Cafe Flesh 2 (VCA) Review

Studio
VCA

Director
Antonio Passolini

Starring
Jeanna Fine, Raylene, Stacy Valentine, Mustang Sally Layd, Rebecca Lord, Alec Metro, John Decker, Tony Tedeschi, Billy Glide, Dave Hardman, Brian Surewood, Simon Delo (non-sex), Veronica Hart (non-sex), and Kitten Navidad (non-sex)

Running Time
2:08

DVD Format
Single Sided, Single Layer

Aspect Ratio
1.33:1 (full frame)

Special Features
None 

Typical Watchers
Antonio Passolini followers, Stacy Valentine or Raylene fans, and offbeat adult movie watchers

Typical Haters
Extreme sex fans, anyone who dislikes oral cumshots, or those who like conventional porn plots

Themes
Offbeat plot, crazy costumes, blowjobs, oral cumshots, anal, DP, voyeurism, fake breasts, no girl-girl

Condoms
Yes, in some scenes for intercourse

If You Liked This DVD, You Should Enjoy
Cafe Flesh, New Wave Hookers

Video Captures
Click for larger size

The First Word: Café Flesh 2, outstanding director Antonio Passolini's directorial debut, won AVN's award for Best Video in 1998.  Not only did this movie deserve the award, it blows away the original 80's cult classic.

What's It About?:  A direct sequel to Café Flesh, the movie begins with a narrated recap of the plot of the first movie:  in a post World War III world, 99% of the population becomes sex negative, unable to express their love physically without becoming violently ill.  Those lucky enough to be sex positive became performers at sex clubs, performing live shows for the negatives.  

Eventually, the era Café Flesh ended and the story picks up with the introduction of the narrator, Lionel Mandrake (played appropriately by Simon Delo), a sex negative who is a sewer cleaner in the bowels of New Vegas.  As he stumbles onto a find that will eventually resurrect CF, he recalls the heyday of the infamous sex club.

Rebecca Lord, speaking French, plays a whore on the cafe's stage.  She expresses enjoyment of her chosen profession, but she bristles when she admits that there is one group of clients that she despises -- "Le Mimes!"  Cut to John Decker and Tony Tedeschi as Jacques and Pierre The Mimes, with the requisite painted faces, tights, and berets.  But these are hardcore mimes - they do tricks with their cocks!   And they give Rebecca a workout, beginning in an acrobatic position.  But after a decent closeup blowjob where you can almost count the freckles on RL's face, the action gets pretty boring -- to the point you start counting the ribs on Rebecca's otherwise very attractive body to pass the time.  

The narrator then fills us in that Violet Chinchilla (Jeanna Fine) wants to reopen Café Flesh, but like all other would be proprietors, the lack of a sex positive couple makes that dream impossible. That is until she gets a brick through her bedroom window, along with a note from Lionel for Violet to come to his place.  The plot then turns to a couple of post apocalyptic surviors, Mookie and Chappy (played by Raylene and Alec Metro) -- she's positive but he's not.  Because they need the money, she decides to answer Violet's ad for performers.

Meanwhile, Violet dreams that she's sex positive and she imagines an industrial steel mill fantasy.  She's dressed in an open breasted, hooded getup, while our welder (Brian Surewood) is clad in a welder's mask and leather body thong.  The highlights of this one-on-one scene are Jeanna's trademark eye-contact blowjobs and her equally renowned dirty talk (although it sounds a lot like gibberish at times).  The climax of the scene is a squirting oral popshot on Jeanna's tongue.

Back to the story, Violet goes to Lionel's apartment, where he reveals that he found a sex positive girl who was quick frozen in an underground capsule.  Violet then goes to Max, who is a brain floating in a fish tank, for loan to buy this positive.  It's revealed that the girl, Buffy (Stacey Valentine), was a virginal star crossed lover who made a pact with her boyfriend Biff to freeze themselves until they could be together (sort of a Romeo & Juliet set in the grocer's freezer aisle).  Having secured the funding from Max, Violet finds a positive stud named Snake (Vince Vouyer) and re-opens the Café Flesh.

The next sex scene is an early 1960's lounge fantasy, starring Mustang Sally Layd, a platinum blonde with too-big hooters.  In a room filled with 60's icons, Joe Bachelor and John Bachelor (Dave Hardman and Brian Surewood) get to watch as Sally does a striptease on the coffee table.  But this is no pin-up girl blue movie -- it's pretty raunchy with outstanding anal penetrations, a DP, and a nasty double oral cumshot.  It would have been perfect if not for the bimbo's fake knockers (I think this fantasy pre-dates breast augmentation surgery).

In preparation for Buffy's stage debut, Violet has her two sex positives go through a practice run by way of a short blowjob scene.  It's pretty much a gratuitous scene and isn't that hot.  For one, Stacy mostly blocks the early action with her hand.  The oral pop shot is pretty weak and underwhelming, and the scene itself is too short.  But if you're a Stacy Valentine fan, you've had to wait halfway through the movie to see her in action, so this will be a welcome appetizer.

