Believe It Or Not 2 Review

Reviewed by Nat Hocken  on  1/22/2003

I don’t mind that Paul Thomas seems to think porn scenes are too long—many of them are—but in “Believe It or Not 2” the director goes too far in the other direction: most of the scenes are too short. This is a 70-minute film, and each of its five sex scenes is preceded by an interview, the gist of which is dramatically fleshed out as the scene begins. It doesn’t leave a lot of time for the sex. Well, at least it never gets boring.

The film’s conceit is that only three of its five stories are true; the disc’s last chapter reveals which are fact and which fiction. (I got three right.) The idea works because the storytellers are porn stars and therefore just about anything seems possible. A couple having sex on a pool table in a crowded bar? A porn star screwing the security guard after signing autographs in a video store? Why not? If we believe this film, the porn-star stereotype was honestly come by; nothing in this film is so far out that it strains credulity.

The scene that comes closest to doing so, however, is the film’s least appealing scene. As a kind of present for her boyfriend, a girl hires a man to invade their apartment. When the couple arrives, the man ties up the boyfriend and screws the girl. It’s the kind of scene that has you reminding yourself that it’s just a bit of fantasy role-playing—because the situation is too uncomfortable to take straight.

The other scenes are more typically porno, and a couple of them aren’t bad. The barroom scene benefits from the set up, Tabitha Stern’s looks and her lovely tits, as well as some good photography. (All the scenes, in fact, are well photographed.) And the last scene, though the story is a little bizarre (Heather Lynn’s boyfriend likes to hide in the trunk of their car while she gets it on with a guy in the backseat), features some okay sex and a concluding cumshot that Heather swallows.

Dayton’s scene starts well, but fizzles at the end. After an argument with her boyfriend, she comes home to find a bath drawn, candles lit, and rose petals spilled over everything. What sets up as a romantic sexual encounter, however, ends with Dayton shoving a crystal dildo into her ass while the guy watches, stroking himself. If that’s the porn version of romance, no wonder porn contains so little of it.

The problem with “Believe It or Not 2” is not that only three of the stories are true, but that only two of them are particularly good, and even the good ones are too short. Still, I applaud Paul Thomas for giving us a little imagination with our porn; I just wish he’d given us a little more porn along with it.

The disc’s bonus features include a sub-chapters menu, previews, and a photo gallery, as well as three “Bonus Rooms” that include seven additional scenes from other films: two girl/girl, two anal, and three featuring Cassidey: two FFM threesomes and a girl/girl. A girl/girl scene in the feature would have been nice, especially if turned out to be true!