Bound

Plot synopsis:
Michelle Mulan (Charisma Carpenter) is a 40-year-old real estate broker who has recently been promoted as a chairperson to a failing firm, even though she is fully qualified, she had only been promoted because of her father Walter's (Daniel Baldwin), status as chairman. While other chairmen want to sell the firm, she sees more advantage in merging with a larger company. Despite having a boyfriend, George (Mark McClain Wilson), Michelle does cheat on him to satiate her sexual desires.Also a single mother, Michelle struggles to get her troubled teenage daughter, Dara (Morgan Obenreder), on the right track and takes her to a dinner. There, a man at years 15 years her junior becomes enamored with her. After dropping Dara off at home, Michelle goes back to the restaurant and finds the man who introduces himself as Ryan (Bryce Draper), who tries to seduce her. Michelle manages to ward him off.Still taking his phone number, Michelle initially decides not to meet him, but after getting a meeting enabling the merger, decides to do so. After rejecting a marriage proposal from George, Michelle goes out with Ryan. On their date, he takes her back to his loft introduces her to the world of B&D and S&M after which Michelle cheats on George with Ryan. After breaking up with George, Michelle begins to date Ryan and easily gives in to his dominating personality.Falling in love, Michelle begins to call Ryan her 'master' and refers to herself as a 'messy whore'. At a benefit dinner, Ryan begins to insult Michelle's client and operate a vibrator egg she is wearing while she is with the client. Despite this, she manages to get the client to consider a merger. While trying to get Dara on the right track, Michelle also decides to learn more about being dominated and very quickly finds that she enjoys submitting to Ryan's will.After learning that Ryan served time in prison for auto thief from her father, Michelle continues to try and negotiate a deal with the client to save the firm. Michelle refuses to continue seeing Ryan and gives herself in to him completely while also learning more and more about the submissive lifestyle. Along the way, however, she also learns how to become a dominant. She begins to frequent the S&M bondage club that Ryan frequents and partakes in the "action" at the club.Unknown to her, Ryan also seduced Dara and made her a submissive. Michelle comes home from the bondage club one evening and sees Ryan having sex with a tied-up Dara in Michelle's own bed. Seeing this, she finally overthrows Ryan's bonds and uses her new-found sexual prowess to take control of her life. She throws Ryan off her daughter and out of her house. Michelle then apologizes to Dara for not being there for her.The next day, Michelle is assaulted by Ryan outside of her office building, but manages to use a camera to knock him unconscious. She proceeds to take him to a private dungeon in an abandoned garage and bind him, turning him into the submissive. After torturing Ryan, Michelle turns him over to the police for having sex with her underage daughter.In the final scenes, with her newfound confidence, Michelle seals the deal with her firm, impressing Walter. Then, Michelle uses her sexual powers against her client.... while also making him her submissive.

Tags: pornographic

Review:
Cordelia with boandage.
This is a lame attempt to make a low budget 50 shades of Grey.But all it does, is remind you of those god awful movies,those so called erotic thrillers, that came in the wake of basic instinct's success, but was really just glorified softcore porn.
But the difference is those were made with younger former scream queens,B-C movie actresses who weren't afraid to go full frontal.
Something charisma doesn't seem willing to do.
Which would be fine,if she didn't accept scripts that would need full frontal for her role to work,or at get some attention.
The producers seem to hope that Charismas tits are gonna save this movie,which they can't.
the script is to boring and her character uninteresting.
Who ever directed this should be shot,or go back to film school.When Charisma undresses,they focus on her face.And I mean REALLY focus on her face.They zoom so close you can see the wrinkles around the eyes.
The story is lame and Charisma can't manage to show an emotion to anything that happens around here.
Sadly her face seem to only have 2 expression, pleasure and anger.Those are the only two emotions she manage to express fully,with her face.I'm pretty sure her phone hasn't been ringing off the hook since she left Buffy and Angel,but this is just sad..
Think Lifetime Network movie standards ...
with snippets of nudity.
IMDb readers of the present and future may well look at the low rating --2 -- and think that this reviewer is perhaps being harsh...?
However, in fairness, I will note that, if you take the time to research the IMDb reviews of other productions where Jared Cohn has acted as both writer and director, you will discover even lower ratings than that number associated with his work.The story deals with the "older" daughter of a successful businessman who gets involved with a sexual partner who attempts to bring out aspects of her sexuality (BDSM) with which she, presumably, was not already familiar.Brought to you by the same team that gave you BIKINI SPRING BREAK (among others) and starring the irrepressible Daniel Baldwin (whom, one reviewer noted, seemed to be reading his lines off cue cards he had never seen before), the most interesting thing about the film is the casting of Charisma Carpenter in the lead.For those visiting from another planet, TV is the 90s was dominated by the emergence of a young auteur named Joss Whedon (yes, the same Joss Whedon who gave new life to the Marvel library in his Avengers I script).Whedon, by the end of that decade, had not one but two breakout hits on his hands, each handled by a different network -- (Buffy and Angel)-- and each prominently featured Capenter.In other words, you could not miss her even if you wanted to.
