Gate, The Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  6/24/2001

Running Time: 91 min.

Production Date: 3 / 21 / 2001

Director: Jonathan Morgan

Cast: Alexa, Joel Lawrence, Sydnee Steele, Kylie Ireland, Kaylynn, Brad Armstrong, Voodoo, Lee Stone, and Herschel Savage in sex roles and Mike Horner, Dic Tracy, Anthony Crane, George Kaplan, Reo D’Genero, Frank Fortuna, Aviva, Desiree Wicked, David “Crawdaddie” Crawford and many others in non-sex roles

Initial Expectations: Jonathan Morgan usually makes a great movie and Wicked knows how to make a great DVD, so I’ve got really high expectations for The Gate .

Initial Reaction: It’s what I’ve come to expect from Wicked and Jonathan Morgan. It’s a great movie on a great DVD.

Who Should Watch It : Fans of hot sex, anal, porn with plot, and Jonathan Morgan features

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody who doesn’t want a lot of plot or anal sex or who wants to see a lot of pussy eating, lesbian sex, or group sex

Audio /Video Quality: As usual with Wicked, the audio and video quality are top notch. The audio is very clear and well balanced. The video is extremely clear.

Music: The music is extremely well balanced with the rest of the audio. In some places it’s very quite in the background and others it comes up to take a better part in the scene. Unlike almost all other features, some of the music even has lyrics.

Menus: The menus are very well done and fit the movie great. They do a great job of giving The Gate a creepy feel before it even starts. Sadly, the chapter menu doesn’t list who’s in each scene, but it is animated so that you can tell a little about the scene on the menu.

The Feature: After murdering her husband, Alexa is sent to the Bayview Mental Hospital for observation. She’s placed in Room 4, where some of the most dangerous inmates are placed. It’s not a nice place. The head nurse, Kylie Ireland, is stealing pills from the inmates, and the head doctor, Mike Horner, loves to play with their minds. He’s even went so far with some of them, such as Joel Lawrence who used to be a volunteer intern, that they’re driven further into madness. When Alex is admitted, Doctor Mike decides that it might be interesting to put the two of them together.

Nurse Kylie Ireland starts things off on the right knees with Lee Stone. She sucks takes him in her mouth and then has him go directly to her pussy. He does that job good enough that she promotes him to chief ass-fucker. He finally blows his manly guy goo on her gazoombas. It’s a pretty hot scene and Kylie has a nice bit of nastiness in it. It isn’t nearly as nasty as some of her other scenes, but it’s enough to add a bit of heat to an already hot scene.

Brad Armstrong describes his dreams about Sydnee Steele for the next scene. I’m sure there isn’t anything strange about having dreams about Sydnee Steele, and Brad’s fits right in. She starts out sucking his cock and then hops on to fuck him outside a tropical pool. It’s a very good scene, which shouldn’t be any surprise with these two and has a lot of heat. She finishes the scene off great taking Brad’s population pudding in her mouth. It’s a very good scene compared to other scenes, but both of them have done better.

Bridgette Kerkove persuades Herschel Savage to change a couple items in her trust fund in her fantasy for the third scene. This kind of surprised me as I would have thought she would have fantasized about being married to anybody but Skeeter. She sucks him off and then hops on to fuck him. He fucks her pussy and then she turns around so he can fuck her in the ass. Anybody who’s a fan of gape will love this scene. I think Joel Lawrence said it best in the commentary when he said that he hoped she wouldn’t have to wear diapers by the time she’s thirty. He finishes it off by popping on her face. I’m not a huge fan of Bridgette, but she does a great job here and turns it into a hot scene.

Joel flashes back to remember the last time he had sex with Kaylynn. It has the nice touch of working Kaylynn’s rule of not kissing in a scene into the actual scene. Kaylynn does a great job sexually, but Joel is great all around. He stays in character throughout the scene as well as doing a great job sexually. In the past I wasn’t too impressed with Kaylynn, but she does a great job here. There’s great chemistry and she seems to be really getting into it. She also does a good job of trash talking, which I don’t remember her doing in the past. Once again, it goes from her sucking on Joel to her riding his cock but there’s the added action of Kaylynn hopping off and a short 69 between positions. She takes it in her pussy again before having Joel fuck her ass and pop on her face. It’s a great scene and a lot better than I originally expected.

Alexa finally gets her first scene with Voodoo. She gives him a short blowjob before he eats her pussy. Voodoo fucks her in a few positions, and finally blows on her face. It’s a good scene, and unlike the others, it’s also a very romantic scene.

Finally, Joel and Alexa, the two leads, get to hook up. She gives him a quick blowjob before he stars to fuck her from behind. She gives him a double handjob, just to try and cover all of Joel’s dick, and takes his love lotion into her mouth. It’s a decent scene, but it seems way to short.

