Barely Legal (2011)

A lot of people seem to forget that The Asylum have more than one string to their bow. They may be best known for churning out numerous mockbusters, but they also produce a number of different movies, including many bawdy teen sex comedies. In fact, I've seen a few of their comedy movies and have ended up rating them generously, mainly because of the way in which they make up for the poor acting and lame gags with plenty of gratuitous nudity. I'm not always that shallow, but in a teen sex comedy that counts for a lot.

Barely Legal is another shining example of the studio getting it right, dubious title aside. The slight premise concerns three young virginal women. One (Jeneta St. Clair) is saving herself for her boyfriend (Morgan Benoit), not realising that he's a complete asshole. One (Lisa Younger) is saving herself . . . . . . . . barely. She's done plenty of fooling around in other ways, but just hasn't actually, technically, lost her virginity yet. And one (Melissa Johnston) hasn't even had an orgasm through self-pleasuring techniques. These girls all agree to lose their virginity on the same day, their 18th birthday. It's a happy coincidence that all three girls were born on the same day and an even happier coincidence that they seem to have no parents in their lives, but enough money to do what they want and live in a mansion.

If you really want me to detail the rest of the plot then I could do, but it would be wasting your time and mine. The asshole boyfriend needs to get his comeuppance, of course. There's a nice guy (Myko Olivier) who gets caught up in the bump 'n' grind plan, a blind guy (Matt Miller) who knows how to heighten other senses, and a whole lot of objects that one young woman discovers she can get pleasure from.

The script by Naomi L. Selfmann doesn't exactly sparkle, but it moves at a fair pace and sets up each set-piece as required, with most of them being fairly obvious. The direction from Jose Montesinos is much the same. No boundaries of cinema are being stretched here, no awards are being sought, it's just amusing smut for teens.

Bearing that in mind, it must be said that Jeneta St. Clair is a cute lead and Lisa Younger and Melissa Johnston are also far from unappealing (along with a few girls who just appear onscreen for some gratuitous pool activity) and I'm sure that most teenage girls will find Myko Olivier attractive enough. Of course, I have NO idea what teenage girls actually like nowadays and I didn't even have a clue when I was a teenager so don't take anything I say at face value.

There are many better comedies out there, no doubt about it, but if you're after something simple and amusing with plenty of gratuitous nudity (hey, I know it's the lowest common denominator, but sometimes films are designed that way and the final result works that way) then you might enjoy this. It even has a topless nun dominating a male submissive while offering advice about masturbation not being a sin. Which is a sentence I feel no shame in including here as a glowing recommendation for the film.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Barely-Legal-Jeneta-St-Clair/dp/B0057FGCWS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1358790605&sr=8-2&keywords=barely+legal