Fantasies (1981) User Reviews

Worthless as a film, but has some value as a love poem to Bo Derek

[gridoon2024 · 3/10 · 22 January 2008]

There are exactly 2 good things to be said about "Fantasies" (both mentioned by a previous reviewer as well):

a) Bo Derek's extraordinary, poetry-inspiring beauty. She has shots in this movie where she gives even Catherine Zeta-Jones a run for her money, and that's a high compliment indeed. Her nudity is brief and discreet, but just looking at her face is enough.

b) The Greek island setting, with its sun and crystal-clear blue waters.

Other than that, there is no story, the dialogue is abysmal and at times unintentionally funny ("He touched you where you're a woman!"), and Peter Hooten's character is a slimy jerk. Bo overplays the naivete of her character, but then again when you have to work with dialogue this bad it's unfair to blame the actors (the fact that she kept saying the name "Damir" in almost every sentence is a major irritation). Oh, and although the film is set on a Greek island, there is hardly a Greek word to be heard - apparently everyone there, from kids to old people, speaks English the whole time. (*)

A movie with no sense

[sauravjoshi85 · 2/10 · 5 January 2019]

This movie is probably a love story or drama or fantasy or a something difficult to digest. Worst storyline, pathetic acting except Bo Derek who has done a good job as a 15 year old adolescent. Prefer sleep rather then this movie

Inspired the Razzies

[warrenpopcorns · 3/10 · 4 April 2004]

Reasons to watch the movie:

1) Bo Derek at 16 looks good and occasionally gets naked. She does a pretty good job playing an immature, insecure 16 year old beauty, in fact

2) Many shots of a pretty Greek island

But:

1) Peter Hooten turns in the worst performance by an actor since Brutus played Caeser's friend in "Roman Senate Proceedings of March 15." He delivers each and every line in a delightful baritone bellow. Turn down the volume whenever he speaks. Preferably all the way down

2) Bo's fantasies are sadly tame, especially by today's standards. A few turns in the bath and as a fully clothed model

3) The plot is skimpier than Bo's costumes

Should have been thrown into a lake of molten lava, Damir

[augustian · 1/10 · 17 September 2010]

This film was left on the shelf for eight years after it was made but even that was too good for it. It took me four attempts before I finally managed to reach the end; I had to watch it in small doses. If you thought your life was humdrum, then watching this in one sitting will make you put a gun to your head. To be honest I only got this for a view of a young Bo Derek - why else would anyone watch a film with Bo Derek in it called Fantasies? She does get topless a couple of times but from there it is downhill all the way.

Apart from the inane and boring dialogue, the most annoying thing was that nearly every sentence uttered by Anastasia (Bo Derek) either began or ended with "Damir" (Peter Hooten); I am a woman, Damir; What shall we do, Damir? Tell me your secret, Damir; etc. Peter Hooten's voice was clearly dubbed but the voice chosen seemed to be that of a much older man. It did not suit him at all. The acting was almost robotic with not a hint of any genuine emotion from any of the cast, except grandfather (or godfather) who, with a leer on his face and glinting eyes, rips off Anastasia's dress to find out if she has become a woman. Now, I would have thought that granddaddy ripping off granddaughter's clothes was highly questionable behaviour but perhaps they do things differently in Greece.

Bo Derek's Anastasia comes across as a dull and simpering doormat of a woman who tries to break away when a fashion photographer enters the scene but is put down by the dominating Damir. An insight into his ways is shown when he forcibly scrubs makeup from Anastasia's face, and then wants her to cook dinner - a wife-batterer in the making perhaps.

In case your are wondering what the fantasies of the film are, Damir wants to renovate his hotel to attract tourist ships, and Anastasia wants a large bathtub - it really is that boring. There are a few glimpses of Athens and Mykonos where the film was made but that's about as good as it gets. It really was hard work watching this and so I have given it a more than generous 1 star.

Quite a Perverted Family

[Michael_Elliott · 1 February 2013]