The Gate does a great job of blending some good sex scenes into a very good framework. It’s helped out even more by the great performances of much of the cast, with Joel Lawrence standing out in the male lead and David “Crawdaddie” Crawford giving one of the funniest cameos I’ve seen in a long time (check out Chapter 27). It’s going to take a little more than an act of God for somebody other than Joel Lawrence to win an award for best male lead. Surprisingly, the sex seemed to be the weakest link in The Gate , but even that is above average. If you’re a fan of Alexa or Joel Lawrence, you’re going to want to open The Gate .

Extras: Wicked really went all out on their extras for The Gate . There are so many extras here that they needed two DVDs to hold them all. The first DVD contains may of the usual Wicked trailers as well as a couple new ones. Audio bios are included for Alexa, Sydnee Steele, Kylie Ireland, Kaylynn, Bridgette Kerkove, Mike Horner, Joel Lawrence, and Jonathan Morgan. As with most of Wicked’s other recent releases, they’re customized to fit the feature and include a link to the star’s scene. Two photo galleries are included, one for the production and one that’s behind the scenes. Each photo lasts about five seconds with the production gallery lasting about two and a quarter minutes and the behind the scenes lasting an amazing nine minutes plus! Surprisingly, the only trailers are for The Gate , but there are two different trailers for it. Of course, the other standards are here as well including a list of the AVN & DVD award winners and nominees, Wicked’s company profile, the Wicked Web, the Wicked Casino, and a commercial for the Free Speech Coalition.

As with most of Wicked’s other top of the line releases, this one contains a director’s commentary. Actually, it goes another step beyond that by including two commentaries, one with Jonathan Morgan and Alexa and the other with Jonathan Morgan and psycho fucker Joel Lawrence. There’s quite a bit of dead air in the commentary with Alexa, and Alexa doesn’t say much at all. When Alexa does talk, I frequently got the impression that she’s easily distracted by shiny objects. Jonathan talks a lot about the feature without a lot of help from Alexa. The commentary with Jonathan and Joel, however, is a riot. They play great off each other and both have a lot of fun. They also talk about the feature and stars a lot, but there’s a lot of joking around as well. It’s a really great commentary and I’ll probably listen to it instead of the other audio tracks when I watch it again.

A new addition to Wicked’s extra package is also included on the first DVD. You can see two different versions of the script from the movie. The first is the original script by Martin Brimmer, and the second is Jonathan’s script that contains a connection to the movie. It’s a great idea and something that anybody who’s interested in the actual making of adult movies is sure to be interested in. You might even find it interesting even if you’re not that into the making of adult movies.

Wicked also added another extra that’s been a standard on many other company’s DVDs. This is the first Wicked DVD to contain multiple angles. They are only available for the orgasms, but they’re still there. The multiple angles are all true multiple angles which normally have a little different coloration to them. In the case of the scene between Bridgette and Herschel, it’s a behind the scenes multiple angle, which allows you to see some of the other cameramen. It’s a nice way to add the multiple angles to the scenes without taking up too much extra space on the DVD.

The second DVD is devoted entirely to extras. The featurette on Alexa’s body casting is the only extra that isn’t new on the DVD and doesn’t pertain exactly to the feature. The featurette on Alexa’s body molding was also included on Wild Thing . It’s a fairly interesting featurette if you haven’t seen it and shows quite a bit of Alexa’s personality. It really makes me appreciate her performance here, because seeing her in the featurette I wouldn’t think she’d be capable of it. She really comes off as an airhead and didn’t impress me at all.

A behind the scenes featurette has become a nice standard on Wicked’s DVDs. All Access: The Making of The Gate lasts thirty six minutes and captures the making of The Gate on a day to day basis thanks to camera work by David Crawford and Mark Stone. In a nice touch, the picture freezes on many of the stars to identify them. The featurette has a nice style to it. It’s done kind of like snapshots of scenes, and there’s a little flash of white with a camera sound between many of the clips. There’s some nice interviews with most of the cast, including Alexa talking about how guns kill people, not people kill people, because people can stand around making the “bang” sounds like guns and nobody dies. There’s also an amusing scene with Alexa and Joel comparing bruises they acquired the first few days of shooting. It’s a great behind the scenes that gives a nice look at the entire shoot as well as a little bit of what happens behind the scenes.

Extended scenes are available for two of the sex scenes. The first is the scene between Bridgette Kerkove and Herschel Savage and lasts thirteen minutes. Although there isn’t anything really new added, such as Bridgette getting a little oral love, the other sequences are lengthened out very nicely. The other scene is between Joel Lawrence and Kaylynn and lasts about twelve and a quarter minutes. This scene is very similar in that there isn’t anything really new, just some sequences being lengthened out. In both cases, the added portions are distinguished by having the Wicked logo appear in the upper corner of the screen, although it never goes off once it appears. Although a nice idea, it really interferes with the picture. The logo is about four times the size of the multiple angle icon that appears on some other studios releases. If it would have been smaller, such as the size of the other studios multiple angle icons, it would be much better. It would also be nice to be able to switch the icon off and just enjoy the extended scenes.

