|
|
 Studio: Cal Vista
Director: Philip Mond
Cast: Sasha Vinni, Gina Lamarca, Anna Romero, Grace Harlowe, Brooke Lane, Lene Hefner, Helena, Nikie St. Giles, Antonio Valentino, Kevin James, Drew Reese, Devin, and Jon
"You've got the scent, you've got the scent - the scent of love." - Not ABC
Portions of this review also appeared on Fleshbot
Like you, I was intrigued by the reissue of Philip Mond's classic 1990's porn Zazel - The Scent of Love because I wanted to see what vaginas looked like the year my cat was born. And when I saw the scene with the tiger I felt singularly validated in my curiosity.
Filmed in 1995 and first released in 1997, Zazel has been reissued in 2-disc collector's set that throws current couples' porns into harsh relief; it really is a slow burn movie that, by the end, demands that viewing couples go fuck now.
Fragrance designer Zazel (the gorgeous Sasha Vinni) sits sketching by her koi pond when she gets The Call: She has been approved to create her own eponymous perfume! Awesome!
 We soon see why Zazel is right for the job. "The scent of love?" she thinks. "What can it be? Where can it be found?"
The rest of the movie follows Zazel through her own journey of discovery in the realms of sex and scent. Painted nymphs appear as her muses. She realizes her perfume must have "the breath of heaven; the taste of sin."
 Don't get me wrong: Zazel shares with today's tolerated trophy porn auteurs the tendency to talk out its ass.
"Does the scent of love come from the heavens? The Earth? The wild orchid? The water lilly?"
"Angels from heaven descend into Pluto's realm and divulge their secrets with intoxicating rapture."
"Shiva: Goddess of Creation" (luckily Hindus don't undertake jihads.) But it is also beautifully shot and staged. No performer involved in realizing Mond's (and Zazel's) vision is anything short of beautiful (most are fleshy and toned Penthouse models of its pre-bankruptcy period) and each set piece is so creatively erotic that calling it porn - by today's standards - seems insufficient.
One example finds Zazel examining the vulva-like qualities of the picture of a flower in a book. Another does for tiger paint what the "Rio" video never could.
 It is safe to play this movie with the sound off as long as you keep in mind that "Zazel is doing work-related research." We never see the fruits of her R&D on the shelves, but then again, Hell-derived intoxicating rapture in a bottle is probably wicked expensive.
Labels: classic, metro, philip mond, sasha vinni
Read the Full Story
 Studio: VCX
Director: Satan
Cast: Desiree Cousteau, Dorothy Lemay, Serena, John Holmes, Joey Silvera, John Leslie, Jean Jennings, Tami Lee Curtis, Mary Ann Evans, Heather Ellis, Jamie Gillis
Like everyone working in the adult industry (and their mothers), I'm really into Satan. You have a Satan t-shirt, trading cards, bobblehead doll, some Satan rims, branded cereal, whatever, I'm all for it. Me and Satan, we go way back.
That is why I had to watch VCX' Sex Slaves of Satan. You figure, Satan has a choice in sex slave, so whomever he chooses must be pretty good.
The movie starts with a comfortable old groovy film strip/American International Pictures-style flute solo, letting us know we are either in for an exploitation movie or a driver's ed film.
Kathy defies her female handler and very soon she is put in stocks and ordered whipped by an evil doctor. With the speed at which she goes from patient to victim, I assume either a chunk of the opening was cut or this movie was always ripe for a William Goldman revision.
Similar is the transition from Kathy's post-whipping lesbo scene with her handler to a three-way with two dudes. Where did they come from? Who knows.
 I've only been watching porn since I got a job reviewing it, but I am reluctant to poke fun at porn bodies of the 70s and 80s with the standard hair quantity comments, but the sight of Kathy's furry blonde bush being eaten out at this point is distracting. Compared to today's super-smooth snatches, the hirsute parts of yesteryear seem like they present problems on the scale of de-boning a fish.
And the dicks don't seem as hard. We know now that that is because today's performers by and large take erection-strengthening agents, but it could be because the male talent didn't really believe in the script.
 Then the movie shifted to a bondage scene with the delicious Desiree Cousteau, though I couldn't figure out how it fit with the story.
It was then I realized that Sex Slaves of Satan was a compilation movie with nothing at all to do with Satan.
"These are the most extreme scenes in the history of XXX," claims the boxcover.
 Yes, there are some rape and bondage scenes, but no Prince of Darkness.
Three scenes into the movie, the discovery that this was a compilation and not a feature film with a cast of dozens was an adjustment, but then things began to make a little more sense.
 Then I began to realize that the good old days porn veterans talk about might have been fun off camera, but aside from history buffs and people eager to get another look at their first porn crushes (both of which groups are a significant part of the porn consumer base), this movie doesn't hold a candle to a current, vaguely-scripted gonzo release.
