unfortunately, X fell in love with her during 'training' sessions (of sexy stripping and topless skinny-dipping) and endangered the plan. Her sexually-empowered domination led to various almost incoherent twists and turns.

After the plan unfolded perfectly, an unknown double-crossing saboteur was responsible for killing Hiroshi and other Hosaka scientists with a virus plague in a lab, and Sandii was reported missing. The two protagonists found themselves on the run from Hosaka authorities who felt double-crossed. Their identities and their bank accounts were erased, and Fox was killed when he jumped off a balcony, while X hid out in the New Rose Hotel (a Japanese coffin hotel), believing he was betrayed.

The film ended with X at the New Rose Hotel, touching himself, experiencing flashbacks to what went wrong, recalling the lies he realized that Sandii told him, and his love-making with her.

Out of Sight (1998)

Director Steven Soderbergh's crime caper contained two well-known love-making scenes between:

• Jack Foley (George Clooney), a convicted bank robber
• Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez), a kidnapped deputy federal agent/marshal

Their first meeting was their celebrated locked-in-a-car trunk scene in a getaway car when they exchanged sexy quips and cat-and-mouse banter (about Faye Dunaway's films such as Bonnie and Clyde and Three Days of the Condor) and he stroked her thigh (she later recalled: "You kept touching me, feeling my thigh" and he added: "But in a nice way").

Later in a teasingly-filmed, cross-cutting sequence, they flirtatiously called each other different alias names, Gary and Celeste, while conversing in a Detroit hotel bar-lounge and sharing a drink ("I like your hair, I like your outfit") and then he explained how they were destined to be together:

"It's just something that happens. It's like seeing someone for the first time. You can be passing on the street and you look at each other for a few seconds, and there's this kind of a recognition, like you both know something. The next moment, the person's gone, and, and it's too late to do anything about it. And you always remember it because it was there and you let it go and you think to yourself 'what if' I had stopped, if I had said something. What if. What if. It may only happen a few times in your life...or once."

Minutes later (after she knowingly invited: "Let's get out of here"), they were undressing in front of penthouse room windows, with a view of snow falling outside amidst the lights of the city, and then kissing and getting into bed to make love.

Pleasantville (1998)

Director Gary Ross' PG-13 fantasy comedy (his directorial debut film) included colorful scenes of Lover's Lane where teenaged couples went to have sex in their perfect, black-and-white 1950s, sexless sitcom town.

In one scene, strait-laced and repressed wife Betty Parker (Joan Allen) experienced her first orgasmic, masturbatory, pleasurable climax of self-discovery during a solitary, sensual bath (magically, the tree in the front yard of the white picket-fence home also burst into flames).

And later, newly-independent Betty declared her newfound emotive-color to her traditionalist husband George (William Macy): "I don't want it to go away" - and then boldly posed nude for artistic soda shop proprietor Mr. Johnson (Jeff Daniels) - and had the portrait displayed in the store window.

Shakespeare in Love (1998, US/UK)

John Madden's R-rated, Best Picture-winning romance/period drama featured the romance between the famous Bard and a love interest - supposedly the basis for his writing of the play Romeo and Juliet. The two characters were:

• William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), a poor, writer's-block suffering bard/playwright
• Lady Viola De Lesseps (Oscar-winning Gwyneth Paltrow) - a cross-dressed female, disguised as Thomas Kent

In the love-making scene, Will lovingly unwrapped the bound torso of Viola as she twirled around, until her nakedness was revealed. The rhythmic creaking of their subsequent lovemaking was cleverly masked by the Nurse's rocking in a chair outside their door.

Afterwards, Viola told Will as they laid together in bed: "I would not have thought it. There is something better than a play...Even your play... And that was only my first try."

She rolled over and kissed him and they shared the night together. The next morning when the rooster crowed, she urged: "You would not leave me" and kissed him, although he moaned: "I must." She continued to tempt him to remain in bed with her, and he became convinced to linger, although then, she changed her mind and wanted him to go so that she would be able to act in his play: "It's broad day. The rooster tells us so."

