We introduced Passionflix here
They rate all the movies they create, as well as those they distribute with their “barometer of naughtiness,” or BON. 1=Oh So Vanilla, 2=Mildly Titillating, 3=Passion & Romance, 4=Toe Curling Yumminess and 5=NSFW.
I have been pretty happy with them, even though I haven’t read any of the books they’ve made into movies yet. Read on for a short review of each of the original Passionflix movies!
Hollywood Dirt
This movie is adapted from a novel by Alessandra Torre. It follows a hot-shot movie star named Cole Masten who descends on a small, rural town in Georgia to film a movie, and you know from the beginning he is going to be trouble. Cole is recently divorced and partying hard everywhere he goes, with a reputation that precedes him. His fabulous assistant finds one family willing to help him out, and in the process Cole meets Summer Jenkins. He, of course, wants what he can’t have, and she doesn’t want him back. Besides wanting her to be his leading lady in the movie he is filming, he also just wants her for himself. This was a fun movie to watch, and the chemistry between Emma Rigby (Summer) and Johann Urb (Cole) was fantastic. The only weird part of watching it—for me— was Emma’s southern accent. She is British, and I felt like she struggled the whole time trying to be American and southern. Her voice just sounded weird to me.
This movie is definitely NSFW and is listed as a 5 on the BON for a reason!
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Afterburn/Aftershock
That’s some sexy smoulder
This movie is adapted from Sylvia Day’s novel about Gia Rossi and Jax Rutledge. Gia has a big Italian family, with the brothers you imagine in a large Italian family. She’s a big part of running the family’s restaurant, until she gets a job with some kind of restaurant mogul. I honestly have no idea what her job is—the movie doesn’t make that very clear. She and Jax had some kind of hot and heavy relationship a few years back, but he ghosted her and she hasn’t heard from him since. She sees him again as she is trying to close a deal and he comes in as the head of a venture capital firm. His family is very politically involved, and Jax tells her his father and their life in the limelight is something he was trying to protect her from when they were together the first time. I really couldn’t connect the dots on how these two got together in the first place, or why she would immediately go back to being with him again. Caitlin Leahy and Tyler Johnson are the leads, and I didn’t really feel their connection in the movie. His terrible hair distracted me while watching. (Yes…we’ve gotten flack for griping about a certain someone’s hair before, but he was supposed to be a clean-cut businessman and always had really messy hair. It just annoyed me!) This just isn’t the movie for me – it’s like a Hallmark movie with a little extra romance, but also more contention between the main characters.
Passionflix rates it a 4 on their BON.
My rating: 2 out of 5 stars
The Trouble with Mistletoe
Christmas romances are some of the best
I feel like I need to read this book, because I like the author, Jill Shalvis, and I want to see what happens with the secondary characters in subsequent books. This story is about Willa, who owns a pet grooming and boarding business, and Keane, who is a well-known real estate developer. One day Keane rushes into the pet shop with a pink pet carrier, and he needs to board his sick aunt’s cat for the day. He has no idea why Willa isn’t friendly to him, and then when he returns to get the cat after hours, he finds out it’s because he stood her up in high school. The chemistry between Rachel Melvin and Thomas Beaudoin is perfect in this movie! The storyline was simple, and of course the two leads fall in love after a little bit of strife. I don’t know how to describe the feel of this movie, except to compare it to a beach read-type of book. It was short and sweet, with no filler, and it tied everything up with a nice bow. I really like this movie—it is my second favorite of the four originals that Passionflix currently has.
Passionflix rated it a 3, but I’d almost call it a 2.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
The Matchmaker’s Playbook
I’d hire him!
This movie is adapted from a book by Rachel van Dyken, and it is definitely my favorite of the Passionflix original movies! Ian Hunter is the co-owner of a secret dating service on a college campus called Wingmen, Inc. that helps people who are having a hard time finding “the one.” Ian and his partner Lex are essentially lifestyle coaches who tell people what to change and how to act to get their love interests to pay attention to them. Their number one rule is “don’t fall for a client.” Rules-schmules…we all know they are made to be broken! Blake Olson is a volleyball player for the college, and she hires them to help turn her into a desirable love object for her crush. The two leads—played by Nick Bateman and Caitlin Carver—are nothing short of HOT on screen! I think the only thing that didn’t work for me in this movie was that they made Blake into a super frumpy girl, and I get that that was the point, but it seemed a bit overboard. Do people still wear scrunchies? I want to see more of these two – preferably in sex scenes. They do show Nick’s very nice backside towards the beginning of the movie though—swoon. (Tyler Johnson of the messy hair from Afterburn/Aftershock plays Lex.)
Passionflix rated it a 2, which I guess fits, but the kissing scenes were great. I would have liked to see a 5+ on this one…Nick Bateman is a good-looking man!
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
One of my favorite things about Passionflix is that it is a woman-centered business, co-founded by Tosca Musk, Jina Panebianco and Jony Kane, and they bring strong female characters to life using women directors. I am excited to see the rest of the books they turn into movies! (As long as they fix that guy’s hair…)
Boss ladies at Passionflix
All photos courtesy of Passionflix
