Adventures Of Buttman, The Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  5/1/2003

Running Time: 140 min. (the original release was 120 min.)

Production Date: 1989

Director: John “Buttman” Stagliano

Cast: Tianna, Tanya deVries, Heather Torrance, Champagne, Bionca, Sasha, Tacey Adams, Jamie Gillis, Mark deBruin, Tom Byron, Randy Spears, Rick Daniels, John “Buttman” Stagliano, and Mike Horner, Victoria Paris, and many others in non-sex roles

Initial Expectations: Sky high!!!!!!!!!

Initial Reaction: If this doesn’t win for best Classic DVD release this year, either something’s very wrong or it’s going to be one heck of a great year for porn fans!

Who Should Watch It : Gonzo porn fans

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody who wants your typical porno from the late eighties

Audio /Video Quality: The Adventures of Buttman looks and sounds better than most features released today, let alone other movies made almost fifteen years ago! The audio is clear, but occasionally a little out of balance. There’s a few background noises, but it all helps add to the reality aspect of the movie. The video is much the same way. There’s a little grain in some of the darker moments, which appear to be intentionally darker, but most of it is crystal clear and puts movies made in the last year to shame. The final scene has a couple remnants flash by and some pixelation that’s barely even noticeable, but for the age of the feature I can’t complain at all about it.

Music: The music has a fair amount of typical porn music, but also throws in a few other styles as well as some lyrics. It’s normally nicely balanced with the rest of the audio.

Disc Complaints: This isn’t a major complaint, but if you start the DVD and then leave the room to round up a few things, such as a lawn chair, rubber gloves, a couple toys, a 12 volt diesel battery, jumper cables, and some lube, you’ll probably return to find the DVD has stopped itself. I know that starting automatically after a certain amount of time has become common for some studios, but this is the first time I’ve watched one that stops itself this quickly. It’s a minor complaint, but something that did irk me a little (and I only left to get a glass of water and let the dogs out).

Menus: The main menu is fairly simple, but does have a little animation and a cheesy-yet-fun feel that fits the movie perfectly. As usual, the chapter menu lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene and the name of the lovely ladies in each scene.

The Feature: After forty movies, and a few under the Evil Angel banner, people started really noticing John Stagliano behind the camera with The Adventures of Buttman, and a legend was born. As Buttman, the lovable cameraman who was drawn to women’s asses, John started to satisfy every butt-lovers desire as well as basically inventing the gonzo genre. Where ever Buttman goes, his camera seems to come with, and it gets him in trouble almost as much as it helps him get lucky.

After getting he gets mugged while following streetwalker Tianna, Jamie Gillis gets a little sympathy from her. She lets him examine her a little with his tongue in the alley, and then head back to her place when the mugger doesn’t know when to stay down. After a little discussion about her rates, Tianna lets Jamie tongue her ass and teases him while he jerks off below him. They trash talk back and forth as Tianna teases Jamie and rides his tongue, and keep it up as Jamie has her work on her ass with a few toys on the bed. Finally, Jamie fucks Tianna’s face before shoving her money in her ass and fucking her pussy. After a few positions, Jamie pops all over Tianna’s great ass without ever fucking it. Afterwards, Buttman comes into the picture, and as some might say, a legend is born. This is a very unique style scene for today’s porn, let alone almost fifteen years ago. It’s nicely drawn out and has a slightly dark feel through it which rarely appears in adult films. Jamie is perfect at this type of scene, and excels with it here. It’s a very attention getting scene for John Stagliano to start things out with!

Mark deBruin gets busy with Tanya deVries at his party, which John has been hired to videotape, in the second scene. Tanya plays to the camera and lets Mark play with her pussy as she sucks his cock, and the climbs on to ride him cowgirl style. Mark takes a break to let his tongue travel down under on Tanya before working her pussy through a few more common positions. He finally lets Tanya suck and stroke him onto her tits. I’m a little torn on this scene. Tanya’s playing to the camera both got me into the scene very well and turned me off a little at the same time. I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy it, but I couldn’t get completely into it either.