She became his inspiration for his new work, titled "Romeo and Ethel, The Pirate's Daughter" ("the greatest love story almost never told" according to the film's tagline) in a scene that cross-cut between further sensual kissing, touching and sexual intercourse between them and a practice-performance of Shakespeare's new play - with well-timed words:

"Good night, as sweet repose and rest come to thy heart as that within my breast. Oh, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?...My bounty is as boundless as the sea. My love is deep. The more I give to thee, the more I have for both are infinite... Stay but a little. I will come again."

Will (Joseph Fiennes) with Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow): "My bounty is as boundless as the sea. My love is deep..."

They kissed in the film's tearjerking conclusion as she departed for Virginia, and they pledged themselves to each other forever when they said good-bye:

Will (with his voice quavering as he sobbed): "You will never age for me, nor fade nor die."
Viola: "Nor you for me."
Will: "Good-bye, my love. A thousand times good-bye."
Viola: "Write me well."

Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)

Writer/director Tamara Jenkins' debut film was a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age sex comedy about a lower-class, dysfunctional and quirky Jewish family in 1976's Southern California, living in Tinseltown's 90210 zip code.

This insightful independent film followed the post-puberty growing pains of a soon-to-be high school freshman named Vivian Abromowitz (Natasha Lyonne in her first major feature film role), who inherited ample breasts - which awkwardly blossomed when she became "stacked overnight." Although a brassiere sales-lady thought she was "blessed" with "wonderful" "perfect C" breasts, Vivian was completely embarrassed that she was required to wear an industrial-strength, cumbersome bra.

[Note: the modestly-sized Lyonne at 32A needed large-sized prosthetic breasts for the role.]

At age 14, she secretly consulted with a plastic surgeon about undergoing breast reduction surgery - reflected in a closeup mirror view, as a surgeon drew incision lines to mark the areas involved in breast reduction surgery. She showed off the planned augmentation marks to her cousin, but eventually declined, reasoning that she was "stacked" just like her mother.

In one scene, she allowed spaced-out, drug-dealing neighbor Eliot (Kevin Corrigan) to touch her new acquisitions under her sweater after she removed her bra ("We're not going to do it in the laundry room. Just breasts. Second base. That's it, not all the way"). Later, Vivian continued to be curious about sexuality when her hormones were racing out of control, and let Eliot take her virginity in a convertible "just to get it over with" - he was surprised: "Are you telling me I popped your cherry?"

In the film, Marisa Tomei had a secondary role as wayward and ditzy Rita Ambromowitz, her recovering drug-addict cousin in her late 20s and just released from rehab (and secretly pregnant). She was first seen flashing a trucker (an obvious body-double) in order to hitch a ride. And at one point, Rita was startled in the shower (with another body-double providing a topless view), and she dropped her towel to display the results of her "depilatory."

Rita Ambromowitz's (Marisa Tomei) Body Double

Rita became Vivian's hip sexual teacher - they compared breasts, tossed a vibrator (Rita called it her "boyfriend") back and forth and danced with it (Rita suggestively held it like an erect penis), and talked in pig Latinish gibberish. By herself, Vivian later experimented with the vibrator in a darkened bathroom, and found it pleasurable.

Species II (1998)

The sequel to the sci-fi action thriller Species (1995) brought back most of the original cast, including model-star Natasha Henstridge who had appeared as a deadly seductress ("alien she-bitch") named Sil -- an alien/human DNA experimental construct.

[Note: The next film in the series was a direct-to-cable/DVD erotic sequel Species III (2004). It could be argued that all the films were AIDS parables, denouncing monstrous alien or aberrant sexuality as deadly.]

In this follow-up film (a major box-office flop) with a similar amount of simulated sex and bare flesh, Henstridge took the role of a more docile Eve, another governmental creature to be used for defensive and tracking purposes.

However, this time she had a telepathic link and partnership with infected Mars astronaut Patrick Ross (Justin Lazard). She was used to locate the horny Ross, who was impregnating females, killing them after accelerated pregnancies, and harvesting their bloody offspring of alien children in a shed.

