Ehhh, it depends.
In romance films, the sex is oftentimes shown as a way of these characters culminating their emotions into something physically intimate after having established an intellectual, emotional, or physically bond. When done right, it feels like a pay off or reward for investing in the characters' relationship.
For action films, the name says it all. We're there to witness the actions take place. Oftentimes wanting to see how characters resolve situations and get in and out of scenarios using said actions. The sex is oftentimes there as a gratuity, since it usually doesn't serve a purpose other than titillation (except in Terminator's case, since it was a vital plot point and a payoff as well to the previously established story elements). We see the car chases because we need to know if someone lives or dies, the same with a fight scene. If it just cuts to the end then we're left asking "How did such and such die? Why is such and such still alive?" In an action film, the actions help explain what the outcome of the story will be.
This isn't to say sex scenes have no place in action films, in the same way that it isn't to say that action scenes have no place in dramas. It's all about context, execution, and whether the scenes are there to entertain, inform, or enlighten. If the sex scene isn't really entertaining, then maybe it's there to inform, or to enlighten (like in the film The Sessions). If it can't accomplish any of the three and doesn't really move the plot along, then it makes sense why it shouldn't appear.
Most sex scenes in 1980s action films were at least entertaining and the women were really hot back then, so it had a multi-fold payoff. A lot of chicks these days cast in Hollywood flicks aren't all that hot, and it's rare that many of them are worth seeing in the buff the way actresses were back in the day. Of course, this mostly applies to heterosexual sex scenes as Hollyweird has an agenda for going above par the Rainbow Reich
reply
share