The Last Seduction

If 1990s filmdom has a definitive genre, it’s the “erotic thriller.” All those noirish tales of money, murder and sex. You can link many names to that genre, but perhaps the one that best captures its jazzy amorality is Linda Fiorentino. Her career peak overlaps almost perfectly with the genre’s peak. The role that shows it off the best is “The Last Seduction” (1994). It went straight from the festival circuit to TV, perfect for the Skinemax era. Supported by Peter Berg and Bill Pullman, she snakes her way across New York, culminating in the twist you knew was coming.

Bad Girls

Whores on horses. Westerns changed a lot after John Wayne died. “Bad Girls” is a 1994 revenge/caper/western with brief glimpses of Drew Barrymore’s boobies. Madeleine Stowe plays a butt-kicking madam with a dark past who shares undertones of homoerotic chemistry with Mary Stuart Masterson (Where is the Skinemax remake when you need it?). Andie MacDowell plays herself. James Russo channels Tom Sizemore playing a psychopathic bandito (which would be a great name for a rock band). Robert Loggia gets whacked (Doesn’t he always?). There are big guns (besides Barrymore). And no, Dermot Mulroney is not the dude from “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Thief of Hearts

In 1984, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer made a movie with no helicopters. Not a single goddamn thing blows up. “Thief of Hearts” is an erotic thriller in which Steven Bauer robs a suburban couple’s house, then seduces the wife, all while looking extremely pretty. (The opposite of pretty? Bauer’s crime partner, a young David Caruso.) A couple more sex scenes and it would have been perfect for the Friday night 11:30 timeslot on Skinemax. But there aren’t. And it isn’t. It was the lowest-grossing film Simpson/Bruckheimer ever made. Their next effort was “Beverly Hills Cop.” The rest is history.