It Had To Be You Review

Cast: Temptress, Kylie Ireland, Briana Banks, Kitten, Chloe, Dillon Day, Jonathan Morgan, Steve Hatcher and Tony Tedeschi in sex roles; T.J. Hart, Jim Enright, Vanessa Blue and Kiki in non-sex roles.

Director: Jim Enright

Production date: 8/15/00

Length: 79 min.

Extras: A 25-min. behind-the-scenes featurette (hosted by Kyle Stone), 5-min. interview with Temptress, 3-min. box cover shoot, seven audio bios (Temptress, Kylie, Briana, Chloe, Jonathan, Steve, Tony), 15 trailers, main slide show with 27 photos, behind-the-scenes slide show with 20 photos, individual slide shows for every actress (20 photos each), AIM public service announcement and various Wicked promotional materials.

Audio/visual quality: The visual quality is very good, with a slightly soft look that appears to be intentional. The camerawork includes some excellent zooms from full-body to close-up, along with equally great pans from genitals to facial expressions. The main visual flaw is a thin, flickering line along the bottom of the screen, but it's pretty easily ignored.

The soundtrack is a-hoppin' with fun swing tunes. The audio balance very slightly favors the sex sounds (which is a good thing), and the presence of big band music in the background nicely enhances the light, energetic mood of the scenes. The majority of the dialog is clear and easy to understand.

First impression: I'm smiling when it's just begun, and smiling still when it's all done.

Scene highlights: Temptress ("Candace Calhoun") accepts a secretarial job without realizing her new employer is Bachelor Pad Publishing. After transcribing a sexist editorial, she vents her feminist rage on Dillon Day ("Lew Leffer"), who never reveals that he is the author of the article and the owner of the magazine. Intrigued by Temptress' spunk, Dillon convinces his right hand man, Jonathan Morgan ("Ralph Reedy"), to switch identities with him while he pursues her. This sets up a neat little comedy with a sweet romantic ending.

The first super-sized scene lasts over 28 minutes and actually consists of two scenes intercut together. Two magazine models, Briana Banks ("Trudy") and Kitten ("Sally") receive the VIP treatment after arriving for their photo shoot. Jonathan guides Briana on a tour of the executive changing room, while photographer Steve Hatcher ("Roscoe") takes some test pictures of Kitten in the studio. Although the action occurs in two separate rooms, it dovetails perfectly, almost to the point that I lose track of which couple I'm watching. Briana and Jonathan follow a blowjob–oral–missionary–doggie sequence, and Kitten and Steve follow an oral–blowjob–doggie–missionary sequence. Jonathan is hilarious while persuading Briana to disrobe so he can learn "what our type of magazine would do to accent you in an 'accenty' way." Meanwhile, Steve asks Kitten to show him a little more skin; she gives him a saucy smile and keeps showing more and more. Both women deliver amazingly hard, wet and deep blowjobs. Kitten gets an energetic rimming from Steve, and Briana takes both of Jonathan's thumbs in her ass, as well as some fast and furious fingerwork in and around her pussy. Steve's cumshot is thick and frothy, landing squarely on Kitten's tongue and chin; Jonathan's cumshot is thinner and more dispersed, nearly hitting Briana in the eye.

At the end of the day, Temptress' friend Kylie Ireland ("Fern") entertains a couple of guests in her living room. Tony Tedeschi fondles Kylie while Chloe hums on his cock. The two ladies soon double-team him, with Chloe taking the balls and Kylie tackling the shaft. The intercourse is all vaginal (Chloe in reverse cowgirl, Kylie in missionary), but it's spiced up with risqué repartee. Chloe sucks on Kylie's toes, and both women receive four-finger penetration. The double facial feels a little abrupt—Kylie doesn't get quite as much attention as she deserves in this scene.

Temptress accidentally discovers the truth of Dillon's identity and retreats to her bed in tears. Fortunately, Kylie knows just how to distract her. A supportive hug gives way to kissing, and pretty soon, Kylie's got eight fingers in her pussy (four of Temptress' plus four of her own). After some oral play by both, Temptress welcomes three of Kylie's fingers into her vagina while diddling her own clit. Mostly though, Kylie gets the attention here that was lacking in the last scene, including a bright red dildo in her ass and lots of hard spanking (which she repeatedly begs for). I'm not sure about Temptress, but Kylie appears to have an orgasm, or at least she fakes one well enough that her thighs tremble slightly. The chemistry between these two women is hot, and for a lesbian scene, this is well above average.

Not one to give up easily, Dillon walks in on the still-naked Temptress. After dropping to bent knee like any proper gentleman, he provides her a little foretaste of the honeymoon to come. Well, technically speaking, he tastes her first before letting her taste him. Temptress clenches the comforter in her teeth and fist while they spoon (a sadly underused position in porn). She vocalizes enthusiastically during missionary and eagerly receives his facial, the porn equivalent of a very happy ending.

Thumbs up: It Had to Be You is a nifty feel-good feature, with a plot that's clever yet not overwrought. For any couple who isn't outright offended by lesbian, three-way or anal action, this is quite possibly the perfect adult "date" movie. It's all very tastefully done, yet quite satisfyingly explicit.

The behind-the-scenes featurette is even funnier than the movie. The comedic rapport between Evan Stone, Jim Enright and the rest of the crew is truly something to behold. Normally I only watch the extras once before reviewing a DVD; this time I watched twice.

Thumbs down: Although it's executed about as well as it can be, I'm not sure I like the intercutting on the first scene. I wasn't expecting such a long scene the first time I viewed it, and I found myself looking at my watch about 20 minutes in. It also makes the following scenes feel short, despite the fact that they're a respectable length (8–12 minutes each).

Also, Temptress and T.J. occasionally sound just slightly hesitant while delivering their dialog, like they might be thinking their way through their lines. In contrast, the three main male performers (Dillon, Jonathan, Steve) usually come across as more natural (from the behind-the-scenes footage, I'm guessing that at least some of their material is ad-libbed).

Themes: Straight, lesbian, three-way, interracial, oral, deepthroating, anal, rimming (male to female), spanking, toy (anal dildo), facials.

Condom use: Yes, for every b/g scene.

Juice-o-meter: Medium high.

Final analysis: Although the pacing falters a little, It Had to Be You is ultimately a very fun and likable feature. This is the first I've seen of Jim Enright's work, and this movie makes me want to see a whole lot more.

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Special thanks to astroknight, reviewer extraordinaire, for his screenshots. Read his review of It Had to Be You here.