Against orders, Ross had sex with two debutantes who were sisters (Nancy La Scala and Raquel Gardner).

Ross Having Infected Sex with Two Debutantes
		Debutante's Sister (Raquel Gardner)
Debutante (Nancy La Scala)

He also made love with blonde girlfriend Melissa (Sarah Wynter), who promised: "Tonight, you're mine. I love you." All of them died when emerging fetuses bloodily burst from their abdomens (it was feared: "They could f--k the human race into extinction").

Toward the film's conclusion, Eve broke free from the lab and had the opportunity to mate with Patrick, although she was choked to death by Patrick with a tentacle through the throat. After dying, however, her womb predictably showed signs of imminent birth of another alien!

There's Something About Mary (1998)

This often-offensive Farrelly Brothers' effort - mostly a raucous, vulgar, non-PC, no-limits romantic comedy, was one of many gross-out comedies that spewed forth in the late 90s.

It actually had little nudity but was full of raunchy and lewd sight gags, off-color comedy, and immature sick jokes about mostly tasteless subjects.

In one of the film's earlier scenes, accident-prone prom date Ted was thought to be a masturbating voyeur and accidentally and painfully caught his manhood ("frank and beans") in his pants zipper.

Most often, this film was advertised with the crude image of Mary Jensen (Cameron Diaz) with 'all-natural' creamy white hair gel taken for her own hair styling from Ted Stroehmann's (Ben Stiller) left ear lobe after he was interrupted at his door during a self-pleasuring session - this sank the teen comedy genre to a new low. It was one of the first films to explicity show the results of the act of masturbation.

Twilight (1998)

Co-writer/director Robert Benton's moody, low-key, somber neo-noirish, who-dunit detective drama was an over-wrought R-rated story. It told about an intriguing past unsolved Hollywood death case and cover-up, adultery, blackmail, betrayal, and long-buried secrets that would haunt retired ex-cop and alcoholic, aging private investigator Harry Ross (73 year-old Paul Newman). Tinseltown was depicted as a place of dreams, privilege, corruption, distrust and desperation, and by film's end, there were four deaths (three males and one female). There were also many serious and melancholy musings (plus jokes) in the dialogue about mortality, the "twilight" of life, and typical signs of aging amongst the elderly protagonists.

The deliberately-paced film did feature many of the main components of classic noir: a down-and-out private detective on a mission, a sultry and flirtatious femme fatale (Susan Sarandon), crackling, sharp and witty dialogue, scenes mostly occurring at twilight or nighttime, and numerous twists and complex turns in the predictable, contrived and mundane plot that in some respects paid homage to the confusions in The Big Sleep (1946).

On a budget of $37 million, the Paramount film made only $15 million, and in addition to mixed and lukewarm reviews, it was considered a box-office bomb. The recent release of the juggernaut Titanic (1997) seriously hurt the plodding and slow-moving film's chances of success. The film was infamous, however, because it featured aspiring 22 year-old actress Reese Witherspoon in her first nude (topless) scene as a 17 year-old runaway. It would be another 16 years before she also appeared unclothed in Wild (2014).

Wayward 17 Year Old Mel to Harry: "Let me guess. My parents sent you"

• in the film's opening sequence, aging, white-haired ex-cop and PI Harry Ross (Paul Newman) was drinking beers in a Puerto Vallarta, Mexican resort, while being entertained at the pool by a Mexican mariachi band; he had been hired by a concerned father to stalk and locate a young couple: older and sleazy, small-time thug and loser boyfriend Jeff Willis (Liev Schreiber) and younger 17 year-old Mel Ames (future Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line (2005)); he identified them and listened as they ordered drinks 10 feet away from him and charged the tab to Room # 137
• after briefly swimming in the ocean, the two retreated to their resort hotel room, and after Jeff kissed down Mel's naked chest, she asked uncertainly: "Jack? Do you love me?... I mean, it's okay if you don't"; as he showered behind a closed bathroom door, she was confronted by Harry in the bedroom (he had earlier broken in to their room) - and she hypothesized that he had been hired to return her to her home in LA: "Let me guess. My parents sent you"
• as Harry dragged her away through the resort, Jeff (wrapped in a towel) caught up to them and demanded for her to be released; Harry ordered: "Listen, she's 17 years old, and I'm taking her home. Don't try anything"; Harry was hit from behind by Mel, causing him to drop his revolver; Mel picked it up and accidentally fired the gun into the deck-tiling, causing the bullet to ricochet into Harry's right upper thigh
• Harry returned Mel to her parents - ex-Hollywood star Jack Ames (Gene Hackman) and his sultry and seductive ex-Hollywood 70's star wife Catherine Ames (Susan Sarandon), who lived in a mansion; Harry was living as a "kept" man rent-free on the grounds (above the garage) of the Ames' Art Deco estate, doing handyman odd-jobs and errands for the Ames family and subsisting on their good will; Mel who could barely tolerate Harry's presence, put him down as an errand boy: "You think you're a member of this family, don't you? Well, you're not. You're just the hired help"

