Dark Influences Review

Running Time: 82 min.

Production Date: 2 /15 / 2002

Director: Bud Lee

Cast: Asia Carrera, Monique, Nicole Sheridan, Coral Sands, C. J. Bennett, Elizabeth X., Steven St. Croix, Voodoo, and Jack Hammer

Initial Expectations: With this cast, I can’t not have high hopes.

Initial Reaction: It’s a nice idea that never manages to get much past average.

Who Should Watch It : Asia Carrera fans

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody who hates slow motion

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is pretty clear, although there are a few areas with some noticeable dubbing. The balance seems to change a bit throughout the feature, with some of it being low enough that the dialogue is hard to hear. There’s a few background noises, but they often fit in with the scenes. The video has a slightly soft feel, which doesn’t really affect the movie one way or another. Unfortunately, there’s several slow motion breaks in the movie which do hurt it, as it breaks a lot of the momentum of the heat in the scenes. Thankfully, the lighting is very good and the few shadows that do appear feel natural.

Music: I don’t think I noticed any music through the movie.

Menus: The menus are pretty typical for Adam & Eve. The main menu has some nice animation and the chapter menu lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene and a chapter number.

The Feature: After coming home one night, Steven St. Croix surprises Asia Carrera with a tasteful necklace. Soon after, Asia finds their house is haunted by people who feel the urgent need to bump uglies. She senses something else is afoot, and sets out to find out what it is.

Asia Carrera and Steven St. Croix start things out with some morning lovemaking, which means that if they’re a married couple it must be Sunday morning. Steven tongues Asia’s pussy, while also dropping it down to tease her ass, before climbing on her and mounting her missionary style. Asia playfully rolls onto her side for Steven to spoon her, and takes plenty of time to kiss him as they gradually move to doggie. Asia sucks and strokes Steven a little before they go back for a little missionary work and he explodes onto her stomach and everything else around her. Surprisingly, as great as Steven’s pop is, it’s one of the weakest parts of the scene thanks to a slow motion delivery. The rest of the scene leaves me with some mixed emotions. It feels like it’s trying for more of a softcore feel much of the time, which doesn’t do too much for me, but it also has a great and loving delivery to it that I couldn’t help but love. There’s such great chemistry between Asia and Steven that they give you the feeling like they might be a real couple, which makes me end up liking the scene despite its faults.

Asia wakes up at night to find Nicole Sheridan and Monique taking on Voodoo in her living room. Monique devours Voodoo orally while Nicole works her way between them, and then moves between Voodoo and Nicole pleasuring her orally while Voodoo fucks Nicole. Monique also gets a little fuckin’ from Voodoo, and gets some nice encouragement from Nicole, before play with Voodoo until he pops between their faces. It’s a very hot scene with great chemistry and energy. The all know Asia’s there, and look at her several times with inviting and naughty looks, yet seem to be completely into each other at the same time. It almost has a hint of nastiness to it as well, and ends up as a really great scene that once again makes me wonder why Nicole Sheridan hasn’t gotten a lot more notice!

Asia finds C. J. Bennet taking one for the team with Jack Hammer in the third scene. Jack starts out licking C. J.’s bald beaver before letting her reciprocate, where she shows the amazing physical strength of looking up at Jack and his body that’s so tattooed I wonder how many prison terms he’s served. They fuck in a few of the common positions before they end things without so much as a pop. I’m not sure if Jack just couldn’t manage it or if nobody else wanted to look at him either. Needless to say, this scene didn’t do much of anything for me. I didn’t find C. J. or Jack the least bit attractive, and there seemed to be even more slow motion shots than usual which brought it down even more.

Steven St. Croix gets busy with Elizabeth X. in the next scene. She happily strips down and sucks Steven’s schlong before bending over and letting him fuck and eat her from behind. They keep things going missionary style before Steven decorates her stomach. It’s an okay scene, but didn’t do too much for me. Steven seemed to be coasting through this one a little, and although I normally like Elizabeth X a lot, she didn’t do too much for me here. It’s a pretty average scene overall.

Finally, Coral Sands helps Asia Carrera relieve a little stress the way most straight guys want to see it released, with lesbian sex! They kiss while undressing each other, with Coral making her way down to treat Asia’s twat and ass first, and devours them both. Asia tongues and plays with Coral in return before they finish with a bit of kissing. It’s an okay ending, but it feels a little bit like the porno timer ran out. Asia seems like she wants to go more, but Coral pulls her up rather unconvincingly. It’s another scene where although I like the performers, they just didn’t live up to my expectations for them.

Dark Influences is a porno with some nice potential, but some of its style brought it down quite a bit for me. On the plus side, the plot is nicely done and well acted by the cast. It’s mostly a framework for everybody to have sex, but it feels like there’s more to it than just that. The scenes are also pretty well done, and have enough chemistry and energy in them to raise them a little above the average level. Unfortunately, much of the sex was brought down quite a bit for me by frequent slow motion segments. This came close to ruining more than one scene here for me, and had me reaching for the fast forward button a couple times because I figured that would be the only way I’d come close to normal speed for the action. Although Dark Influences has some nice potential, much of it’s wasted to the point that it doesn’t really make it past the average porno.

Extras: Bios are included for Asia Carrera, Coral Sands, Elizabeth X, Monique, and Nicole Sheridan, each of which includes a little personal information and a photo. Trailers are included for The Fiesta, Emerald Rain, Invisible, The Puppeteer, and Sex Spell. There’s also a photo gallery with about twenty nice looking photos, web links, a behind the scenes featurette, and a bonus scene.

The bonus scene comes from Women of the World and features Shay Sweet from the USA, Bamboo from Japan, and Victoria Style from Tanzania by a pool. Victoria starts out as the focus of the others, with Bamboo working on her upper body and Shay working on her pierced clit and pussy. Victoria returns Shay’s actions in kind while Bamboo gives Shay a nice spanking and caresses Victoria’s tits. The girls journey into the pool to give Bamboo her treatment and then continue to move things around regularly so nobody’s licking the same person or place too long. It’s an okay scene, but doesn’t build up too much of anything.

Finally, the behind the scenes featurette lasts fifty five minutes. After about twenty minutes that’s mostly the shooting of the opening scene between Asia Carrera and Steven St. Croix and goes on way too long, you get into a nice impromptu interview with Coral Sands. You also get Coral’s photo gallery and Coral and Asia preparing for and shooting their scenes. Surprisingly, you won’t miss too much if you skip this featurette. It becomes tedious early on by focusing so much on Asia’s opening scene being shot, the camera work is extremely shaky and often focuses on odd things (I mean, I really don’t care about the brand shorts some of the guys wear), and the guy behind the camera is more than a little annoying. I normally love behind the scenes featurettes on adult movies, but I almost turned this one off.

Themes: Straight, rimming (male > female and female > female), group, interracial, spanking, and lesbian

Raincoat Factor: Medium

Condom Usage: Between Monique and Voodoo only

Overall: Most Adam & Eve DVDs can be found online for between $10 and $22 with many stores offering them for under $15. Aim for the low end on this one. The movie has some nice potential, but the style kills much of it. There’s a nice selection of extras, although not all fo them work, and the transfer isn’t too bad. Basically, this DVD is full of stuff that has a lot of potential that’s held back for one reason or another.

Note to Adam & Eve: It’s great to see you trying to make such well-rounded DVDs!!! In the future, please keep the cameras away from the guy who did the behind the scenes featurette here!!!!!!

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

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