Fantasies (1981)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

This was originally shot in 1973 when Bo Derek, then going by her original name, was 16-years-old and involved with director, writer and cinematographer John Derek. Needless to say, due to the subject matter this film wasn't released until 1981 after Bo had become a sex symbol with 10. In the film, she plays a young girl who begins to wonder about her changing body as well as her growing feelings for her older step brother (Peter Hooten). That's pretty much the story of this pretty bland romantic-drama that manages to be quite boring throughout the so-called controversial subject matter. It needs to be said that the young Derek has several nude scenes here, which is why the film couldn't find an original release and it's also going to be a reason why most people are going to want to stay away from this thing. I'll let one's own moral stance on the nudity decide whether they want to go any further with the film. The entire film has an extremely cheap feel to it and I really do have to wonder what John Derek was trying to do. I'm sure it was show off his young lover but it looks like he would have hired someone else to do the writing because his screenplay is quite horrid, is all over the place and it never really makes much sense. The love story is handled in a tender way but it just never comes to life. The entire subplot dealing with the hotel on the island is just bland. The film has some memorable Greek locations but these here aren't enough to make the thing worth sitting through. Hooten offers up a downright awful performance and the supporting cast isn't much better. Bo actually isn't too bad here and I'd argue that the performance here is much better than the stuff from her popular period. The film itself is pretty bad and not worth viewing except for those who want to see a young Bo. Or, if you want to see a scene where her grandfather pulls her shirt up to see how she's growing. Yeah, it's like that.

Extraordinary, but not in a good way

[trowles · 1/10 · 16 October 2006]

I saw this movie way back at the first theatrical release, in a justifiably empty theater. Believe it or not, after decades of watching movies, this one still sticks clearly in my mind as the worst movie of all time; or at least the worst that I would allow myself to watch.

The acting is far beneath the standard set by any random group of drunken high-school students yanked off the street and forced to learn their lines in 5 minutes or less.

After the first shock of disbelief, we laughed for a while as each scene hit new lows. But after a while, even that dubious pleasure wore off and it just got to be really sad.

FANTASIES (John Derek, 1981; shot 1973) BOMB

[Bunuel1976 · 1/10 · 9 February 2008]

Bo Derek's debut film remained unseen for eight years – and that's how it should stayed! John Derek was a competent actor but, as a director, he's virtually the Ed Wood of erotic cinema – not that this is especially explicit, considering that Bo (atypically sporting dark hair) was only 16 when the film was made! John also wrote and photographed it; the latter results in some decent footage of the Greek island setting against which the narrative is set – but the plotting is puerile and the dialogue atrocious!

The character played by male lead Peter Hooten has been brought up with Bo's family: they grew up as brother and sister but, now in their teens, the couple discover they're attracted to one another (but, as I said, don't expect any sexual fireworks!). Still, the worst thing about this is the fact that the protagonists each harbor an obsession all through the film which are not only silly in themselves but irritating in their relentlessness – Hooten wants to turn the remote fishing community into a modernized sea-side resort and keeps expecting a cruise-liner to appear into view (which, of course, it does at the finale); Derek's is even nuttier – she craves possession of a large antique bath-tub!! For the record, the couple are married by the end of the film.

Also involved in the non-events are the female town mayor and a photographer lothario who wants to make a model out of Bo (and who, naturally, incurs the wrath of the jealous Hooten). Occasionally, for no very good reason, we're even treated to snippets from the screening of old Hollywood classics in an open-air movie house to which the whole town assembles (among the titles shown is THE PUBLIC ENEMY [1931])! At the end of the day, while Bo's naivete throughout is undeniably charming, it's not enough to offset the film's overwhelming dullness and amateurishness.

Painful

[blumdeluxe · 1/10 · 18 April 2017]

"Fantasies" is probably ought to tell a tale of love and (even more) erotic. While some measures are taken to achieve this, the big deficits of the film prevent almost every last bit of excitement.

The biggest problem of this movie are in my opinion the dialogues. I have never in my entire life (and I'm not exaggerating) seen such bad dialogues. Most of the time it feels like two really dumb three-year old children are talking to each other. When the big hero and captain of this whole island has the social and rhetoric skills of a wooden cupboard I doubt that they'll go places. Though the acting might be a bit better than those dialogues, it is surely also not good enough to make up for them.

A second problematic thing is the plot itself. I'm sure there's some potential in the story of two children who grew up together and one day notice they've become adult and lovers. But then it would have been helpful to get some more insight into the characters, maybe slow down the film a bit and make it more sinister.

The connection of all these elements create a movie painful to watch. It's not really boring but you're always on the edge of wondering if this is supposed to be a serious dialogue. All in all a movie you can skip and save 1.5 hours of your life for better things.

Arty and dull

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 9 March 2017]

FANTASIES is an arty and dull would-be erotic romance starring the then-hot Bo Derek in the leading role. She plays a young girl who develops feeling for her own brother, played by the laughably non-handsome Peter Hooten who looks like he's wearing a curly fright wig. There are plot twists in store. Romantic scenes between the two are accompanied by annoyingly twee music.

This is a slow and unappetising product that tries very hard to be erotic but constantly fails to achieve anything. The scenes are long and dragged out and the film's exploitational and sexual aspects are far tamer than you'd expect. I thought this would be an EMMANUELLE-style movie but instead it feels much like an art-house romance. The Greek travelogue locations are nice but everything else about this one has dated.

