Our Staff Picks column takes you back to a time when video stores reigned supreme and the "Staff Picks" section was the place to find out what films were worthy of one's time. Of course, our version of Staff Picks has a decidedly skintillating angle, as we suss out which films from a particular subgenre are the best to find great nudity. This week let's cover one of the best kinds of films to watch during the summer: Island movies.
No, this is not a genre. It's more like a state of mind...or simply a setting. Either way, these movies are perfect to watch during the hot summer months or when you feel like you could use an island getaway. These films use their island settings to the best of their advantage
The Beach
Remember the late 90s and early 2000s when Leonardo DiCaprio was EVERYWHERE? Then you most likely remember the Leo vehicle The Beach, but it's so much more than a movie that stars then-heartthrob, Mr. DiCaprio, on a beach with beautiful women. It actually has a pretty trippy plot!
This Danny Boyle film from the year 2000 takes place on a rumored island paradise off of the coast of Thailand. Leo plays Richard, a young man on vacation in Asia who find a map to an island that is supposed to be secluded from the outside world. He decides to set off for the adventure of a lifetime by finding this rumored island beach where he can truly be alone.
Well, it's not quite the paradise that he imagined even though Virginie Ledoyen basically makes this paradise with her sexy underwater love scene.
Club Dread
It's time to laugh through the horniness with island resort comedy Club Dread. This 2004 comedy is raunchy in all of the best ways as the Broken Lizard boys from Super Troopers bring their balls-to-the-wall comedy to a thrilling location. Luckily, we don't have to worry about seeing any balls - but we do see loads and loads of boobs.
Jordan Ladd looks skintastic in and out of her bikini in this comedy that takes place on an island paradise where vacation gets turned on its head and turned way on. She's not the only one, either. Tanja Reichert and Elena Lyons ditch their clothes for some seriously sexy views of their racks.
Whether the babes are hula dancing, sunbathing, having sex, or going for a swim, there is absolutely nothing to dread about this sexy comedy. It is titillating from beginning to end!
Hour of the Wolf
This Ingmar Bergman classic from 1968 is a Swedish film told from the perspective of a woman whose husband disappeared. The couple had moves to a small island called Baltrum where the husband thinks that the people on the island are acting very strange to him. Eventually, he believes that the people are actually demons. Well, when she peaks around into his diary she reads that he is also "being haunted" by flashbacks of his former lover. Sure, being haunted. That's one way to call it!
Ingrid Thulin stars as Veronica Vogler, the lover, and one look at her naked breasts will tell you a lot about why he is thinking about her so much. The rest of the film is dramatic and twisted - as is the case for so many Bergman films.
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
This film takes place on the Greek island of Cephalonia and attempted to pay homage to Italian soldiers who were massacred in Greece by German forces during World War II. Before that tragic ending, we are introduced to Captain Corelli, an Italian who is stationed in Greece during the war.
On this beautiful Greek island, he meets a local Greek woman played by Spanish actress Penelope Cruz. Close enough? Regardless, Penelope and the captain have a hot sex scene that provides some hefty closeups of Penelope's cans.
Tarzan and His Mate
This is an oldie, but it delivers some great pre-code nudity Maureen O'Sullivan starred in this sexy 1934 pre-code film from director Cedric Gibbons. This is a Great Depression-era interpretation of the Tarzan story and one of the last films made before the Hays Code was implemented which introduced dark days to movie nudity.
Maureen plays Jane, Tarzan's mate, who enjoys skinny dipping with her beloved jungle man. However, she used a body double in the water - an Olympic athlete named Josephine McKim. Interestingly, it wasn't the nudity that Maureen objected to. She simply was afraid to swim because she was claustrophobic and being underwater scared her. Maureen, an Irish actress, was definitely not an island girl!
The Wicker Man
Okay, HEAR ME OUT. No, this is not a tropical paradise. But this definitely takes place on an island and the original Wicker Man is surprisingly hot. I could go on forever about the original Wicker Man. I love it. It's so strange on so many levels, but it is definitely eerie and entertaining.
It's also a musical??? Let's just say that no one warned me about the multiple musical numbers before I watched it for the first time and that's basically all I can talk about. Watch Britt Ekland sing a seductive song naked here:
[scene id="188549" ="58"]
This mysterious movie takes place on an island off of the coast of Scotland where a detective investigates the disappearance of a young girl. He quickly learns that things on this remote island are very different from life on the mainland...and he learns just how different a little too late. Luckily, these sex-up Scottish women go very nude, leaving little to our imagination.
Survival Island
Are you ready for an action-packed island movie that will get your rocks off? It's time for Stewart Raffill's R-rated 2005 film Survival Island. Billy Zane stars as wealthy hubby to Kelly Brook. The two of them, along with their butler, jet off to a beautiful vacation, but they crash onto a mysterious island.
They wait and hope that someone will rescue them, but that seems less and less likely the longer the three of them are out there. They get hungry, tired, and...horny. Both of the men start fighting for Kelly's affection. It's not hard to see why that would happen!
