Starring: Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson

Running time: One hour and 45 minutes

Directed by: Michael Winterbottom

As expected, The Killer Inside Me -- the film where beautiful Jessica Alba is slapped around and beaten -- is a disappointment. But the reasons it disappoints may not be the ones you expected.

To begin with, don't blame Alba. Her acting in this film is solid, and when it comes to the key GIMP moments where she is slapped and punched, she delivers.

Nor is the film's level of violence an issue. Yes, the movie is rough, but anyone who has sat through films such as Irreversible and The Girl Next Door will have no problem getting through this one. I would say the chatter about the violence in this film was unnecessarily hysterical and misleading.

Basically, the film fails because the key scene -- the part where the villain is slapping Jessica's face -- is too brief. It quickly transitions from the slaps -- which are arousing -- to Jessica's face getting beaten, which isn't. If Jessica had been slapped around some more before her face becomes a punching bag, this movie would have received a much higher grade. As for the rest of the GIMP moments, they're nothing special.

The story is set in a small Texas town in the 1950s, in what's supposed to be typical Bumfuck, U.S.A. -- the type of place where people think yous is plural for "you," and the marquee at the local strip joint advertises "Girl, Girl, Girl." Actually, the movie does a good job of capturing the era and locale, even if the central character (who also narrates) sounds a bit too much like "Earl" from My Name is Earl and the Alba character is much too pretty for a hick-town ho.

The central character, Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford (played by Casey Affleck), is sent to the home of hooker Joyce Lakeland (Alba) to tell her to leave town. She doesn't take the news well, and starts slapping Lou's face. Well, that just brings out the deputy's inner Ralphus. He grabs Joyce and hoists her under his arm, carrying her to her bedroom, and planting Joyce on the bed. Lou moves Joyce onto her stomach and gets on top of her. He pulls down her shorts and panties (you don't really see that moment) and starts harshly whipping her bare ass (a body double, I assume), as Joyce cries in pain. I thought it was pretty intense, as seen here -- probably better than expected, although it wasn't really my thing.

When it ends, Lou feels he should apologize, but he then discovers -- as Seinfeld might say -- that she's into it. They proceed to fuck (with Joyce still wearing her undershirt top).

The deputy and the hooker become lovers, and soon hatch a plot to blackmail a local big shot. However, Lou double-crosses the hooker, and comes up with his own plan -- to kill Joyce and the blackmail victim, so Lou can steal $500 from the $10,000 worth of blackmail money (perhaps this made more sense in the original novel). Lou and Joyce also spend a lot of time screwing, often with an emphasis on rough sex, and with Alba showing more skin than you might expect -- although the shots are always arranged so that you don't actually see her nipples. The best coupling is one where Alba is face-first on the bed and getting nailed, while the Affleck character has his belt tied around her neck. The Affleck character is pushing Alba's face into the pillow and pulling on the belt around her neck, and it's pretty hot, as consensual rough stuff goes (although Alba is wearing a bra in this scene).

Anyway, after the sex with the belt has ended, it's time for the blackmail payoff. After they are dressed, Lou slips on some gloves and explains to the hooker that his plan is to have her and the blackmailed guy (who's about to show up at Joyce's house) both found dead. "Well, that doesn't make any sense," Joyce says. "How am I supposed to be dead?" Wrong question.

Lou gives Joyce a light slap to the face, followed by three more slaps. None of the slaps are really harsh, but most are good enough, in a degrading-the-victim sorta way. "Don't. I have to travel," Joyce says. Lou replies, "Baby, you aren't going anywhere. Understand?" He slaps her face again, then winds up and delivers three hard punches to her face. This is followed by a hard belly punch, which is kinda hot in its own right, and then a hard punch that sends Joyce flying against the wall.

With Joyce seated against the wall, Lou proceeds to pummel her face with his fist, ultimately leaving Joyce passed out, a bruised and battered mess. When the guy being blackmailed shows up, Lou shoots him dead, then places the gun in Joyce's hand.

That pretty much covers the GIMP moments. Later in the movie, Lou delivers a belly punch and some other shots to his girlfriend, played by Kate Hudson, and then kicks her until she is dead. Not particularly GIMP-worthy, in my view.

My grade: C

Seeing gorgeous Jessica Alba get slapped around, however briefly, is still worth a few points, in my book. And I liked the scene where Jessica gets dinked while the belt is tied around her neck and her face is being pushed into the pillow, even if it is consensual. So while The Killer Inside Me is disappointing, it still squeaks by with a passing grade.