Gladiator (Pleasure) Review

Running Time: 72 min.

Production Date: 8 / 2000 (cover) 9 / 2000 (feature)

Director: Stuart Canterbury

Cast: Evan Stone, Julie Meadows, Joel Lawrence, Angelica Sin, Bridgette Kerkove, Jessie Jordan, Chantal Lace, Kyle Stone, Rich Handsome, and Shay Sweet

Initial Expectations: There’s some great people leading the cast and Canterbury can make a very good adult film, so I have pretty good hopes.

Initial Reaction: It’s very well done.

Who Should Watch It : Fans of well done and well acted porn

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody looking for more extreme sex and raincoaters

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is very clear and well balanced. The video has a little grain and a few flashes of pixelation, but neither interfere with the feature at all.

Music: The music is a mix of a sexy jazz style and music that seems better fit for a mainstream movie but works well here also. They’re both normally way too loud.

Menus: The menus are simple and don’t have much animation, but have a well done feel and fit the mood of the feature very well. The chapter menu allows you to choose a scene based on a number and a small clip of the scene.

The Feature: There are certain things you learn as you get older. Don’t take the dare to stick your tongue to the flagpole in winter. Although she’s moaning a lot in there, Mommy doesn’t really have a tummy ache. If you live in Montana, sheep can hear a zipper a mile away. If Hollywood makes a lot of money on a movie, somebody’s going to try to turn it into a porno. If you’re lucky it will actually be based on the movie rather than just making fun of the name. Of course, Gladiator falls into this last lesson and is done by Stuart Canterbury, one of the masters of period porn (and not the fetish kind).

Joel Lawrence, the Emperor who’s starting to lose his mind, keeps it together enough to get it on with Angelica Sin, an extremely hot and highly underrated brunette. Angelica drops to her knees almost right away to kiss more than just Joel’s ring. She even risks dislocating a jaw by trying to take Joel’s balls in her mouth before turning around to give Joel a great view of her amazing ass while he fucks her pussy from behind. They both finger her ass and later Angelica takes the pile driver to her ass. Joel works over both her holes very well, and Angelica makes it very enjoyable with her squealing, smiles, and little trash talk. Joel finishes her off by unleashing his love cannon onto her stomach and bush. It’s a hot scene and a very good one to start the feature with.

Shay Sweet, a cute blonde who looks as good here as she ever has, and Chantal Lace, an attractive redhead with a few piercings and tattoos, fight as they’re ordered to in preparation for the Emperor’s circus. They’re ordered to both fight and entertain, and so they entertain each other as well as everybody watching with some lesbian lovemaking. They work each other over very well with their fingers, and without much kissing since it’s also a fighting scene. It shows some of why Canterbury is so well known for his period pieces. He knows enough that vibrators weren’t that common during the Roman Empire and makes it a natural scene. I’m sure piercings and extravagant tattoos weren’t that common also, but they’re at least within the realm of possibility and are kind of hard to get rid of. It’s a hot scene and works very well in the plot. The ending feels a little cut off, but that seems to be a common problem in lesbian scenes.

Slave Bridgette Kerkove works to earn herself a little better treatment with slave trainer Kyle Stone as Julie Meadows watches. She lets him eat her bald beaver while moaning loudly before sucking his cock and taking it all the way into her mouth. After a nice warm up for both of them, Bridgette hops onto his cock for a nice ride and then lays back for Kyle to work on both her holes. Bridgette finishes it out by taking Kyle’s pop in her mouth and sucking as much as possible out. It’s a hot scene with very good chemistry that fits into the plot extremely well.

Jessie Jordan, an attractive brunette with nice real tits, takes on the ironically named Rich Handsome in an outdoor court in the next scene. He starts out eating her pussy, and they nicely move it through a 69 and into Jessie sucking his cock before they fuck. They work through some of the standard positions with Jessie nicely holding the scene together. Rich seems to just lay there thanking God that he’s where he is. At his age, he probably shouldn’t push it too much so he doesn’t risk a heart attack. They finish it off with Jessie taking a decent pop on her chin and around her mouth. It’s an above average scene, but not by much, and all credit for it making it that far goes to Jessie Jordan.

After being rescued by Evan Stone, Julie Meadows thanks him as one should be in an adult film. She drops to her knees to eagerly suck his rod and then purrs away as he eats her pussy while she sits on a fence. Julie stays there for Evan to slide his rod into her pussy and then turns around for him to continue to pump away. Evan finishes it with a decent pop on Julie’s great ass, which he sadly didn’t get to experience in this feature. It’s a well done scene but does drag a little bit.

Gladiator fights its way to the top very well. The plot pays attention to details very nicely and is both well written and well acted. The sex fits into the framework of the plot very well without feeling forced into it. The only complaint I have is that both the plot line with Joel and Angelica and their treachery and Evan and Julie saving the kingdom end rather abruptly instead of being wrapped up cleanly even though there’s time to finish it better. Despite this, Gladiator survives this round very well and isn’t going to have to fight to hard to find a spot on my shelf.

Extras: The photo gallery includes a selection of about twenty one nice looking snapshots and full screen photos. Bios are included for Julie Meadows and Angelica Sin. They’re very brief and don’t include much more than a photo of the star. There’s also the standard selection of trailers from the Pleasure family, internet information, and phone sex commercials.

Themes: Straight, anal, spanking, lesbian, and ass to mouth

Raincoat Factor: Medium

Overall: Currently, Gladiator can be found online for between $18 and $24 with about half the stores offering it for under $20. It’s a very well done movie, both sexually and artistically. The transfer is very good and has very few flaws. The only thing missing is a good selection of extras.

Note to Pleasure: Very nice job here. The only thing that held this back from being a really great DVD is the lack of extras.

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

Other reviews by Astroknight