A soft core B movie can entertain you in a number of ways: if you like the girls, if you like the story, or if you just like how it's made. In the case of TANYA X (2010, Dean McKendrick), I liked all three.
TANYA X is a secret agent working for an outfit (pun intended) called BIKINI: Bureau of Knowledge, Intelligence, and Nonstandard Investigations, which apparently solves its cases by having a lot of sex with anybody they have to deal with. She's humorously played by Beverly Lynn, a veteran of several softcore features who has a tongue-in-cheek acting style that lends itself well to this comical Dean McKendrick material. McKendrick, for the uninitiated, is a humorist who frequently works with many of the stars of this movie, which includes Kylee Nash, Christine Nguyen, Evan Stone, and Randy Spears, among several others, all of whom play this script for laughs, which is a specialty for most, if not all of them. And because they're having fun with it, you often do the same even while you're being turned on, which is how it should be. To quote my ex, "sex is supposed to be fun!" She was right, except for the part about it not being fun with me. but I digress.
The result of this attitude is a movie which scores because Lynne (who also produced it) is cute and funny, as are her co-stars, and the sex scenes are all as sexy as they need to be. I am a big fan of all of the women in this, so I am biased, but it does a lot of little things well too, which makes it exceptional. A lot of the score consists of take offs on other famous "spy" music, like the "Get Smart!" theme, the "Dragnet" theme, "Secret Agent Man", Henry Mancini's theme for "Peter Gunn" (which we eighties kids know as the theme from the video game "Spy Hunter"), and so on. At one point, Tanya has to learn how to be a gangster, and acts like James Cagney, which underscores McKean's wit and pop culture knowledge. The whole thing is deliberately silly, but clever, and the story is consistent, if simple and implausible. A sex film always requires a lot of suspension of disbelief to begin with, but when it seems like everybody involved is in on the joke too, we can go with it. Again, this is McKean's style and it really works here.
Is it my favorite of his films? No. But I admire the ambition of this project. This movie was apparently the pilot for a proposed web series, which I'm not sure ever got finished, which is a shame. The cast are great, the fact that Lynne is in charge is inspiring, and the execution is top notch. I really enjoyed TANYA X, and again, if you're into these kinds of movies, I'm sure you will too. A.
(And no, I do not work for Beverly Lynne or anybody involved with this movie. ;)
-AS @ShyHustler
TANYA X is a secret agent working for an outfit (pun intended) called BIKINI: Bureau of Knowledge, Intelligence, and Nonstandard Investigations, which apparently solves its cases by having a lot of sex with anybody they have to deal with. She's humorously played by Beverly Lynn, a veteran of several softcore features who has a tongue-in-cheek acting style that lends itself well to this comical Dean McKendrick material. McKendrick, for the uninitiated, is a humorist who frequently works with many of the stars of this movie, which includes Kylee Nash, Christine Nguyen, Evan Stone, and Randy Spears, among several others, all of whom play this script for laughs, which is a specialty for most, if not all of them. And because they're having fun with it, you often do the same even while you're being turned on, which is how it should be. To quote my ex, "sex is supposed to be fun!" She was right, except for the part about it not being fun with me. but I digress.
The result of this attitude is a movie which scores because Lynne (who also produced it) is cute and funny, as are her co-stars, and the sex scenes are all as sexy as they need to be. I am a big fan of all of the women in this, so I am biased, but it does a lot of little things well too, which makes it exceptional. A lot of the score consists of take offs on other famous "spy" music, like the "Get Smart!" theme, the "Dragnet" theme, "Secret Agent Man", Henry Mancini's theme for "Peter Gunn" (which we eighties kids know as the theme from the video game "Spy Hunter"), and so on. At one point, Tanya has to learn how to be a gangster, and acts like James Cagney, which underscores McKean's wit and pop culture knowledge. The whole thing is deliberately silly, but clever, and the story is consistent, if simple and implausible. A sex film always requires a lot of suspension of disbelief to begin with, but when it seems like everybody involved is in on the joke too, we can go with it. Again, this is McKean's style and it really works here.
Is it my favorite of his films? No. But I admire the ambition of this project. This movie was apparently the pilot for a proposed web series, which I'm not sure ever got finished, which is a shame. The cast are great, the fact that Lynne is in charge is inspiring, and the execution is top notch. I really enjoyed TANYA X, and again, if you're into these kinds of movies, I'm sure you will too. A.
(And no, I do not work for Beverly Lynne or anybody involved with this movie. ;)
-AS @ShyHustler