The Foxlight: Sex and the Cinema

NEW YORK – Joel Siegel from ABC staggered out of the theater feeling like he was punched over and over again. And he liked it.

The New York Post calls it a film easier to respect than to like. And then there's the Hollywood Reporter: "A brutally cold movie, where the characters invite our disgust and love feels like a brittle four-letter word."

Remember when sex was fun? Not with a film called "Closer." (search)

Filmcritic.com says watching this all-star ensemble with Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman is "like watching a terrible train wreck in excruciatingly slow motion." Uh, he didn't like it. Portman says she went to strip clubs to research her role as a stripper. Law jokes he and Clive Owen did similar research for their cybersex scene — where they write graphic stuff to each other in a chat room. Law's character is pretending to be a woman and Owen's character takes the hot chat very seriously.

And that's the light scene, folks. Opening in only 476 theaters, boxofficeguru.com says it will make around $5 million this weekend. It needs good word of mouth to lure audiences and Oscar voters. But the language may turn off both.

Also opening in additional theaters Friday — the sex study about the man who studied sex —"Kinsey." (search)

Another film that doesn't have all that much fun with the subject. Though there is Oscar chat for star Liam Neeson as the controversial scientist who just wants to talk dirty with the American public and learn about what makes us tick under the sheets.

The straightforward biopic has been called outstanding but cold, and not all that sexy. Boxofficemojo.com says the film has already made around $3 million in limited release. But at two hours and four minutes, it might be too much foreplay and no big finish.

Will sex sell at the Oscars this year? Howard Hughes had a lot of famous dalliances, but "The Aviator" (search) doesn't open for a few more days.