Television Reviews : ‘Full Exposure’ Contains Everything Short of It

Watch out, cable TV.

NBC is trying to prove that it doesn’t need four letter-words or frontal nudity to make movies that are just as raunchy as those allowed on cable TV. Its latest evidence is “Full Exposure: The Sex Tapes Scandal” (9 p.m. Sunday, Channels 4, 36, 39).

The movie begins with the murder of a leather-clad call girl, who has diligently videotaped most of her jobs--and not because she’s doing an anthropology project. We get to see brief excerpts from the notorious tapes.

But the police can’t find the originals of the tapes. One especially hot tape is in the possession of . . . Vanessa Williams. Yes, the former Miss America, whose reign was interrupted by her own sex photos scandal, plays a sleazy friend of the slain prostitute.

The murder investigation leads to the set of a porno movie, to an upscale brothel, and between the sheets with the two principal investigators: a detective (Anthony Denison) and an assistant district attorney (Lisa Hartman), who gleefully mix business with pleasure. Director Noel Nosseck demonstrates a facility for staging soft-core sex scenes.

Meanwhile, more murders take place. So the assistant D.A. decides to give it her all and go undercover as a call girl.

Writer and co-producer Stephen Zito came up with an interesting narrative twist near the end. But generally the plot is fairly murky and virtually meaningless.

This movie is not about telling a story. It’s about selling sex and violence during a ratings “sweeps” period. It also manages to make its would-be female role model, the assistant D.A., look appallingly ditzy and unprofessional.

Parents should make sure their kids have something else to do Sunday night.

Frank von Zerneck and Robert M. Sertner were the executive producers.