The box cover shoot for The Gate lasts a little over ten minutes. Almost all of the featurette is an interview with Alexa where she talks a little about her role in the movie and working with Jonathan Morgan and Joel Lawrence. She talks about not being able to cook and her favorite food. She also talks a little about the adult industry and that it takes a lot of makeup to make her look bad in the movie. It’s a nice interview, but I’m not really sure what it had to do with the box cover.

Interviews are also included with Alexa, Joel Lawrence, Mike Horner, Brad Armstrong, and Kylie Ireland. Alexa’s interview lasts about eight and a half minutes and she talks a lot about the more emotional scenes in the movie. She also talks about how she’s going to move onto mainstream after she conquers porn, which is just a baby step, but claims she doesn’t get a big head. Um, ooookay.

Joel Lawrence’s interview lasts about sixteen and a half minutes. He talks about his role, of course, including preparing for the role, his ad libbing, and the dialogue scenes versus the sex scenes. He also has some great thoughts on failure. It’s not something many people want to talk about, but Joel puts it into great terms and turns it into a much more positive thing. He’s very serious about his work and it shows. I think Joel is one of the best male actors out there, if not the best, and it’s great to see a little bit into his mind.

Mike Horner’s interview lasts about two minutes. He talks a little about his role as well as preferences for who he likes to work with and why. It’s short but sweet and has a couple chuckles in it as well.

Brad Armstrong’s interview also lasts about two minutes. He talks about comparing directing methods and how he now learns a lot about directing while being talent. It’s another short but sweet interview that I wished would have lasted a little longer.

Finally, Kylie Ireland’s interview lasts just under a minute. She talks about her scene with Lee Stone and working under pressure. Kylie’s been one of my favorite adult actresses for a long time, so I was kind of disappointed that the interview was this short. With her smaller role in this feature, however, it is understandable.

Three and a half minutes of deleted scenes and extended takes are available with or without commentary. There’s a little more for Alexa’s breakdown in the day room, her refusing the pills from Kylie, and her taking Joel’s load in her mouth. There’s also a few clips with some of the nurses and patients. In the commentary, Jonathan Morgan talks about why he didn’t include the scenes in the movie. It’s a nice addition, but Jonathan’s kind of hard to hear because of the audio balance.

The opening sequence breakdown lasts a little under two minutes. Jonathan Morgan talks about the effects that were added onto each other to get the appearance he wanted. It’s kind of interesting to see how things went together to get the appearances, but not something that I’d watch more than once.

Finally, there’s about five and a half minutes of bloopers. Once again, you have the option of having Jonathan Morgan’s commentary with the bloopers. There are quite a few sequences that show the crew popping in on scenes. There’s also scenes with the crew screwing up, both in sex and non-sex scenes. Once again, Jonathan’s commentary is a little quiet compared to the rest of the audio. It’s too bad, because he has some decent comments on the clips and he gives a little background on most of them. The bloopers aren’t nearly as funny here as in some of Jonathan’s other movies, such as Double Feature! , The Bride of Double Feature , and Porn-O-Matic 2000 , but there’s still some decent stuff here.

Overall, it’s an amazing extras package. There’s more sex for those who want more sex, and more about the stars for those who want more of them. It’s a great balance and probably the best collection of extras I’ve seen. About the only thing that’s missing is the kitchen sink, which makes packaging difficult, as well as shipping.

Themes: Straight, anal, and spanking

Raincoat Factor: Medium

Overall: Currently, The Gate can be found online for between about $25 and $29 with several stores offering it for about $25. With what you get here, it’s a bargain. The movie is extremely well done, with above average sex and great performances throughout. The transfer is top notch and the extras are amazing. If you only buy one adult DVD a year, consider this one. It’s worth the money and may just take you a good portion of the year to get through everything on it.

Note to Wicked: Wow. Once again you’ve set the bar a little higher for adult DVDs. Although I would have liked a longer sex scenes, it’s still a great feature and an amazing DVD. I wish there would have been enough room on the first DVD to include the longer scenes, and an option of seamless branching, but with how full it was with other things it’s understandable. Also, a few chapters in the longer featurettes would be great, such as a different chapter for each day in the behind the scenes. Keep up the great work!

Extra Note: Not five hours after it was posted on Adult DVD Talk, David Crawford, Wicked’s DVD Wizard, e-mailed me to inform me that the Wicked icon can be removed from the extended scenes. All you have to do is tap the fast forward and then hit play and the icon will disappear. It’s a great thought by Wicked and I applaud how quickly they informed me of it. It’s one of the reasons they’re one of my favorite companies and recommend their DVDs so much.

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