Wild Things (1998)

Director John McNaughton's 'guilty pleasure', highly-entertaining, erotic, tasteless, neo-noirish crime-thriller provided many complex twists and turns - and prominent younger stars in an ensemble, involved in sexy/dirty situations in a South Florida Everglades town. A secondary theme was its satirical view of social classes - mostly the wealthy, greedy and despicable affluent upper class. Erotic thrillers of this kind were prominent in the 1990s, including films such as Basic Instinct (1992), Poison Ivy (1992), Single White Female (1992), Body of Evidence (1993), Dream Lover (1993), Sliver (1993), Color of Night (1994), The Last Seduction (1994), and Bound (1996).

The mostly-implausible, over-the-top screenplay by Stephen Peters emphasized themes including deception, greed, lust, betrayal, murder, unpredictable alliances, seductive manipulation, and backstabbing. As the film marched to its conclusion, one by one, suspicion and distrust led to a number of betrayals, double-crossing murders and unexpected events. The film's two main taglines were: "They can turn you on or turn on you," and "They're dying to play with you."

MTV Movie Awards lauded the steamy and provocative film with a nomination for Best Kiss - between Denise Richards and Neve Campbell - with Matt Dillon. The pop-song soundtrack included songs from performers such as Third Eye Blind ("Semi-Charmed Life"), Smash Mouth ("Why Can't We Be Friends"), and Sugar Ray ("Hold Your Eyes").

The trashy, exploitational cult film was also a extremely-viable, mainstream commercial, high-budget project from Mandalay Productions. On a budget of $20 million, it grossed $30.1 million in revenue. It was available in 2004 in an unrated (or uncut) extended DVD version with more explicit and lengthier scenes not included in the theatrical release. There were three follow-up semi-sequel films, all DTV (direct-to-video):

• Wild Things 2 (2004) (without nudity), by director Jack Perez
• Wild Things 3: Diamonds in the Rough (2005) (with nudity), by director Jay Lowi
• Wild Things: Foursome (2010) (with nudity), by director Andy Hurst

• in the film's metaphoric opening, a predatory gator prowled a swampy area of an Everglades marsh, symbolizing the dirty and savage world unseen under the water; the camera then traveled with aerial views from the uninhabited area to the nearest major housing development, and proceeded further to the upscale and wealthy Miami, FL sea-side suburb of Blue Bay, with yachts and swimming pools behind expensive homes
• at the local high school, Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards), a rich, popular, spoiled vixenish teen senior/socialite, sat in the auditorium audience with other classmates for a "Senior Seminar," introduced by the HS's handsome guidance counselor Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon); he wrote the day's topic on a blackboard ("SEX CRIMES"), to be discussed by the two speakers on stage: Sgt. Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon) and his assistant-partner Gloria Perez (Daphne Rubin-Vega); as Sgt. Duquette was being introduced, angry, disturbed, and trashy goth student Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell) abrutly rose from her seat in the back and shouted out an expletive: ("I'm outta here...This prick can kiss my ass") before leaving

Blue Bay HS Guidance Counselor Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon)

