Desperate Measures Review

Running Time: 97 min.

Production Date: 8 / 29 / 1998

Director: Brad Armstrong

Cast: Missy, Stephanie Swift, Brittany O’Neil, Jewel De’Nyle, Kasorn Swan, Malitia, Megan Matthews, Phyllisha Anne, Shayla LaVeaux, Alec Metro, Brad Armstrong, Herschel Savage, Mickey G., Mr. Marcus, Randy Spears, Steve Drake, and Jonathan Morgan in a non-sex role

Initial Expectations: I normally like Brad Armstrong’s movies, which gives me good expectations here.

Initial Reaction: It’s the best prostitution themed movie I think I’ve seen.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody who wants a touch of plot with their porn

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody who wants nastier sex and misogyny with prostitutes

Audio /Video Quality: Although there’s a small amount of dubbing, most of the audio is clear and well balanced. The video is also clear, and does an excellent job with the lighting.

Music: The music didn’t do anything for me. It’s a dance style, and often a bit louder than I would have liked.

Menus: As usual, Wicked has done a good job with their menus, and fits them to the feature. The chapter menu lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene and a title for the scene.

The Feature: There’s a couple differences between being a whore and being an escort, as Herschel Savage tells Missy. There’s money and there’s attitude. Unfortunately, pimps like Mr. Marcus and obsessive stalking ex-boyfriends like Jonathan Morgan don’t care about any differences. All they know is that they don’t like Missy with guys like Herschel, and they’re willing to do something to change things.

Things start out quick and easy. First Missy gives Steve Drake a short but sweet blowjob in the front seat of his SUV. As usual, Missy puts some great energy into it and finishes things with a facial. Next, Megan Matthews gives Alec Metro a very short, and very energetic hummer. I would have liked to have seen these scenes separated, as two oral scenes in a row doesn’t seem to be the best way to start out a movie, but they’re quick enough that it isn’t the worst start for a movie either.

Phyllisha Anne takes on pimp Mr. Marcus in the first full scene of the movie. After giving Marcus an energetic oral warmup, she lets Marcus take her in the standard positions as well as plugging her pooper, and finishes things with a facial. It’s a pretty average scene, but sadly it’s inconsistent and the chemistry varies throughout the entire scene depending on the moment.

Jewel De’Nyle and Kasorn Swan team up to give Herschel Savage some head in the back of a limo in the next scene. The girls do a great job of trading back and forth before teaming up to take him on. They finish things off nicely stroking him in the air, but having three out of the first four scenes being oral only didn’t do much for me.

Missy takes on Herschel Savage next. She starts out giving him a sensual blowjob before riding him in the classic reverse cowgirl. They keep things going through the standard cowgirl and doggie before Herschel decorates Missy’s great tits. It’s a hot scene with great emotion. It does a great job contrasting the glamour of an escort with the darkness of the street whore from earlier in the movie.

Brad Armstrong enjoys a couple of the perks of being an escort guard, namely Shayla LaVeaux and Brittany O’Neil. Shayla starts out the oral olympics in the middle of things with Brad to back her up, before the girls team up to give Brad his own oral warmup. The girls keep things moving taking turns with the cameraman favorite reverse cowgirl before Shayla takes an energetic anal pile-driver and sucks Brad until he explodes on Brittany’s overblown tits. She licks it up and tries swapping it a bit with Brittany, but sadly, Brittany doesn’t seem at all interested. It’s an extremely hot scene with Shayla driving the entire thing. It’s easily the best scene in the feature, and should have quite a few people looking for more of Shayla.

Jewel De’Nyle teams up with Malitia to take on Randy Spears in the penultimate scene. Randy starts out just sitting back and enjoying the show as Malitia takes care of Jewel, and then enjoys the pleasures of Jewel’s mouth as Mailitia works her over with a toy. The girls switch around so Randy can fuck Malitia as Jewel watches with the companionship of her toy, but Jewel gets back into things with a little missionary and doggie action before sharing the facial with Malitia. It’s another very hot scene with great chemistry. Everybody seems to be nicely into everybody else, which is all too rare of a happening.

Finally, Missy and Stephanie Swift team up to take on Mickey G. Stephanie starts out warming up Mickey while Missy watches, and then lets Missy help warm her up while Mickey slobbers both of Missy’s holes. The girls team up to finish readying Mickey’s rod before trading back and forth to fuck him. Occasionally one of the girls sits back to watch, but normally they stay involved. Both Missy and Stephanie also let Mickey take a trip down the hershey highway before teaming up to suck him onto both their faces. It’s another very hot scene with great chemistry and energy, and the girls split things between them amazingly well so that nobody overshadows anybody else.

Many directors have taken on the subject of prostitution in adult films, among them greats like Andrew Blake with Secrets, Nic Andrews with Whispers, and Michael Raven with Escorts. As great as all of them are, none of them come too close to what Brad Armstrong has done here with Desperate Measures. Rather than just using prostitution as an easy way to bring a variety of scenes into a movie, he also attaches a story about the allure as well as the dark side of escorting. Even through the lighter portions, Armstrong hints at the darkness by having Missy narrate the story while appearing battered. He also brings in plenty of hot sex, with Missy doing her normal fantastic job and Shayla LaVeaux heading up an amazing threesome with Armstrong and Brittany O’Neil. Desperate Measures is a well done adult movie that I fear isn’t going to get nearly the attention it deserves.

Extras: Not surprisingly Wicked has matched the audio bios to the overall menu feel, and includes a little personal information, a link to the star’s scene, and a few photos of the star. Bios are included for Missy, Stephanie Swift, Shayla LaVeaux, Jewel DeNyle, Brittany O’Neil, Brad Armstrong, Herschel Saveage, Mickey G., Mr. Marcus, and Randy Spears. Trailers are included for The Kissing Game, Hell on Heels, Flashpoint, Double Feature!, The Bride of Double Feature, Dream Quest, Knockout, Pornogothic, Satyr, Sex Safari, Vengeance, and Working Girl. Several photo galleries are also included, each of which lasts about two minutes with about six seconds per nice looking photo. There’s a photo gallery for the main production, behind the scenes, and photo galleries for Missy, Stephanie Swift, Shayla LaVeaux, Jewel De’Nyle, Brittany O’Neil, Kasorn Swan, Phyllisha Anne, and Mailita. Most of the photos in the star galleries come from the feature, but not all of them. Wicked’s standard extras are also here, such as the Wicked Web, Wicked Casino, company profile, a listing of Wicked’s award winning and nominated features, and a commercial for the Free Speech Coalition.

Themes: Straight, spanking, oral, inter-racial, anal, group, lesbian, rimming (male > female), toys, shoe worship, and masturbation

Raincoat Factor: Medium - high

Overall: Most of Wicked’s DVDs can currently be found online for between $20 and $26 with most stores offering them near the upper end. Although I don’t think there’s enough extras to justify the upper end, I enjoyed the movie enough to think it’s well worth the lower end. The plot and sex are both nicely varied, and the movie continues to grow on me.

Note to Wicked: It’s great to see you putting in some effort to bring out your back catalogue!

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

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