Tom Byron has John help him with a little scam so he can get in Heather Torrance’s bikini. They convince her to come back to John’s studio for an audition, and she shows that she’s willing to do almost anything to please a producer before they decide to make a dirty movie instead. Of course, Tom and Heather take a little time to warm each other up orally before working through most of the common positions, since acrobatic stuff like reverse cowgirl is a little much for Heather. Tom finishes things up pulling out just in time and popping on Heather’s great ass. It’s another fun scene that’s very good, but not quite great. John shows that he’s known about the tease for a heck of a long time, and does a great job using it to set up the scene.

Champagne acts as bait for Randy Spears and Rick Daniels to kidnap John so he’ll tape the three of them. Champagne dances for the three of them as Randy holds John at gunpoint, and then exchanges oral favors with Randy while Rick works a plug into her ass. The guys trade places so Randy can fuck Champagne while Rick gets a little head, and Champagne finishes off Randy first taking a pop on her clit. As soon as Randy’s done, Rick heads in for a little backdoor action, and gives her asshole a creamy coating. It’s another very different scene, especially for the time it was made. There’s some great interaction with the threesome and John, with Randy doing a great job and making it a lot of fun. Champagne also plays extremely well to the camera, and her smiles and laughs really help this scene to climb up an extra notch and become one of the best in the movie.

John finds Sascha Strange and Bionca on the beach and convinces them to come back to his studio to make a demo tape. Sascha tries telling John where he can shove his camera repeatedly, but Bionca is really interested and convinces her to do it. After a little dancing and posing, Bionca and Sascha explore each other and then break out a couple toys. Bionca fucks Sascha’s pussy with a large dildo before behind over for Sascha to fuck her ass with another toy. John’s fun ends, however, when he tries to get a squeeze of Bionca’s ass and the girls leave him since he’s a pervert, which is of course why so many of us love him. It’s a pretty hot and fun scene with Bionca really standing out. She plays a nicely emotional range here, and does a much better job here than I expect for porn from the late eighties and early nineties.

Finally, Tracey Adams comes back to John’s place. She tells him he can do whatever he wants to her fantastic ass and then shows off her fantastic funbags. John steadies the camera and heads over to get in on the action. They exchange oral favors, with John giving Tracey a nice rimming, before starting to fuck her. They mix up the fucking and oral quite a bit, and are obviously having a lot of fun. John finishes things off popping on Tracey’s ass, and then lets her go down to play with it a little. It’s a great scene to end things with, as it’s the first time you really get to see John and Tracey seems perfect for him in the few points she appears in earlier in the movie. It also has very good chemistry, as there’s frequent smiling throughout it. As much as I liked this scene, I have to admit that it was weird as heck to watch it! I’m so used to seeing John Stagliano with his clothes on and appearing like such a businessman and normal guy, not to mention having some very nice dealings with his wife, that seeing him banging Tracey here almost seemed wrong! I know it shouldn’t have, but it also made the scene seem almost a little dirtier and a little more voyeuristic for me. It was an odd feeling to have while watching a scene, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at it a couple times for just that reason.

I still remember when I found my parent’s tape of a Buttman movie so many years ago, although I’m sure I was still 18 at the time (of course). I think I tried watching a half hour of it, said something like “This is supposed to be a porno! Where the #$@#’s all the sex?” after seeing all the teases, and popped it out almost as fast as if I heard my parent’s car coming up the driveway. So much for ignorance being bliss! Looking back at The Adventures of Buttman, all I can do is smile. Remembering what most early nineties pornos were like I can’t help but laugh, and John pushes things so well from where they were back then. Heck, The Adventures of Buttman even stands out compared to many of the pornos of today. It has a kind of rebellious feel to it, even when one holds it besides some of John’s current releases. Perhaps some of that is due to so many other directors following in John’s footsteps, as well as nearly fifteen years passing since he made the movie. Is it really great? In a reminiscent kind of way, yeah, but there’s still a few minor faults. The Adventures of Buttman is a truly classic porno, and one that every porn fan owes it to themself to check out.

