Masquerade (1988)

The plot is the stuff of old-school gothic romantic thrillers of the Daphne Du Maurier kind with an heiress to an immense fortune (Meg Tilly) not realising how much danger she is in as she falls in love with a gigolo (Rob Lowe) but fails to notice the childhood friend-turned-policeman who vies for her heart, but the acting is often terrible and the characters paper-thin, giving this romantic thriller a perfunctoriness that no amount of sweaty Body Heat-style sex, nor Rob Lowe's glistening torso, and not even a fleeting partial glimpse of Lowe's manhood can make up for. 

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Bad Influence (1990)

This 80s Fight Club has a baby-faced Rob Lowe playing a wet sort of a Tyler Durden whose (not very convincing) bravura in a bar fight and way with women (doing 'out there' stuff like buying them drinks and dancing with them and stuff) works a Rasputin-like spell over James Spader's The Narrator, who ditches his corporate life of double-breasted suits, ProDOS computers, and suitcase mobile phones for an anarchic Clyde-and-Clyde lifestyle of grubby three-person sex, convenience-store theft....and murder! 

★★☆☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

As a big fan of British spy action - the serious (James Bond) as well as the not so serious (quirky 70s tv series, The Avengers) - I have a soft spot for Austin Powers and this 1999 follow-up to the 1997 original ups the ante by introducing time travel, big name cameos (Elvis Costello, Will Ferrell..), and myriad new characters (Michael Myers does an Eddie Murphy and portrays several including Fat Bastard), and the sequel succeeds in being funny most of the time, mostly because so much trouble is taken setting up some really lame jokes.

★★★☆☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS