Paradise Hole Review

Reviewed by Diville  on  2/1/2001

Staring: Syndee Steele, Jessica Drake, April, Tiffany Mynx, Daisy Chain, Keisha, Lola, Olivia, Renee LaRue, Bobbi Bliss, Evan Stone, Joel Lawrence, Van Damage, Dale DaBone

Directed By: Jim Holliday

If it's true that all men think with their dicks, then after watching Jim Holliday's Paradise Hole, mine must be a freakin' genius. See, it's doing all kinds of mental gymnastics at the moment. Watching an extra large cast of A-list porn stars fuck on my television set has a way of doing that.

Most top of the line porn directors have their own distinctive styles; Holliday is no different on that count. Yet, his individualism doesn't distinguish itself in a showy look-how-close-I- can-make-porn-resemble-real-movies kind of way. He's a pornographer and Paradise Hole is pornography. It's that simple. Sure, it has Holliday's sense of humor and his usual scripted silliness, but it also has Syndee Steele taking it up the ass and Tiffany Mynx taking it on the face. I suppose Holliday is also looking to make a bit of social commentary about the televangilists he parodies, but he's really preaching to the choir on that one. Fortunately, he keeps his own ministrations to a minimum; it's the sex we've come for, and it's the sex we get.

Evan Stone plays the part of an investigative reporter who loses his faith in the fourth estate, and instead discovers the promise of big profits in the kind of television ministry he's suppose to be exposing. Jessica Drake is sent to win him back. Television preachers are money grubbing hypocrites; Holliday makes the point over and over again. The thematic repetition is fine with me though. If I wanted sustained and gentle satire, I'd be reading Gulliver's Travels, not watching Tiffany Mynx's near perfect ass get snaked like a clogged drain, which happens before the opening credits even roll. Syndee Steele in the very next scene, picks up where Mynx leaves off and gets sodomized herself, and so does Olivia who next offers up the brown eye for the very first time (or so we're told in the commentary track). Two scenes later Keisha, the porn legend herself, unlocks the back door for Stone. Get the idea what kind of movie we're dealing with here?

The worst scenes in Paradise Hole are still pretty damned good. But special notice has to be given to cute April, who I've never seen before, but plan on watching again real soon. She embodies the fresh faced girl next door ideal that around the corner perverts like myself love so much. It's almost a shame to see her pretty face get profaned with Even Stone's semen. And, of course, Jessica Drake is also on hand for a lesbian tryst with Allysin Chaines and a three- way with Syndee Steele and Evan Stone, who may be the luckiest son of a bitch ever. I'd pay money to watch Drake eat an ice cream cone, so imagine how happy I am watching her in this kind of action.

Expect a lot of extras on this disc, as well. VCA has a tendency to pack them on. In addition to the eight full length sex scenes the movie boasts, there's also an audio commentary with Holliday, Steele, and Chaynes, a behind the scenes featurette, a photo gallery, bios, trailers for other movies, and so on. Honestly, there's not much here to criticize.

Sometimes you'll hear an adult director brag that his movie could sustain itself as a real film even if you took out the sex. What's the point? What those directors are saying is that sex is superfluous to their own x-rated movies. I don't want that. A better claim is to brag that your movie is enjoyable even during those moments when people aren't screwing. The sex should be at the center, and here it is. Holliday doesn't need me praising him; he does a good enough job doing that himself. But let it be known that sex movies should be about sex, and Paradise Hole is a good sex movie. When there isn't action on screen, though, there are laughs, and that's plenty to keep me entertained.