Dumb and Damir

[hollywoodshack · 3/10 · 23 September 2020]

I have to forewarn you I haven't seen all this movie on video release yet, but did happen to watch it a long time ago at the movies. Anastasia and Damir carry out a shipboard and island romance in a poor retread of Taming of the Shrew. A lot of distracting time fillers can produce sleep too fast, like when Anastasia (Miss Derek) poses for a photographer in fancy clothes, making Damir jealous again. Peter Hooten has a terrible dubbed sounding voice. Even though this was an American production, it did get released in other countries first.

Fantasies Schmantasies

[tracywinters-44332 · 2/10 · 18 February 2016]

Another Derek Dud.

Set in Greece, Bo (sporting a brunette look) has a half-brother who is either sleeping with her or not sleeping with her. A local uncle either knows or doesn't know - he certainly doesn't care. It's hard to tell what's going on as it always is when John Derek directs a movie. His script typically stinks and the direction (if you can call it that) is equally convoluted. The brother-sister dumb duo gets the idea to turn an island into a holiday resort. The results are lame.

Lots of dubbing and sub-par acting sink this one to the bottom of the Mediterranean.

Attractive 'coming-of-age' film

[Tracy_Terry_Moore · 10/10 · 20 November 2008]

John Derek directed Bo, his soon to-be wife, in Greece and the result is a very beautiful film.

Bo is 'Anastasia', a 16-year old girl who begins to have feelings for her step-brother, though she is confused causing her to seek the advise of her aunt and her grandfather. Anastasia must decide if she is in love enough to marry and continue living with her step-brother in a different way.

The island scenery is pretty and John Derek directs with sensitivity. Filmed in 1973 as 'And Once Upon a Love', but released 8 years later as 'Fantasies' after Bo's success in '10'.

An early Bo Derek film

[movieking2029 · 6/10 · 6 August 2001]

As for fans of the magnificent Bo Derek like me, this is a good addition to the your collection. She looks very fresh and naive in this movie. She plays the role of an innocent little girl. But she soon finds a way to satisfy her sexual desires. Check it out.

A Dereks home movie

[lor_ · 8 January 2023]

My review was written in November 1981 after a Times Square screening: Filmed in Greece in 1973 as "And Once Upon a Time", this "Fantasies" is the belated release of John and Bo Derek's first collaboration, a modern romantic fable of unbearable naivete. Inane script and absence of sex scenes in this travelog will alienate the team's current fans.

Unworkable premise has young captain Damir (Peter Hooten) and his sister Anastasia (Bo Derek) returning to their Greek island home to mobilize the peasant population to refurbishing the place as a popular tourist trap. Opening reels present a sex tease of incest as Anastasia becomes aware (at 16!) she is a woman and so does her brother. However, the wise local femme mayor (Anna Alexiadis) informs us they were foundlings up separate families brought up as brother and sister, causing fear of incest to switch to sparring romance.

Amidst boring footage of the island, sea and the peasants, emerges the picture's howler of a subplot. It turns out that "Fantasies" is actually a story of Anastasia's bathing habits! In her first scene she fantasizes bathing in a tub in a store window and then complains for several reels to Damir about bathing in the ocean, an activity he revels in. Latter half of the pic has him secretly digging up a huge stone artifact among the ruins, and incredibly, at film's finale he marries her in front of the populace and presents her with the artifact, an ancient bathtub. As their hands embrace during the ceremony, lenser John Derek racks the focus to reveal a vast ship full of tourists arriving in the harbor, ready to be fleeced.

This silly exercise looks and plays eight years later about the same as the duo's eight years after "Tarzan, the Ape Man" -hundreds of adoring closeups of Bo looking innocent, usually with a finger in her mouth; inane baby-talk dialog; silhouetted posing of characters against landscapes; and even stuttering slow-motion photography. Derek even writes in an irrelevant role of a still photographer visiting the island, so he can present an endless montage of Bo posing in various costumes.

Other than some fleeting nudity, there's not much to exploit here. Bo Derek at age 16 is a beauty, differing from her later incarnations mainly in her dark brown tresses, and offering no hint of acting ability. Peter Hooten is overbearing as her protector, with post-synched dialog, neutralizing the effect of the Greek supporting cast. Despite some pleasant folk motifs, the music score is old-fashioned, sporting repeated ballads voiced over lyrical sequences in the '60s manner.

Title "Fantasies" is a misnomer, as only a couple of meek daydreams are included. All told, a curio somewhere between a home movie and professional filmmaking.