Extras: As usual, there’s a bio of John Stagliano, a cast list by scene, and filmographies for Tianna, Bionca, Tracey Adams, Champagne, and Sascha Strange. This time around, there’s also a list of all the awards that The Adventures of Buttman won. The photo gallery contains over sixty snapshots, all of which look amazing. The photos here look better than many galleries I’ve seen for movies half as old as this. There’s also plenty of extra footage and features.

Remastering Buttman lasts four and a quarter minutes and mostly features John Stagliano’s DVD producer / wife / slavedriver Tricia Devereaux. Tricia talks about finding the original Beta camera masters and her desire to use them to give this DVD the best possible quality they could. She talks about trying to convince John to do it (and no, she doesn’t mention withholding of sex which I’m sure would have instantly ended the argument) and some of the process of remastering the movie. Of course, you also get a few of John’s thoughts on the matter. It’s a short featurette, but also one that’s interesting and enjoyable as it shows some of the thought behind remastering a movie and the overall care that Evil Angel gives their products.

The behind the scenes featurette lasts about five and a half minutes. Outside of a few soft focus problems, it looks and sounds every bit as good as good as the movie. The featurette contains a little of each scene, and blends John giving the cast a few directions, a few bloopers, and even a little extra footage that didn’t make either cut of the movie. Although it’s a little short, it’s a nice behind the scenes featurette. You get a feel for John, the cast, and the interaction between them, and it ends up being better than many of the behind the scenes featurettes that are shot for movies today.

Roughly fifteen minutes of extra footage is also included, which also looks and sounds just as good as the main feature. You get a little more footage from each of the sex scenes as well as some of the non-sex sequences. As usual, this is just snippets of footage that should interest people who enjoyed the scenes, but it isn’t exactly whacking material. Well, it is, but the short segment length will probably interfere with people really getting into it.

Finally, there’s the video commentary, which is my favorite extra feature that John Stagliano does. John talks about whether The Adventures of Buttman is a feature or gonzo movie and where and how he shot many of the scenes. He also compares how he shot things then compared to what he’d do now, as well as talking about some of the evolution of Buttman. Things are nicely broken down scene by scene, since the commentary shows John watching some of the movie and telling stories about it, and shows a lot of the personality and care that have always made John seem extremely likeable to me. It’s a great commentary that I think anybody who’s interested in the background of the Buttman movies will really enjoy. This commentary shows just why John’s video commentaries are my favorite Evil Angel extra!

Themes: Straight, gonzo, tease, prostitution, rimming (male > female and female > female), spanking, toys, anal, DP (tech), masturbation (both male and female), group, tit-fucking, and lesbian

Condoms Usage: None.

Raincoat Factor: High

Overall: Currently, most Evil Angel DVDs can be found online for between $18 and $30 with many stores offering them for around $20. This is a bargain for what you get here! The movie is a lot of fun and has one of the best transfers I’ve ever seen. If that’s not enough, there’s a ton of extras! I have to admit that I had a huge dilemma on giving this DVD its overall rating. Although I didn’t think a couple of the scenes were completely hot, I really can’t see how any improvement could be made on this DVD! It really is that nicely done, and my heart screamed at me to give it the full 5 star rating. On the other hand, my head, the one on my shoulders, kept reminding me that there were a couple scenes where it didn’t feel the blood rushing away from it faster than a turpentined cat. After a lot of debating, my head finally won out, basically because it’s a much better typist and it doesn’t get my keyboard as messy since it can make my fingers do the work. Although it’s not a completely perfect DVD, don’t bother renting this one. Just go buy it. This is the most impressive classic DVD release I’ve ever seen!

Note to Evil Angel / John Stagliano: Thank you for putting so much care into this movie and DVD rather than just turning out the standard classic porno release.

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me .

Other reviews by Astroknight