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Bolero (1984)
Beautiful!
A lot of people seem to miss the point about this fantastic movie. Not every film has to have a believable plot, well-written dialogue and perfect acting, etc. Those which do are fine in their own way, but it would be a dull world if they were all the same. "Bolero" needs to be judged on its own terms and according to its own objectives. Surely if you watch a movie produced by Golan and Globus (and Bo Derek!), directed and photographed by John Derek and starring Bo Derek, you know what to expect. To complain or mark it down because it delivers exactly that is just plain stupid.
"Bolero" achieves all that it sets out to do (and more!). It has an interesting enough storyline to keep the audience entertained between nude scenes and plenty of great nude scenes to keep us entertained between the other bits. Bo Derek's acting isn't anywhere near as bad as some people here would have us believe -- certainly way better than that of Ana Obregon and Greg Bensen. Let's face it, though: John Derek didn't cast his wife in this movie for her acting ability, or for her resemblance to a teenage virgin -- neither Mrs Derek nor Ms Obregon were even remotely believable in that respect, but that is irrelevant.
Bo Derek succeeded admirably in doing what was required of her in "Bolero" -- providing us with something good to look at. She is a very attractive woman, and never looked better than she does in this movie. Even without all of the great humour (some of which may have been, as some critics suggest, unintentional), the beautiful scenes of Mrs Derek are enough to merit at least 5 stars out of ten.
What makes it worth all 10 stars, for me, is not Bo Derek, lovely as she may be, but the wonderful Olivia d'Abo. Her portrayal of the young Spanish gypsy, Paloma, is incredibly funny, intriguing and gorgeous at the same time. Her nude scenes alone make this movie worth watching, especially where she stands up in the bathtub and announces proudly, "I am woman. Ready. Juicy, too!" For Ms d'Abo's performance, I would give "Bolero" 11 stars out of 10, if I could.
Paradise (1982)
Not a Blue Lagoon rip-off
This movie is NOT a rip-off of The Blue Lagoon as most of the reviewers seem to think. The setting is entirely different, as is the plot. The Blue Lagoon is about a couple of very young kids who get stranded on a Pacific island and not found until many years later when they are "grown up", with a child of their own. In Paradise, the time span is much shorter; the young couple start the movie as teenagers in North Africa, and get lost in the desert after their caravan is attacked by Arabs. It is not long before the rescuers arrive.
Paradise is way better than The Blue Lagoon, and the nudity is honestly portrayed -- if you watch The Blue Lagoon, you will notice that you never see Brooke Shields' face andbody in the same shot -- she used a body double for the rare nude scenes in that movie.
I'm not sure what's up with the reviewer who had the Korean copy with only Willie Aames full frontals censored -- I bought what was meant to be an uncut DVD of Paradise through Amazon marketplace and ended up with a Korean rip-off in which ALL the full frontal scenes were censored -- I'd gladly do a swap -- as it is, I'm hanging onto my VHS copy until I can get a DVD containing Phoebe Cates' wonderful nude scenes in their entirety. After all it is Phoebe's beauty which makes this movie worth 10/10 for me!