And no one wanted to.
She was perky, fun, gorgeous, and memorable.The prevailing view is that Carpenter's career since those days has been somewhat problematic, and an argument can be made that this effort is yet another attempt to recapture her glory days and reconnect with former fans.As for the production itself, it features the standard levels of quality that Cohn and his company, Asylum, are known for -- perfectly lit sets starring exceptionally good looking people in static (low movement) environments with lots of head and shoulders framing.Where the director wants the audience to really "get" that something important is happening on-screen, he will attempt to do this via a change in the lighting, as opposed to the more traditional ways (such as through the dialog or the acting).That technique, in real life, is just as effective as it sounds.Really and truly, for Carpenter fans only..
A Retro Taste of 90's Cable After Dark Erotic Movies.
With all the hype over Fifty Shades of Gray, it's only natural that there would be several copycat type films tossed out to make a buck off of that market base.
However, fans of 1990's late night erotic television can tell you that Fifty Shades is nothing new or in my opinion, all that great.
Erotic-psychological fare has long been a staple of HBO and Showtime's After Dark rotation, with actresses such as Shannon Whirry, Julie Strain and Shannon Tweed kicking teenage males hormones into overdrive.Bound, starring Charisma Carpenter (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel) is more in that HBO-Showtime mode than the Fifty Shades of Gray mode.
In fact, it's not that bad a film, thanks in large part to the writers deciding to actually place a plot into the movie instead of depending on the sexual nature of the movie to draw viewers.
But don't get me wrong, there is a definite erotic flavor to this film and the delectable and capable Charisma Carpenter looks most appealing dressed and undressed as the story's hero.Carpenter, known for playing the bossy, assertive prom queen Cordelia Chase in the Buffy-Angel television series displays impressive range as Michelle Mulan, a mundane business woman simply dredging through her comfortable, orderly life which consists of her boyfriend, George (Mark McClain Wilson) who is a bore (in and out of the bedroom) and Dara(Morgan Obenreder), her whip of a teenage daughter who she has no control over.
Michelle works at her father's (William Baldwin) real estate brokerage firm, which is on the verge of bankruptcy.
Michelle however, believes that the firm can be saved via a merger.
Unfortunately, the all-male board view mousy Michelle as nothing more than "daddy's little girl" and her advice and plans for a merger fall on deaf ears.
She is even insulted by one of the board members in front of her father, but lacks the fortitude to defend herself and her ideas.While having dinner at a restaurant with Dara, Michelle finds herself attracted to a handsome, yet shadowy man at the bar.
After leaving the restaurant, she receives a call that she forgot to sign the credit card receipt.
She returns to the restaurant where she encounters the man at the bar whose name she finds out is Ryan.
Unsure of herself, yet helplessly intrigued, Michelle begins to fall under Ryan's Svengali-like charms.
Eventually, he takes her completely out of her orderly world and has her smoking joints, drinking during the day and having a sexual rendezvous' in her father's office at the firm.
But that's just the beginning.
Ryan takes her to a secret S&M club.
Michelle becomes intoxicated by her surroundings, fearful, but very much aroused.
Soon she finds herself as Ryan's sex slave, submitting to his darkest desires.Initially, Michelle is excited and intrigued about this new stage developing in her life.
However, she soon finds out the truth about Ryan, and the high price that comes with his erotic influence, one that put both her family and career in danger.The film works because it allows Michelle's character's arch to play out fully.
Carpenter is convincing as the woman with everything, but nothing.
She is smart, but vulnerable, beautiful but filled with self-doubt.
When she begins to lose many of her sexual inhibitions, it is wonderfully shown through Michelle's slow, but effective grasp on a woman with an identity crisis who gradually learns who she is and what she really wants.
Carpenter's transformation at the end is believable as the writers give us a reason (her daughter, her career) why she makes the 180-degree turn and is able to stand up against Ryan and his manipulative ways.
Director and writer Jared Cohn does a good job of allowing Carpenter's subtle reactions to her new world to play out.
He doesn't try and force-feed us her transformation, instead we see Carpenter debating her choices and then agonizing over her mistakes in a believable manner that leads to a satisfactory end.The film is visually stimulating, and the S&M scenes come off as both erotic as well as tasteful.
Cinematographer Laura Beth Love gives the viewer a rich variety of colors and angles which move the story along, never lingering long enough to create an uncomfortable feeling over the erotic scenes.
Carpenter is also filmed beautifully as we see her more dowdy early in the film, and as she gains back control of her life, her appearance softens and becomes more powerful.If the first erotic thriller you have ever watched was Fifty Shades of Gray, this film might go over your head.
However, for fans of the old HBO-Showtime, After Dark films, this is a well-directed, well acted and beautifully filmed movie that is worth a couple of hours..
Cheap Mockbuster of "50 Shades" with 45 year old star.