While the drugs many of the performers were on in this movie affected them differently than the drugs many of today's performers are on, there is nothing outstandingly golden about this selection of Golden Age clips; the music is murky, the lighting is dark and, save for some abusive language and the simulation of forced sex that wouldn't fit in today's porn milieu (although today's porn sex can be degrading in different ways), there are few remarkable elements.
 What is noteworthy is Cousteau, John Holmes in a few scenes, and the lack of surgical enhancements.
I'd argue that today's porn is better, but only better compared to this. Then as now, porn is just a flimsy canvas for viewers to project their own fantasies on, and nostalgia is a big part of that, which is why Sex Slaves of Satan, though notably devoid of Satan in the way today's MILFs are devoid of children, is a worthwhile movie to watch.
 Labels: classic, Desiree Cousteau, Dorothy Lemay, Heather Ellis, Jamie Gillis, Jean Jennings, Joey Silvera, John Holmes, John Leslie, Mary Ann Evans, minireview, Serena, Tami Lee Curtis
Read the Full Story
Flashpoint X
 Studio: Wicked, Adam & Eve
Director: Brad Armstrong
Cast: Jenna Jameson, Asia Carrera, Brittany Andrews, Jill Kelly, Johnni Black, Missy, Sindee Cox, Sydnee Steele
This marketing event of 2007 and consistent bestseller (or so we're told) was virtually overlooked by the AVN Awards when it was released in 1998. Why? Is it because its cast is so much more important to us now, but back then its hokieness was unforgivable?
We are in a coed firehouse with guys who look like fireman and women who look like Jenna Jameson and Jill Kelly. If director Brad Armstrong had pitched me this movie, I would have stopped him right there and dumped money on him.
After firefighter Robert Dunn is killed in the line of duty in Repo Man-adjacent L.A. we are treated to a blinding array of props, locations, and equipment rentals unprecedented in porn movie history. There are fire trucks, at least ten firefighter uniforms, a cemetery scene, and a helicopter (although that might have been a lucky shot), as well as real fire, which Pirates didn't even have.
Unfortunately there is also dialogue more appropriate to a film with a smaller budget.
At the memorial service: "I want to thank Robert Dunn. And the loss to his family."
At the gravesite: "Let it go."/"This isn't over - not by a long shot!"
In the aftermath: "I keep thinking that I signed on to make my dad happy. He's a 20-year veteran of the f- department."
Don't get me wrong; I love and respect porn as an art form and its historic need to get to the sex by any means necessary. But the promise inherent in a movie about a coed firehouse is almost squandered when smart people are made to say stupid things.
Luckily, back at the firehouse Jill Kelly and Sindee are commiserating with one of their co-workers. He tells them, of course, that if they keep complaining they might as well pack it in. It's tough love. Then they have sex. So powerful is the idea that if a man just comforts a woman in a time of sorrow she will have sex with him - and bring a friend - that I applaud the production for bringing this truth to film.
And then an interesting B story starts to develop about a fireman's secret injuries and painkiller dependence. He will not share the news with Jenna because she already ditched a gimpy fireman and he doesn't want it to happen to him. "The minute I can't carry my load," he tells snoopy Jill Kelly, "I'll pack it in."
It also develops that Jenna leaves injury in her wake; at least two people in her past are revealed to have been killed or handicapped. It compromises her work. Will she get it together by the end of the movie?
About this time we wonder how many more fire-related sex scenes we can have. A likely candidate - the grateful rescue - appears when Asia Carrera's friend almost drowns in their swimming pool. We think it's gonna happen, and then - Nope, the painkiller-addicted firefighter has a sexy dream. When in doubt about where the next sex scene is going to show up in your feature porn script, write a sexy dream. Then nothing has to make sense.
Luckily, two heroic firefighters return poolside to cavort with thankful Carrera and Sydnee Steele. Yet a third plot twist about Jenna's possible involvement in a string of arsons threatens to complicate matters, but then more sex happens.
It is a pleasure to watch such an ambitious project, the glamour project of its time,
featuring 1998's A-list porn talent. The dialogue keeps it solidly in the realm of porn movies, but "Flashpoint" is a excellent porn movie.
Now for the extras. "Flashpoint X" comes with three additional DVDs, including all the commentary you would like about this movie, storyboards, and lots of Jenna Jameson. Jameson and Wicked became famous together, so Jenna is all over the extra footage, and Jameson fans probably need no other impetus to purchase this package.
While this was a Wicked movie through and through, co-producing credit goes to Adam & Eve. As they did with Digital Playground's Pirates several years later, Adam & Eve split the bill for this mega-production. Flashpoint is just as good, if not better, than Pirates,and earns extra points for not calling itself "Crackdraft".
(This movie is not yet available with this site's sponsor.)Labels: "asia carrera", classic, jenna jameson, jill kelly, wicked
Read the Full Story
|
|
|
|
Studio: Cal Vista
