Joel Silver (
48 Hours,
Die Hard,
The Matrix) has a theory about action movies--you need a good bang-up scene about every 10 minutes. The people who made
The New Seduction operate on the same principle, only instead of car chases and explosions, the curvaceous Jaime Pressly takes her clothes off and then, more likely than not, has sex with someone. If
Seduction had been made 60 years ago at Warner Brothers, nobody would have gotten naked, but otherwise this gleefully trashy bit of film noir would have fit right in. The plot's a reworking of the original; this time, Ivy's sister Violet returns after 11 years to wreak havoc on the family that turned her mother (the family maid) out onto the street for sleeping with the man of the house. Pressly brings both a smoldering energy and sense of fun to her very-bad-girl part. As the lonely daughter who was Violet's best friend, Megan Edwards is both appealing and strong enough to avoid being simpy. While this movie lacks the relative subtlety of the original, it's a whole lot more fun than the morose first sequel,
Poison Ivy 2.
--Geof Miller