Sgts. Perez and Duquette (Daphne Rubin-Vega and Kevin Bacon) - Guest Speakers for a Senior HS Seminar on "SEX CRIMES"

• after cheerleading practice for the Buccaneers football team, the flirtatious and sexually-provocative Kelly strolled over to the school's dock where Sam had just finished mentoring his sailing club class with Jimmy Leach (Cory Pendergast), and asked if Sam would agree to have her wash his Jeep during the weekend's Senior Car Wash event; she finagled a ride home from school with Sam to her gated country-club mansion; as they pulled up, Kelly's wealthy, slutty and widowed mother Sandra Van Ryan (Theresa Russell), a powerful real-estate heiress, appeared on the 2nd floor outer balcony in a shiny-silver bra and panties - she revealed she had been an ex-lover/acquaintance of Sam's from the past by her invitation to join her for a drink
• Sam spent all day Saturday in the Everglades wetlands (teaming with alligators) on a large air-boat propelled by an aircraft-type propeller; on Sunday as expected, Kelly and her friend Nicole (Toi Svane) arrived at Sam's home volunteering to clean Sam's mud-covered Jeep for their senior class charity fund-raising event; they had interrupted his time with pretty country-club brunette, Benz-driving Barbara Baxter (Jennifer Bini/Taylor), the daughter of powerful and influential lawyer Tom Baxter (Robert Wagner); as she was leaving, Kelly seductively asked Sam: "So where's your hose, Mr. Lombardo?"
• the two high-schoolers got to work (to the tune of Lauren Christy's "I Want What I Want"); when they finished, Nicole left to go on to the next house, as Kelly lingered (in a dripping-wet T-shirt) to collect Sam's coupon inside his house - with a knowing look
• Kelly looked ready to seduce Sam inside his home, but the sequence abruptly ended with a fade to black; the outcome of the scene was truncated and raised some doubts, when the distraught Kelly (with a ripped T-shirt) left the house and ran off; had she been raped, or had she engaged in consensual sex, or had she been rebuffed? [Note: Later, it was clearly revealed what happened!]
• then, shortly later, Kelly seemed tearful and upset and reported to her widowed mother Sandra that she missed her father who had killed himself a year earlier; Sandra also expressed regret but was conflicted about his suicide: "He didn't have to kill himself, Kelly. I don't know why he did it"; Kelly told her mother that she had allegedly been raped - by Sam Lombardo, her mother's ex-lover

Sex Crimes Investigating Police Officers: Sgt. Ray Duquette and Sgt. Perez

• the alleged rape case was reported to the authorities and soon after investigated by the two sex crimes officers: Police Sgt. Duquette with his smart assistant-partner Sgt. Perez; Kelly claimed during her videotaped deposition that although she resisted, Sam entered her with his fingers and then during intercourse urged: "Let it happen," but then he suddenly stopped and crudely assured her: "Don't worry. I didn't come.... No little girl can ever make me come"; afterwards, Sgt. Perez suggested that Kelly was acting, and only upset BECAUSE Sam didn't proceed to completion; she asked if her colleagues were hesitant about the case: "What? Are you afraid of Tom Baxter now? What are you afraid of - Sandra Van Ryan?"
• the accused Sam Lombardo was the last to learn of the accusation, and vowed to his school's principal Artie Maddox (Dennis Neal) that he was innocent; Sam found it difficult to hire a trial lawyer who could stand up to the Van Ryans, and to their attorney Tom Baxter (Robert Wagner); one of the few shameless attorneys in town who would consider taking Sam's case was free-lance, shyster, personal-injury lawyer Kenneth "Ken" Bowden (Bill Murray), wearing a neck-brace

Sam's Defense Attorney Ken Bowden (Bill Murray)

The Van Ryan's Attorney Tom Baxter (Robert Wagner)