There are two reasons people might see this film.1.They are longtime fans of Charisma Carpenter.
2.They want some softcore porn.Chances are a lot of them are looking for both.This is nothing more than a cheaply made direct to video rip off of "50 Shades of Grey", what is known as a "Mockbuster" where producers rip off the plot and characters from a successful film and create a cheap fast version to profit from.Besides being terribly written, directed and acted, it's a sad fact that age 45 (at the time of filming) Ms. Carpenter's sexual wiles are not exactly holding up.The result is a middle aged woman trying to play the young sexpot, and it's somewhat uncomfortable to watch.I'm not sure what kind of age they were attempting to make her character, but since Daniel Baldwin plays her father and is only 10 years older than her in real life, that added an additional pathetic element to the whole debacle.If you want to see Charisma Carpenter topless, do a google image search and save yourself from enduring this dreck..
Don't Let the Naysayers Talk You Out of Seeing Bound.
Michelle (Charisma Carpenter) is a harried real estate agent with a lousy sex life.
When she's attracted to a sexy stranger into BDSM, Ryan (Bryce Draper), she finds her sexual fulfillment is dangerously imperiling her job and her father's (Daniel Baldwin) company...I just picked up Bound out of idle curiosity.
When I decided to do a little research about the company that produced this film, The Asylum, I was rather perturbed that they specialize in a specialized sort of copycat films called knockoffs called "mockbusters".Imagine my surprise when this movie, a "mock" of Fifty Shades of Gray, showed not only a titillating amount of skin (mostly Ms. Carpenter's) but some semblance of an actual PLOT (with a lovely denouement) and some very earnest acting!
I believe that by keeping my expectations low, I was pleasantly surprise by how good this effective a film actually is.
By all means, if you're looking for a little erotic movie to watch one evening with someone, I'd highly recommend Bound.I'd give this movie **1/2 stars on Leonard Maltin's **** scale.
Not to be compared to 50 shades.
Many of the previous reviewers have compared this movie with 50 Shades of Grey and it shouldn't be.
While it has some things in common with that movie, it is a completely different story.
This is the story of a woman who all her life has done exactly what is expected of her.
But after being introduced to BDSM, she finds that it helps her to become a stronger person..
50 shades of awful.
This was just about as bad as it gets for a BDSM related movie.
I'm not sure how the script or the director got this in front of a camera but they are better salesman than they are movie makers.Producers of these types of films, including those from 50 shades, really need to get to understand the BDSM lifestyle a little more.
They make a complete mockery of the experience and get lost in the whole whips and chains of it all.
They have the ability to create something more erotic and powerful than any movie ever made but turn it into steaming piles of whatever this movie was.Lastly, as a BDSM enthusiast, I thought the portrayal of the main male character was pathetic.
Turning him into an abusive statutory rapist?, well done.
You managed to make the movie's plot match the performance of its 'actors'.The 1 star is for Charisma Carpenters looks alone..
50 Shades of Hype Answered with Action Movie.
So much Cinema is Psychotherapy ~ especially in America, where the puritan streak meets with capitalism every nanosecond, where the human stain of sexism and racism runs through every frame.
Let's face it folks, this is a comic book/look at the zillions spent on promoting the utter dross that is 50 shades ( yes, they are doing 50 Shades 2 ~ the marketing masterpiece ).I needed a little light relief and as a big fan of Charisma Carpenter from the Buffy/Angel years, I was willing to spend $1.95 Australian ~ American cousins can 'do the math', to have a look at her as she is now.
Cordelia was always a sexpot, so it makes sense for grown up 'Cordy' to be revisited.I laughed, did not take it seriously and was as pleased as punch when Supermichelle got to sock it to the villain of the piece.
Some message board mentioned 'Venus in Furs' ~ an admirable compare & contrast study.
If anyone is really interested ~ do a triple feature, in any order, of this title, 50 Shades & Roman Polanski's ' Venus in Fur'.
Then write a short poem, thesis, review or what you will..
PRIDE COMES BEFORE A FALL.
This appears to be the Asylum knock-off of the film "Addicted" which wasn't much better.
Michelle (Charisma Carpenter) is the CFO of her dad's (Daniel Baldwin) real estate investment firm.
The company is a sinking ship and the board wants to sell.
Michelle thinks they can merger, but has to put together a plan.
Michelle is too engrossed in her sex life with Ryan Black (Bryce Draper) a drug dealer and car thief.
He is into bondage and Michelle becomes "bound" to him and sex.
Hence the clever title.
She also has a daughter (Morgan Obenreder) who is ready for college.This is a great film for fans of soft core porno and Charisma Carpenter.
The plot was stagnant and the action centered around sex.
The acting and dialogue were soft core quality, i.e. not good.
Dad gives his daughter sage advice, "Your professional life should never involve a condom." It was so sad at times, it was funny.Guide: F-bomb, sex, nudity (Charisma Carpenter + background girls)