Poison Ivy II (1996 Video)
3/10
What a tease!
8 January 2006
Lily is an art student who has moved away from home to start at a new collage, but also she's having trouble trying to fit in with her other pupils and flat mates. That's until she discovers a box in her closest that has some items that belong to a girl named Ivy. From what she gathered from these items that ranged from sexy clothing, her artwork and to diary, she was one fearless and raunchy girl who liked to play games and tease to get what she wants. So, now Lily strings along her guy who she's seeing and that of her married art teacher who slowly has became infatuated with her.

Alyssa Milano… there's no shadow of a doubt that she's best reason for watching this extremely tacky picture; really that's it. When Milano makes her first appearance she looks reasonably daggy, but she sure does look fine either way. The first film, which starred Drew Barrymore and Tom Skeritt I thought, was somewhat dull and rather ordinary. Again this one is no better, but since I'm a sucker for anything that involves Milano, it had me clicked in! This treads the same path of the first flick by presenting a adult thriller that oozes with steamy erotica, so if you like your trashy melodrama, bare flesh and soft core sex, well then this should tickle your fancy. One thing that I thought that the original had over this pointless sequel other then an actual story, was that it had such a heavily grim edge to it. But nuff said about the first film, in-retrospect this one is far more sexy and more steamier than the first. Although the one redeeming factor of the film, of course Milano, can't help that it seems to loose steam soon after it eventually begins. It's hard to put in words, but not much did happen, really. No plot behind the convoluted mess, but to rehash what we've seen before with moments that try to outdo each other, pointless flashbacks of Ivy (not from the first film) and some sequences that miss the point. Even when Milano's character starts acting out the desirable ways of Ivy from her diary it's slightly hypnotic, but that's more to her tempting presence and desirable actions than that of the material. The film's unpleasant ending is one of the things that go beyond the call of nature, but then at least it had some energy going for it, but still it was a bit overwrought. The pacing is at a snails pace and because of that boredom quickly moves in.

Since its set amongst an art environment, the whole artiness of it got a bit too shallow for its own sake and it could have destroyed the overall mood, that's if it even had one. But this is what you expect from your run-of-the-mill low budget film that would go straight-to-video without a whimper. Alyssa Milano silky presence evokes such an allurement, but she doesn't just get by with her looks as her performance is definitely above average and Xander Berkeley dished out a more then decent performance. It's just too bad they had to work with such undeveloped characters and a stiff script that was filled with something corny amongst every few lines. Sometimes I thought it was too thick and they had too much to say when it probably would have worked out better with less or none at times. The soundtrack had some sustainable tunes from the easy listening, rock and Gothic… but sometimes it was just too overwhelming in a very cheesy way. I most likely saw the cut version, which I watched off TV, but that's not what really bother me, it was that there were too many ad breaks which made the film drag even more. It's a real long shot to call this schematic flick good, but for the undemanding its light entertainment.

Only for those who enjoyed the original or have a soft spot for Alyssa Milano. Obviously, I'll be going with latter.
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