• Sam found himself being shunned around town; at the Blue Bay Yacht Club, he was confronted by high-powered lawyer Tom Baxter, his girlfriend's father, with a warning: "You're finished in Blue Bay"
• that evening at the oceanside Smilin' Jack's Fish Camp (a bar-lounge and alligator attraction) run by Suzie's lower-class adoptive guardian Ruby (Carrie Snodgress) and her foster brother Walter (Marc Macaulay), Sam noticed the Glades Motel across the parking lot; Sam was roughed up by one of Sandra Van Ryan's lovers, Frankie Condo (Eduardo Yañez), but Sam's hired lawyer Bowden wasn't worried; he claimed that he already had lots of incriminating information on the very unstable Kelly; before the action of the film, Kelly had run away from home on the day that her father committed suicide (gun-shot); she had retreated to a hotel and was obviously addicted to snorting coke; her credibility was in question
• Sgts. Duquette and Perez visited the home of Suzie, a disturbed, outcast, and trailer inhabitant (from the wrong side of the tracks) who lived on Ruby's alligator farm; Suzie had called them to report the same allegation against Sam Lombardo - rape, and similarly during the act, "he stopped by himself" and told her: "No little bitch can ever make me come"; meanwhile, Sam was arrested and denied bail, and Bowden agreed to defend his case
• during the trial, it was revealed during cross-examination that the rape charges against Lombardo were a frame-up and completely fabricated by both of the scheming females; Suzie broke down on the witness stand and confessed that Kelly had pressured her to join her and to falsely accuse Sam of rape: ("Sam Lombardo didn't rape me. He didn't rape Kelly either. He didn't do anything...I just wanted to hurt Mr. Lombardo"); Suzie had spitefully and vengefully pressed charges against Sam, because he hadn't bailed her out of jail (on minor narcotics charges), and she had to serve 6 months in the state's correctional facility; Suzie also claimed that Kelly had angry and jealous motivations designed to double-cross her widowed mother - by getting involved with her mother's lover Sam, her own HS guidance counselor
• Sam was acquitted, and had a perfect opportunity to make counter-charges of defamation and the ruination of his life; the trial's settlement payout awarded Sam $8.5 million dollars (from Kelly's trust fund established by her mother Sandra); Kelly was upset by the decision: "You know how my Mom's paying you off? She's breaking my trust. I can't touch it until she's dead, and now she's breaking it to pay you"; [Note: Spoiler -- Sam was also in cahoots with his two accusers to share in the payout.]
• in the aftermath of the controversial case was a highly-publicized, champagne-drenched menage a trois sequence in a cheap Glades motel room between the two females (Sam's accomplices) and Sam to celebrate their newfound wealth and success - revealing the members of a conspiratorial and scheming trio; Kelly was the first to greet Sam with a kiss: "We screwed the bitch! It worked just like you said"; Suzie joined them from the shadows as she popped the cork on a champagne bottle: "So, how much is eight-and-a-half million divided by three?"
• Sam warned them to never be seen together again:
  • Sam: "After tonight, the three of us are not to be seen together again."
  • Kelly (smiling): "After tonight?"
  • Sam: "Yeah, well, we're here, aren't we?"
    (He began to undress Kelly.)
  • Sam: "So maybe one celebration is okay if we're in agreement that from here on out, you do exactly as I say"
    (He fondled Kelly's breasts under her bra and kissed her, seen in close-up. Suzie also stepped forward for a kiss from Sam. He pulled up Kelly's skirt, slipped her panties off, and placed them in his left pocket.)
  • Sam: "Guidance counselors get to find out all sorts of interesting things. Now I want you two to kiss. Come on now. Never let the sun go down on an argument"
    (After the two kissed, Sam stripped off his shirt, and let Kelly straddle him on the bed. She unhooked her bra from the front, and he nuzzled between her breasts. As she stretched back, Suzie poured champagne over her breasts which Sam then licked off. He was literally sandwiched between the two half-naked females as the scene faded to black.)

