Buttman's Ultimate Workout Review

Running Time: 96 min.

Production Date: 1990

Director: John Stagliano

Cast: Darla Derriere, Madison, Zara Whites, Talia James, Patricia Kennedy, Sunny McKay, Alexandria Quinn, Rocco Siffredi, Randy Spears, T. T. Boy, Tom Byron, Bubba Brando (Seymore Butts), and John Stagliano

Initial Expectations: Evil Angel has done a great job with all of their DVDs that I’ve seen. The Buttman movies that I’ve seen have also been great. I don’t have any reason to expect this to be any different.

Initial Reaction: It’s not a great DVD, but it is very good. The movie is a lot of fun and the commentary’s great.

Audio /Video Quality: Buttman’s Ultimate Workout was shot in 1990 on betacam, so you’re not going to get the same clarity as on some of the current releases. Considering that it’s over ten years old, it’s a very good picture. There’s some grain, but it’s to be expected. The sound is a little muffled in places, but it really fits the scenes. Although it’s not the best, clearest sound, it’s perfect for the movie.

Music: The music is mostly soft and tender with a lot of smooth jazz. Although it’s decent music, it doesn’t quite fit in a lot of the scenes. John actually apologizes for the music in the commentary.

Review: Buttman’s Ultimate Workout is the fourth in the Buttman series and is supposedly the title that really started Buttman rocketing into the stars. For those of you unfamiliar with Buttman, shame on you! Buttman is some of the best gonzo out there. It’s a lot of fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously. The Buttman series follows John, a freelance cameraman through his many adventures, normally caused by John following a girl with a great ass. Buttman’s Ultimate Workout follows John as he’s kind of forced to work for an athletic club while also trying to help Laura (Zara Whites) get a chance to work with Dario (Rocco Siffredi). He’s also trying to track down Trish (Talia James), who he meets in the stairway of a parking ramp, and get her to do a little scene for him. John keeps everything simple enough that everything stays clear, rather than getting confusing.

John’s trouble all starts when he’s hanging out in a dark alley. We won’t even think about why he’s in a dark alley, but somehow Buttman seems to have the timing to be where the action is. While hiding in the shadows he sees Ricky (T. T. Boy) and Lisa (Patricia Kennedy) having a quicky in an alley. He gets caught watching and tries to hide in an athletic club, only to find out that this was where Ricky and Lisa were heading. Of course, they people at the club find him. Luckily Al (Randy Spears) recognizes him and saves his butt. He even gets a job out of the deal and has to film some of the workouts. Heck, with girls like Cathy (Madison, one of my favorites from the early nineties) and Darla (Darla Derriere) I would have done it for free. John uses a monitor to show what he’s filming as a gimmick in the scene between Madison, Darla, and Buddy Brando (later known as Seymore Butts). It works really good, especially with Madison’s usual over the top performance. Later he catches a fight between Al and Lisa when Al finds out about Ricky also screwing her. Of course, it turns into a group scene which John is ordered to film. You gotta admire the guy’s work ethic!

In between his stint at the gym John meets Trisha. She’s more than eager to show him a little in the stairwell, but the light doesn’t really allow the rest of us to see anything. You can’t blame John for grabbing Tom Byron (since he wasn’t with Extreme yet) to go out searching for her. Buttman-vision does a great job here showing everything from John’s perspective. You see what he sees as he pans around looking for Trisha. When you finally see her, you know right where you want to look and with Buttman-vision you can zoom right in. The only thing missing is the X-ray vision. Tom’s a lot more successful talking with Trisha than John was, and they all go back to The Butt-cave, where Tom and Trisha start things off. John even gets a little action after Tom finishes. It’s a pretty good scene, but it’s edited down a little too far. Tom takes about three times longer with Trish than John does, and the scene ends up kind of awkward. I really hope that Evil Angel releases a “Director’s Cut” of Buttman’s Ultimate Workout or offers the rest of the scene as an extra, as was done in Buttman’s European Vacation .

If this isn’t enough, John is helping Laura, who is trying to get in a scene with Dario. John films her as she tries everything and then shows the films to Dario. Laura starts with the shy tease, where she doesn’t really show anything, but let’s your imagination fill in all the blanks. Unfortunately, it bores Dario. The dominant woman ripping off her clothes wanting sex now scares the heck out of Dario. Finally, she tries being herself in a fairly tender masturbation scene. She’s soft and vulnerable, yet incredibly sexual, and earning Dario’s attention. Although the rest of the movie is good, these scenes are what made the movie go for me. This was Zara’s first movie with John and she really pulls out all the stops. There’s a reason why Zara was so highly regarded for several years, and this really shows why. The final scene with Rocco is surprisingly tender, despite a lot of anal sex. Although it doesn’t push any of the limits Rocco is later known for, it does show some of his depth as an actor.

