Moviecut—Calendar Girl Murders

source: Calendar Girl Murders

Calendar Girl Murders

This is a good, solid '80's TV movie of the week thriller. Lots of '80's glitz & glam, not as much substance. Tom Skerritt saves this movie, from itself, and distracts from how bad Sharon Stone's acting is. A fun, silly romp into the past.

Someone is killing a bunch of * models and it's up to Tom Skerritt's detective to get to the bottom of it. He meets a former model played by Sharon Stone who might not be as sweet and innocent as she tries to pretend to be. This functions as an unofficial warmup for Stone's similar femme fatale role in Basic Instinct. She's much better vamping it up as a potential murderer than when she's trying out the wholesome good girl routine where, try as she might, she doesn't convince. The story is boring and been done better a million times before. It's a film that might have benefited from an R rating to add a little extra sleaze to keep things more interesting.

An interesting little detective thriller with shades of the giallo genre at times, in particular Bava's BLOOD & BLACK LACE, but of course as a TV movie this is very tame stuff indeed so don't go looking for gore murders or nudity. The best thing about it is the cast: we get Tom Skerritt as the dedicated cop, a career-making turn from Sharon Stone as a femme fatale, a debuting Claudia Christian as a model and Robert Culp as the photographer. A good era and cast, but it ends there...

While watching CALENDAR GIRL MURDERS, two things jump to mind: #1- Sharon Stone is hotter than the sunny side of Mercury! #2- This made-for-TV movie is almost as exciting as watching blisters heal! It starts out just fine with a couple of murders within the first 20 minutes, but soon grinds to a tedious pace. Tom Skerritt isn't bad as the cop on the case. Unfortunately, once Ms. Stone's character enters the picture, the story nosedives into soap opera / romantical country. This wouldn't be a problem if it didn't take up two-thirds of the movie! Once it gets back to the "action", it's difficult to care. SIDE NOTE: It was humorous to read the original Trinity release DVD box claiming that this film was rated EM (Extremely Mature), which is astonishing since it contains no blood, nudity, or even a hint of adult language!...

I picked this movie up off a sale bin at my local store. It basically is a movie about calender girls that pose in the *, getting killed and the search for that killer. As usual you have a cop caught up in a whirl-wind of confussion and mystery (not to mention his own family and a wife that isn't completely sure she likes her husband hanging out with these thin, very seductive girls.) My copy of the movie isn't of the greatest production quality and the picture is poor. I gave the movie a 5 out of a possible 10 because it is a little slow in places. I have seen worse, so on a good rainy day, it's one of those movies you can pop in and watch while doing something else.

This is an enjoyable light hearted, cheesy 80s flick. I had an absolutely awful day today and this movie helped me to feel better before bed; it feels more like a drama or thriller than a horror movie but it is one of those silly slashers of the era. And it's so, so, so 80s. Just look at the main character's mustache and the girl playing opposite has farrah fawcett bangs and a crazy perm at one point. The plot is not particularly exciting but it mostly makes sense. The quality is not exactly great but it's a TV movie from the 80s. It's one that I'd recommend if you're really into 80s slashers as long as you're aware this isn't a hidden gem.

Millionaire Richard Trainor (Robert Culp) is celebrating the fact that his new calendar featuring twelve * woman is a huge success. However the party is ruined when Miss January is pushed off a building and later on that night Miss February is knifed to death. If you want to see Alan Thicke as a glamor photographer, Tom Skerritt as a cop (not surprisingly) and a young Sharon Stone, this is the film for you. Skerritt (who plays the oddly-named Detective Stoner) must find out who is killing the calendar girls... and you might keep guessing until the end! The film is made or television, so it is pretty tame. No nudity (despite the plot's description) and fairly mild violence. They found ways to stab and murder women without it being too messy, and this is no more racy than the average episode of "Murder She Wrote".