The Trio of Schemers: Menage A Trois Scene

• Sam moved $5.65 million of his payout from his local Sun Trust Bank account to an off-shore Banco Del Mar account in the Caribbean, and also spent $160K on a sailboat and $327K on an island real estate property; Sgt. Duquette doubted the case's veracity, and speculated that there was a clear possibility of a conspiracy between Sam and the two females: ("He went to work on these two girls, using them to set up Sandra Van Ryan")
• Kelly exited a school swimming pool - filmed in sensuous slow-motion to the tune of Morphine's "I Had My Chance" (lyrics: "I had my chance and I let it go, I had my chance and I let it go, Well if I ever have myself another chance like that, I'm going to grab it and I won't look back"); she was confronted by suspicious Sgt. Duquette who was keeping the two females under surveillance; he complimented her: "Nice stroke"; she jokingly asked if he was interested in improving his "breast stroke"
• Sgt. Duquette questioned Kelly about a possible conspiracy between the two females to reveal the scam that they had extorted Kelly's mother: ("It's hard enough for one person to keep a secret, let alone three. Especially when two of 'em are in love"); he suspected that Kelly's and Sam's intentions were to get rid of Suzie ("pill-head") ("Sam sell you on the idea right up front of whackin' Suzie?") and take off for the Caribbean now that Sam had been awarded the settlement money
• Duquette also visited with Suzie to create more of a wedge between the two females; he sarcastically reminded her about how he had been involved in the death of her boyfriend Davy years earlier; he also suggested that she was in jeopardy because Sam and Kelly were planning on abandoning her and escaping to a Caribbean island (where Sam had transferred most of the payoff); he raised her fears: "You don't think Kelly and Sam are gonna share that money with you, do you?"
• after having set-up Suzie, Sgt. Duquette followed her to Kelly's home, where he observed as Kelly and Suzie both spoke to Sam on the phone - who cautioned them to be calm and not give away their guilt; Sam realized that Suzie was becoming a threat to the threesome's happiness due to her fears that she would be eliminated
• Suzie accused Kelly of class discrimination: "That's what I am to you, swamp trash just like my mom"; that comment led to them entering into a vicious catfight in the pool, with Kelly attempting to drown Suzie; the sexually-confused Kelly then unexpectedly celebrated lesbianism with Suzie in the pool (extended in the uncut version); Suzie untied the straps of Kelly's bikini top, as they kissed, and soon they were both topless and in each other's arms - while the perverted Ray watched from the shadows videotaping their escapades [Note: Due to the later revelation that Suzie was Sandra's half-sister and Kelly's aunt, their relationship in the pool could be deemed incestuous.]

Swimming Pool Kissing: Suzie and Kelly

• as Sgt. Duquette had forecast, to remove Suzie from sharing in the profits, Sam and Kelly conspired to confront a drunken Suzie at a seaside beach; there, while Kelly was back at the car, Sam bludgeoned Suzie in the head with a wine bottle (off-screen), and the two worked together to drag her plastic-wrapped body into the back of Kelly's car before Sam by himself disposed of her body in the swamp; Kelly's only regret: "My mom would kill me if she knew I took the Rover"
• during the next day's investigation by Sgts. Duquette and Perez into her disappearance, Suzie's guardian Ruby told how she was planning to go to LA, but her clothes were still there; while snooping around at the swamp's edge with Jimmy, Sgt. Duquette located blood stains and two extracted teeth; he advised with the film's most important statement to Jimmy: "People aren't always what they appear to be. Don't forget that"; Daphne had also located Suzie's abandoned car at the bus terminal; Duquette suspected Lombardo was her killer, and suspected that Kelly was next

The Investigation Into Suzie's Death
Blood Stains	Two Extracted Teeth	Duquette: "People aren't always what they appear to be..."

• although Sam realized he was a probable murder suspect in Suzie's death, he showed Kelly's school file to Gloria with evidence of Kelly's mental instability (due to her father's suicide) and how she was "an angry, sexually confused girl"; his goal was to show how Suzie's death could easily be blamed on Kelly
• Sgt. Duquette visited Kelly's home, and his motives appeared mixed: he was there to either protect Kelly from Sam's wrath, or to frame her for Suzie's murder, or to deliberately eliminate her; when he entered the guest house where she was, she attempted to flee from him; in a shootout (two rounds were heard off-screen, and then a third delayed shot and his reaction); after the shooting, Kelly's mother Sandra witnessed the aftermath of the murder - she found Suzie dead and Duquette with a left upper arm wound
• during questioning, the duplicitous and corrupt Duquette argued - contrary to the sound of gunshots, that Kelly shot him in the shoulder, and then he returned gun fire (two shots) and killed her in self-defense; as a result, Sgt. Duquette was discharged from the police force for disobedience and ignoring advice of his superiors; at the same official hearing, it was determined (due to Suzie's blood evidence at the beach and in the Van Ryan's Range Rover) that Kelly had murdered Suzie

Ray Duquette - Shot in the Upper Left Arm

Sam at a Caribbean Resort

Ray Collaborating with Sam

• now that both Kelly and Suzie were dead, and Kelly had been blamed for Suzie's death, Sam was in the clear, and he didn't have to split the money with anyone; Sam departed for a tropical resort, where he unexpectedly found Sgt. Ray Duquette greeting him in his bungalow's shower; Duquette provided a full-frontal view of himself nude in the shower - one of the film's more titillating aspects
• another unexpected revelation occurred - Ray greeted Sam with the words: "Howdy, pardner"; both he and Sam were secretly working together and had insidiously masterminded everything; their original scheme was to frame Kelly for Suzie's murder, so that they could split the money evenly between them (however, Duquette went ahead and killed Kelly on his own, something that slightly upset Sam: "Kelly wasn't supposed to die, Ray"); it was also Duquette's intention to get fired; it would be two days before a bank transfer would allow the two of them to split the money and part ways with "no loose ends"
• with time to kill while awaiting a bank transfer for the money, Sam invited Ray onto his sailboat named HELIOS; out on the water, Sam attempted to kill Ray, who was deliberately thrown overboard when Sam jerked the steering, but Ray climbed back onboard and struck Sam with the winch handle; he was ultimately finished off by Suzie - who miraculously appeared ALIVE - she was now a bleached blonde pixie hair cut after her staged murder); she fired two shots from a spear gun - and Ray was propelled backwards into the water where he drowned; Suzie killed Duquette to retaliate against him for two murders: (1) the killing of Kelly, and (2) the wrongful killing of Davy

Ray Climbing Back on Board	First Spear Gun Wound in Ray's Left Leg	Miraculous Appearance of Suzie With a Spear Gun
Time To Celebrate
	Sam's Doctored Drink: "P-oison"

• (in reality, Sam and Suzie had conspired together to fake her death; Suzie revealed herself to be a double-crosser when she appeared to side with Sam against Ray; Suzie was very motivated to get back at Sgt. Duquette - for his previous mistreatment of her when her Seminole boyfriend Davy was killed in the Glades; Sam was also upset for Ray's murder of Kelly)
• in the midst of double-crosses on the sailboat, Daphne questioned Ruby about Suzie's background; in the past, Suzie and her boyfriend Davy had witnessed Duquette beating up his whore; when Davy intervened, Duquette killed him, and then falsely claimed self-defense; to prevent Suzie from testifying against him, he put her away in a correctional facility after busting her for drugs
• back on the sailboat, Suzie congratulated Sam ("We won. Sam, it's over"), but then Sam paused when she handed him a drink; he was paranoid, but she convinced him that she had no idea how to sail the boat back to shore; after he took a drink, she revealed that she had poisoned Sam with a doctored drink - and hinted to him about what she had done - she never intended to be on Sam's side; she gave him a multiple-choice pop quiz: ("Before Medea sailed away on the Helios she killed king Creon and the princess, with what? A: A rock. B: Spear-gun or C: A bit of Poison"); Sam was right when he guessed choice C - poison; Suzie released the sailboat's rigging-boom and knocked him overboard; Suzie was left as the only survivor
• as Daphne was leaving the alligator farm, she struck up a conversation with Suzie's foster-brother Walter, who was driving a nice new Dodge truck, and hauling away Suzie's small sailboat (Suzie was an accomplished sailor and easily returned to the dock!); he revealed that Suzie had a high IQ of 200 ("That girl could do just about anything she put her mind to"), although she had always been underestimated for her abilities due to her lowly upbringing, poverty, and lack of education
• the film formally ended with "THE END"