Justin Slayer's Merc Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  1/1/2008

The Little Details

Running Time: 144 min.

Production Date: 7 / 20 / 2007

Director: Justin Slayer

Cast: Chyanne Jacobs, Joyce, Luana Alves, Melrose Foxxx, Millian Blue, Roxy Reynolds, Nat Turnher, and of course, Justin Slayer in sexual roles with Beauty Dior, Cherokee D'ass, Eva Monroe, and Greedy in non-sex roles

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: The little I've seen of Slayer's work really impressed me and I've heard great things about this one. I can't help but have high expectations here.

Initial Reaction: It fell flat for me for may reasons.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody wanting a little urban plot with long artistic sex scenes

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody wanting a balanced feature

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The technical aspects were on the weak side for me. The audio is normally well balanced and clear, but most of the audio for the story sequences are done with voice-overs. The video is presented in anamorphic, and leaves a lot to be desired. The picture doesn't always fill the full screen, and there's quite a bit of footage that's out of focus. There's also a lot of footage that gets overly artistic with tinting and ghosting that made large portions of the movie almost unwatchable for me.

Music: There's a fair amount of hip hop music for the story sequences and the start of the sex scenes that worked well for the movie.

Menus: The main menu is very well done, and blends a bit of the movie with some animation for a feeling that's very much like what you'd expect from a mainstream DVD. The chapter menu is pretty good, and lets you choose a scene based on a text choice for each scene only.

The Feature

In Merc Justin Slayer reaches into feature territory with an urban action movie. He's out to take Greedy down, and knows he can't do it alone. He needs Nat's help, and ladies like Roxy and Melrose are just as necessary to his plan.

Scene 1 – Millian Blue and Justin Slayer

Millian starts things out showing off for the camera in black and white when she gets it in her head to make a porno tape. She lays back on the bed to play with herself a bit before moving into the bathroom to let Justin know that her pussy tastes as good as it looks and then dropping down to suck his cock. Millian works him over with a bit of throat before bending over the sink and letting him take her from behind. The picture moves to full color and away from the POV aspect as they get back in the bedroom, and they kiss passionately before Millian gives Slayer a little more oral attention and then laying back for him to fuck her missionary style after she shakes her ass and gets her pussy licked. She reaches down to stroke Justin's cock as he fucks her and lets him pick her up to fuck her in midair before they move to the shower for him to take her from behind. Millian drops down to suck his cock a little more before sitting back on the sink and playing with her wet pussy. She lets Slayer fuck her missionary style a little more before finally getting down to take a nice facial.

This is an above average scene. Millian does a very nice job showing off for the camera and there's some very nice chemistry between her and Justin. That said, the scene also seemed like it could have used a little tighter editing. I think the tease and blowjob took almost twenty minutes, and although the homemade POV style was well handled, it also got old for me. This was a pretty good scene, and I think with a little tighter editing it could have been even better.

Scene 2 – Roxy Reynolds and Justin Slayer

Roxy shows off for the camera a bit before taking to the bed and sucking Justin's cock. She rolls over to let Slayer pump her from behind before sucking his cock and getting up to ride him cowgirl style. Roxy lays back for him to fuck her missionary style next, and finishes things up taking a good pop on her face before working her pocket rocket around her pussy a little more.

This scene is one that I think is going to frustrate a lot of people. Roxy, as always, looks great, and there's great chemistry between her and Slayer. The problem here is the artistic style of the scene. It has a very yellow tint and some yellow and orange ghosting around the performers that really started to hurt my eyes. There's also a fair amount of out of focus shots that only made it worse. I can see some of what Slayer and HJ were going for here and can appreciate it, but the final product just left me happy that I had a remote control to make it a little more tolerable for my eyes. This had the potential to be a darn hot scene, but the style really held it back for me.

Scene 3 – Roxy Reynolds and Nat Turnher

After plenty of butt shakin' Roxy moves in to suck Nat's cock. She gets up to ride him cowgirl style before sucking him clean and letting him take her from behind. Roxy takes to her back for Nat to fuck her good and hard again, and then takes a break to work herself to a squirt with her vibrating egg. Roxy lays on her stomach for Nat to fuck her again until he pops on her jiggling ass.

This is a pretty hot scene. Once again the focus and artistic style interfered with the scene for me, but with the more natural colors it worked much better for me than the last scene. Once again Roxy puts out a very solid performance, and the squirting was a very nice touch to kick the scene up a little more. This is another scene that had plenty of heat but fell a little behind due to the artistic style.

Scene 4 – Melrose Foxxx and Justin Slayer

Bottle blonde black babe Melrose sits on a bathroom counter for Justin to eat her pussy starting out the next scene. He stands up to start fucking her with her ass hanging off the counter before picking her up and fucking her in midair in true Slayer style. Justin pumps her from behind on the counter before continuing it on a bed, where he fucks her from behind as well as letting her ride him cowgirl style before letting her have a nice pop in and around her mouth.

This is another pretty good scene. Melrose looks great and there's very nice chemistry between her and Slayer, which is nothing new for any Slayer scene. Once again the artistic style really held the scene back for me and made the scene lesser than it felt like it could have been. This is another decent scene.

Scene 5 – Joyce, Luana Alves, Justin Slayer, and Nat Turnher

Joyce starts out on the beach in Brazil showing off her big ass while dancing around a bit before she and Luanna head over to hook up with Nat and Slayer in a courtyard where there's a couple mattresses laid out on the ground. They strut around a bit before Luanna moves in to kiss Justin while he drives his cock deep into her pussy and picks her up to fuck her while Joyce hits the mattresses with Nat to suck his cock and ride it cowgirl style. Luanna and Justin hit the mattresses as well for both cowgirls as well as a little cocksucking. Both girls get in some doggie fucking before they trade partners and Luanna rides Nat cowgirl style while Slayer takes Joyce from behind and lets her ride him cowgirl style. Nat pops on Luanna's ass and she sucks the last bit out before moving over to stack herself on top of Joyce to kiss her. Finally Justin pulls out and pops in the air before the girls lick at the head of his cock.

This is easily the best scene in the movie. There's nice chemistry all around, and group scenes are always better when the girls seem to be into both guys. Granted, I would have liked a little interaction between the girls as well, but everything else about this scene clicks much better than in the other scenes. The camera work and editing are some of the best in the movie for the sex, but after the rest of the movie not working that well for me sexually I still had problems getting into this one. This is a good sex scene that closes out the sex in Merc on a high point.

Merc is a decent first try at a feature that didn't work that well for me despite having some nice things going for it. The sex in Mer has nice chemistry in each of the scenes, but also dominates the movie to the point that the story doesn't just seem secondary, but like it's near the bottom of the list on the things the movie wanted to do. The story does a great job capturing an urban feel, but to me one of the things a feature needs to do is give you some feeling about the characters in it. The story segments in Merc are almost completely dominated by Slayer using voiceovers to narate the movie telling the viewer what's going down and about the people so that you never have a chance to really see them for yourself. Without that chance, I never had an opportunity to care about what happens to anybody in the movie, and that really hurt the feature aspect of Merc for me. I'll readily admit to being a white country boy who hasn't seen a lot of urban movies, but the narration also fell short for me. I have no problem with Slayer's urban accent, but there were so many comments ending with “You know what I mean?” (and it didn't matter if it was the movie's audio track or the commentary track) that I couldn't help but think of the Merc drinking game where any time you hear “You Know What I Mean” you take a swig of your favorite malt liquor. Although Merc seemed to have a good idea behind the story, there just wasn't enough there to really care about it.

As for the sex in Merc, that too fell short for me and landed just below the average mark. The scenes are all long, but more so they're overly long and left almost every scene feeling like it could use another trip back to the editing bay. I'll readily admit that in most of the features I've watched the sex could be a little stronger, and Slayer did some things nicely in Merc that I wish more directors would do. The sex scenes all feel like his typical gonzo scenes, which I think could help out a lot of features, so there's plenty of tease to set the scenes up along with quite a few position changes. As much as I like the little I've seen of his gonzo scenes, here that style didn't work for me because the sex editing felt like it was approached with the attitude of leaving everything in and if people want less they can fast forward. Although there is something to be said for that in gonzo, I think features are a balancing act between the sex and the story. With Merc there's so little story to the movie that it almost appears like an anti-feature. Where most features feel like the sex scenes are crammed in between story sequences whether they belong or not, Merc shoves the story sequences in between sex scenes whether they fit or not. Both styles leave me wanting more, but the style here is a little less desirable to me because when I watch an adult feature, I normally do so because I want some story.

The other problem with the sex scenes was the style of the scenes. Although I really like that Justin Slayer wants to mix things up visually rather than just going with typical gonzo shot scenes, the artistic styles here almost never worked for me. There's way too much tinting, out of focus shots, and movement, and it was so inconsistent from scene to scene and between the sex scenes and the story sequences that, although I'm sure it wasn't meant to be, it came out as being extremely sloppy and hurt each and every scene for me.

All in all, Merc is a movie that didn't work for me for a variety of reasons. The sex was overly long and the story sequences were so short that they barely seemed to matter to the movie. The artistic styles felt sloppy and inconsistent, and held back all of the sex scenes for me. At the same time, Merc has a good idea behind it and an ambitious feeling so although much of the movie didn't work for me there was still something that made me want to like it. I couldn't help but think that with a little mentoring from somebody like John Stagliano, the potential and ambition Justin Slayer showed in Merc could be honed into something much better without robbing the feature of his artistic vision. Of course, here that didn't happen as Slayer made Merc a secret project of his learning things as he went along. Merc has some good ideas and ambition, but so much about it held it back for me that it just didn't work.

The Extra Stuff

The only extras on the first DVD are an audio commentary, a photo gallery with about forty five very nice looking snapshots, a cast listing by scene, and website information. A second DVD is devoted completely to extras including behind the scenes, interviews, extra footage, and cumshot recaps. There's also a cast listing by scene and filmographies for Roxy Reynolds, Millian Blue, and Chyanne Jacobs. If that isn't enough, you also get trailers for forty six (yes, 46) Justin Slayer movies, which I believe may be his entire Evil Angel catalog when this DVD was released.

Beauty Dior, HJ, and Tricia Devereaux team up for the audio commentary. They talk about the making of the movie, including how it was done without the knowledge of the Evil Empire, as well as their appreciation for the performers. There's also plenty of comments from all of them about how great they think the movie is. To me that's subject for debate, but there's a passion for the movie that comes out throughout the commentary that's hard not to like and it's combined with a great chemistry as they chat. This is a pretty good commentary.

The behind the scenes featurette lasts just under twenty seven minutes, and nicely identifies the players as they take the screen. Roxy chats a bit with Envy Mi as she does her makeup before letting loose herself on the set and showing off her fine ass. You get a little deleted footage before a deleted dialogue scene between Melrose Foxxx and Justin Slayer where you can barely hear the dialogue due to how loud the music is. Melrose's ass is shown off as well before a little eye candy and a quick blowjob with Chyanne. Millian is next, who shakes her ass before heading to the shower, followed by a little of Beauty and Cherokee shaking their asses mixed in with shots from around the movie and set. There's also a few words with Greedy before you get a little more eye candy with Roxy. This is an okay behind the scenes featurette. The overly soft or washed look really held it back for me, and my eyes were hurting before five minutes of this featurette had passed. It also didn't give anything too special beyond some nice eye candy, and I couldn't help but feel like it could have easily been shorted to about half its length. This is an okay behind the scenes featurette that didn't work for me too well.

The interviews, which are presented in anamorphic widescreen but has black bars on the edges to fit the full frame format of the picture, last just under twenty three minutes and features Justin Slayer behind the camera asking the questions. He starts out talking with Melrose about how people view the movie, how she'd get other women to watch it, and what she'd want for her character if they do a sequel. They also talk about the shoot and gives a shout out for her myspace page. Millian is next, who talks about what impressed her most about the movie, shooting the movie and it being her first feature, and how tight she is with the Justin Slayer porn family. She also talks about how close her character is to herself, not caring what it takes to get her in the next Merc, and pimping some of her other movies. This is an okay pair of interviews. Justin seems to be winging much of it, and also comes off a little more egotistical or arrogant than just proud of the movie. This is an okay pair of interviews.

The extra tease footage lasts just over twenty one minutes (as opposed to the twelve minutes claimed on the cover) and is presented in anamorphic widescreen. You get plenty of tease as well as a few goofs with the camera and comments from Justin behind the camera. This gives the featurette a feeling that makes it seem like it's half deleted footage and half behind the scenes. This is a decent featurette.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Straight, black, tease, masturbation, toys, squirting, and group

Raincoat Factor: High

Condom Usage: None

The Bottom Line:

Currently, most of Evil Angel’s DVDs can be found online for between about $18 and $30, with a few stores offering them in the $20 range. Rent this one first. The style here is very different, and although it didn't work well for me I know it has for others. The technical aspects are weak, but there is some nice effort put into the extras. Although a lot of effort went into Merc, it just didn't do much for me.

Note to Evil Angel / Justin Slayer: I hope Merc 2 is done out in the open so that Slayer can get a little help on making his features more fluent as he definitely has the potential to do big things.

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

Other reviews by Astroknight