After her initiation, Buffy dreams about her boyfriend, Biff (T.T. Boy).  The two are on a fantastic theatrical set, complete with a rotating backdrop and astroturf.   The couple look like they are going to picnic, but we know that it's going to be a lot more twisted than that.  Passolini doesn't disappoint, because as soon as they start fooling around, an extraterrestrial dressed as a beatnik begins recording the event on a movie camera.  The alien also takes notes -- maybe he's reviewing their performance too.  His notes would say: "T.T. Boy is too eager and rough for an experienced boyfriend.  Stacy's fake tits are strangely hypnotic as they bounce as she's doing reverse cowgirl.  The missionary position is particularly nice, as is the oral cumshot (yes, SV takes it in the mouth!)."  LOL!

My vote for the most creative scene in movie is the bullfighter scene with Raylene and Billy Glide.  Billy is costumed as a double dildo horned bull named Ferdinand.  Raylene is the glamorous bullfighter, clad in an sexy open-breasted outfit.  After some sucking on the dildo horns, she tackles the bull's main horn with a drooling blowjob, captured in slow motion.  The sex is mostly doggy style and ends with Billy cumming on her tits.  It's a great looking scene and typifies the great sex in the movie.

Snake and Buffy plot to escape from CF on opening night and start their own club.  Of course, since they're sex positive, they can celebrate their planned freedom with some anal sex (making Stacey fans happy) and another oral cumshot to end the scene. 

Veronica Hart makes a cameo as Moms, the original owner of the Café Flesh. Chappy (the sex neg boyfriend of Raylene's character) runs into Moms, and discovers that there's a serum that will allow him to be intimate with his girlfriend.  He takes this "Pash-19" serum and then the couple are carnally married by Max, the brain in the fish tank.  They consummate their union right there...on the stage of Café Flesh -- securing Violet's future and the return of the legendary club.

What I liked: Good acting: Yes, I said "good acting" in reference to a pornographic film!  While we're not talking about great performances compared to mainstream efforts, this is one of the best acted adult films I've seen in a while.  With only a few exceptions, the dialogue is delivered in a very believable manner, adding to the fun feel of the movie.  I would go as far as saying that this is Jeanna Fine's standout performance of her career in general -- probably not her best sex work, but I can't recall another movie where she fits the role so well.

Passolini's Vision: Followers of Antonio Passolini will definitely get a kick out of CF2's off-the-wall set design, costuming, scenarios, music, and editing.  There are certain filmmakers that you can recognize instantly by their work, and "Toni" is one of those directors.  Since this is his debut directorial credit, we see him establish the same zany fixtures that we'll see in his later works such as Cap'n Mongo's Porno Playhouse and New Wave Hookers 6, including the bust of JFK, Halloween costumed characters, and some of the most eclectic collection of kitsch dressing the sets.  And as always, his camera direction is excellent -- there's an abundance of creative shots, including a superb rolling dolly shot during one of Violet's stand up routines in the club.  It's a breath of fresh air to see creative approaches in porn when so many directors just do the same old thing.

What I didn't like:  It's a couple's film -- almost:  I see a lot of people on newsgroups and forums asking about couples-friendly porn -- you know, something that's not too hardcore, has a decent story, and won't turn off the wife or girlfriend.  CF2 almost qualifies, since there isn't that much anal sex, no three-ring circus acts, and (surprise, surprise) no girl-girl scenes.  A couple of scenes even depart from the ubiquitous facial pop shot.  But there's an abundance of oral cumshots that are likely to get a wince or "gross!" protestation from anyone who doesn't swallow.  But despite this flaw (depending on your point of view), it's a video that both non-elite raincoaters and couples can both enjoy.

DVD Extras:  This is an early VCA DVD release and consequently lacks any special features.  The menus are non-animated, the chapter selection menu only has picture, not video, thumbnails, the links to the stars are just filmographies, and the "other titles" link only shows a listing of other DVDs, not trailers.  The lack of features definitely impacts my overall rating (dropping the DVD from 4.5 stars to 4) and my value figure.  It's a good adult movie, but it's not worth more than, say $15, without some supplemental features.  Clearly, VCA has seen the light since their early discs, and the extras for big budget feature DVDs are always present on modern releases.

A/V Quality:   This is not your father's Café Flesh!  The original was a Golden Age film that was showing its age when it made it to DVD and wasn't a well-budgeted production to begin with.  Shot on high quality video, this feature is almost pristine in both audio and video.  The only place where you might question the video quality is during the early scenes when the colors were intentionally oversaturated.  But as the movie unfolds, it's pretty clear that the choice was intentional given that some of the scenes have razor sharp clarity.  The sound mix doesn't draw attention to itself, and the musical soundtrack, as with all Passolini projects, is classy and appropriate.  Considering this was one of the earlier VCA discs, I'm pleasantly surprised that the quality is so good.

The Last Word:  This movie is a must-have, despite the lack of extras on the DVD.  I'm a big fan of Antonio Passolini because he manages to combine the offbeat with top-notch production value while not losing sight of the hot sex.  This sequel is definitely head and shoulders over the original 1982 film in all respects.  While it's zany plot and creative set designs may not be everyone's cup of tea, it's definitely is a great all-around adult video worthy of praise from the industry and from this consumer.

- Saki (saki@my.adultdvdtalk.com)