Sadly, we don’t get to see the entire movie that was originally to be Buttman’s Ultimate Workout . If you watch the credits you’ll notice Sunny McKay (Nikki) and Alexandra Quinn (Lola) listed as characters, yet they both appear for only a few short seconds in the movie. Several scenes are missing due to Ms. Quinn’s being underage at the time. This is a true loss as the group scene she’s in won (and also deserved, from what I’ve heard) ‘Best Group Scene’ that year. It’s also a great shame as Sunny is a very talented actress who I always enjoy watching.

John’s point of view in most of the movie gives it a very MTV Real World kind of feel. If the top head tries to get enough blood to think, which is pretty iffy, you know that it’s all scripted. John does it well enough to give it enough of a feel of realism that you want to believe it. It’s fun enough that you don’t want to think about the script. You just want to enjoy the fun in the fantasy world that John creates so very well. It some of why Buttman has become such a staple in the porn world.

Extras: As with the rest of Evil Angel’s releases, Buttman’s Ultimate Workout includes a photo gallery and John’s autobiography. Surprisingly, the photo gallery is one of the worst I’ve seen, although it does include 37 stills. The stills are all extremely blurry and I think I might be able to get a better picture by hitting the pause button on my DVD player. The autobiography is interesting and is the same piece that’s on many of Evil Angel’s other releases.

Evil Angel does a good job with their menus, which I normally don’t consider an extra. Evil Angel does a good enough job that their worth mentioning. The fetish menu is really great for anybody looking for a certain action. Whether you’re looking for blow jobs, anal sex, or almost anything else, you can go to each scene in the movie with that action. It’s a great little thing that shows a lot of caring about the consumer. Unfortunately, this appears to be made before Evil Angel listed the cast in each scene, which is another really nice touch.

The commentary lasts just over an hour and is great! It’s one of the best commentaries I’ve watched so far. It’s done in the same style as the commentary for Face Dance Part 1 where John sits in front of a monitor and comments on the movie as it plays so he can point things out. It’s split into a few parts. The first part John does at home and we get a few nice glimpses of Tricia Devereaux. Those of you who’ve seen Steph’s pictures from the AVN Adult Expo this year and thought John and Tricia made a cute couple in the stills have to see this. They look really great together and so I wish them both the best. This section is cut a little short because Tricia is needing a little loving, so John does what any other man with more than three active brain cells would do and goes off to satisfy this lovely lady. The rest of the commentary is done at the office and John invites a few of the people around to pitch in during the commentary when he thinks they have something to offer. It really shows a lot of John as a person and as a director when he’s humble enough to share the spotlight whenever he thinks somebody else around might have something else to offer. The more I see of John as a person in his commentaries, the more I like him. He comes across as very genuine and you can see how much he loves his job (and who can blame him). He realizes some of his mistakes and limitations and isn’t afraid to talk about them.

Themes: Butts, straight, group, anal, lesbian, rimming (both male > female and female > male), male anal stimulation, spanking, toys, and masturbation

Raincoat Factor: Very high.

Overall: Currently, Buttman’s Ultimate Workout can be found online for between $24 and $28 with many retailers offering it for under $25. Although $25 is pushing it, I’d still buy Buttman’s Ultimate Workout , if for no other reason than the commentary. If you’re not so sure about it, make sure and rent it. It’s still a great movie, and the transfer is very good for it’s age.

Note to Evil Angel: Once again, great job. I really enjoy John’s commentary tracks and I think they’re some of the best commentaries out there. Please work on giving your photo galleries the same picture quality as your movies, as the still picture quality was very poor here. I’d also like to see some kind of bios for the stars where we could find out some of their other works for Evil Angel. Thank you.

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

Update: Shortly after posting this review I was contacted by Tricia Devereaux of Evil Angel about the quality of the photo gallery. She has informed me that this was one of their earlier releases and that Evil Angel uses actual photos rather than freezes of the video for their photo galleries. This is why most of their photo galleries have such clear pictures. I have to give Evil Angel a lot of credit. Most companies would just ignore a problem like this rather than contacting the reviewer to make sure they have the best information possible. This is one of the reasons why I think Evil Angel is one of the top companies out there.