merklekranz Review of Merchants of Venus

Merchants of Venus (1998)

Starts out somewhat different ..... ends up a disaster ...............

[3/10 · 22 August 2013]

Wrapping a very flimsy plot around a sex toys distributor is what makes "A Dirty Little Business" somewhat different. Without that angle, this is a one star movie. Michael York is a Russian immigrant who borrows a million dollars from the Russian mafia to buy the factory. Throw in his naive romance with a porn star, Beverly D'Angelo as a dominatrix, and a cartoon like last third of the movie, and what you get is a disaster of a film. Things actually get worse minute by minute. Do not be mislead by the presence of Michael J. Pollard, as he is barely in the film, and only on a television screen. Is this a romance, a black comedy, a mob movie, or a slapstick farce? The answer is none of the above. It is just a mish mash of undeveloped ideas, and a bad movie to boot. - MERK