Private Gold 55: Gladiator 2 Review

Gladiator II

Mike Lyons Reviews

Studio

Private

Director

Antonio Adamo

Cast

Rita Faltoyano, Black Widow, Katalin, Vanessa Virgin, Lisa, Sophie Evans, Nike, Cleare, Julia, Cynthia, Tchanka, Mandy Bright (Non-Sex), Toni Ribas, Frank Gun, Julian St. Jox, David Perry, James Brossman, Alberto Rey, Bob Terminator

Genre

Ambitious Feature, Euro-Babes

Audio/Video

Excellent Video. Good balance in the audio, but be warned: all language tracks are dubbed!

Extras

Trailers, Photo Gallery, Behind the Scenes "Making Of", Production Notes, Cast vidoegraphies, Desktop Background Images (DVD-ROM)

Music

Average, forgettable porn music.  Plays throughout sex scene, but voices are dubbed so who the hell cares?

DVD Format

1 Single Sided Dual Layer Disc

Condoms

None

Female Orgasms

None

THOSE WHO MIGHT LIKE IT

First time porn watchers.  Fans of very beautiful women and good production elements.  Those who don't mind a whole lot of bad story elements to get in the way of their sex.

THOSE WHO SHOULD STEER CLEAR

Those who hate feature porn, or pointlessly intrusive story elements.  Raincoaters.  Anyone who's looking for good sexual performances or chemistry.

IF YOU LIKED THIS TITLE, YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Private Gladiator I, Private Gladiator III, Fever (Private).

A NOTE ABOUT CAST IDENTIFICATION:
Once again, thanks to my friend Speelie and to Sbando Boy's, Eurobabe Index for their gracious help in identifying some members of the cast of this movie.  The correct information is theirs, the incorrect info is mine.  If you notice mistakes in cast ID's, please email me at the address below.

PREFACE:
Private has been shooting their version of "high budget" porn for some time now.  Some of the most ambitious features they've done in what I might call the 1st Age of Private were those of Pierre Woodman (including features like The Tower and The Pyramid series).  Woodman has since moved on to join the ranks of Hustler, and continues to make (among other things)  high budget movies for them.  Private has since moved on to what I might call their 2nd Age.  Employing a totally new stable of directors who have a penchant for more slick production, but slightly less humanistic tastes.  Antonio Adamo is highly indicative of the newer Private.  He shoots video (although he brazenly calls it "film") and puts a lot of stake in good production values, careful costumes and makeup and interesting lighting.  Although these things are all elements I enjoy, his lack of ability to capture true human feeling is the compromise that one must live with for his brand of porn.  Sometimes his style can be extremely erotic in a purely aesthetic way.  His Italian Flair is an excellent and successful example of this very beautiful and heavily directed brand of stylistic pornography.  Sometimes, however, Adamo's work can be downright boring when he somehow misses an ingredient to his very delicate aesthetic recipe. Whether it works or not, however, you can almost always count on Adamo for a couple of characteristic traits--1.) Girls who look beautiful, 2.) Interesting locations and lighting, and 3.) Heavily directed sex.

INTRODUCTION:
Private has a number of different feature categories, including the "Penthouse" line, and the "Movies" line, among many others. Gladiator II is part of the "Gold" line, and is the second part of a three part feature that is basically the hardcore version of the mainstream movie of the same name.  A certain mainstream publication has given The Private Gladiator I the nod as the best porn DVD ever made.  This is an arguably ridiculous distinction that I dare say, most educated porn fans would vehemently disagree with, and I would count myself among them.  However, I will acknowledge that these movies probably do have a large mainstream appeal to the more casual porn fans due to their good production elements, their ambitious attempt at story, and the relative tameness of the sex.  I will of course, give Gladiator II its fair due, but I have to admit that a badly written and acted story that gets in the way of the sex will not win this movie points in my book, and I'm afraid that that's exactly what I'm going to get here.

ALTERNATE OPINIONS:
A number of my ADT brethren have written various reviews about the movies of the Private Gladiator series.  We all have different opinions, and I believe in reading several in order to get a well rounded idea of the worth of a movie.  Please see these excellent reviews, including this one by edsa on Private Gladiator II for some alternative opinions on the Gladiator series.

PLOT/STORY/ACTION/ACTING/BLAH BLAH BLAH: OK.  Here's the deal.  In the interest of completeness and the previous precedent I've set for covering the story of the movies I review, I tried desperately to review and comment on the story of this one.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that the effort was gargantuan, and ultimately a failure.  I feel I must set a new precedent here, as if I don't I might well hang myself in the middle of reviewing this movie for the need to put myself out of my misery.  I have therefore decided only to give you this blurb about the plot and story:  it's a pompous, misguided attempt to marry the elements of mainstream cinema with those of hardcore pornography.  The acting is horrid, the fight sequences are laughable, and the voice acting provided by the dubbing performers is bordering on criminal.  Private and Adamo have spent a large amount of time and money for a story that has nothing to do with the sex scenes, nothing to do with narrative quality, and EVERYTHING to do with absolutely wasting the viewer's time.  I think I'm being pretty fair minded when I say that this one isn't even worth a laugh.  If you're looking for a plot synopsis, you won't find it in this review.  I'm afraid you'll have to go somewhere else.  As for the rest of the movie, let's see what it has to offer:

SCENE 1:
RITA FALTOYANO, BLACK WIDOW, KATALIN & JAMES BROSSMAN
The Girls
Rita Faltoyano is the center of attention here, and she is (may I say) fucking gorgeous.  She has long, curly strawberry blonde hair, big natural breasts and a beautiful face and body.  She is nicely made up and is looking very good.  Black Widow is a brunette who also has a very nice body and face.  Katalin is another blonde with a decent body as well, but her hair is made up in an unappealing way here, as it's tied back in a bun.

The Action
James Brossman, not being a complete idiot, starts playing with Rita and licking her pussy.  Katalin meanwhile services Black Widow's pussy with her tongue as they sit beside Rita and her partner with their feet in the pool of water.   After a bit of this, Brossman stands beside Rita in the water and Rita sucks his cock and tongues his balls in the midst of doing some signature Adamo camera staring (a strangely erotic way of involving the viewer in the scene).  Black Widow and Katalin finger each other's pussies, and tongue waggle each others mouths.  Rita then mounts James in the reverse cowgirl position as Black Widow fingers and tongues Katalin's pussy.  The overdubbing is typically annoying and it's really a downer that I can't here the actual sounds these girls are making.  Rita takes it in the spoon, missionary, then cowgirl positions next while the girls in the background continue their pussy licking show.  The action is mechanical and lifeless with the highlight of the scene coming when Rita coaxes a load out of Brossman's cock onto her gorgeous face.

The Gist
In my opinion this scene is an absolute waste of a beautiful girl.  To be fair, the production is beautiful with a great location, careful camera work, and well made up girls, but the mean result was absolute boredom and pure mechanics.  There was no heat to this scene at all, and the only thing that kept my dick even partially erect was Rita's good looks.  The other two girls offered nice scenery, but nothing interesting besides.  The facial at the end was very nice, and Rita did all the work to get the guy off, which was a nice plus. However, the nice climax could not make up for the lack of heat in the rest of the scene.

Rita Faltoyano, Black Widow & Katalin Video Captures
Click for Larger Size

SCENE 2:
TCHANKA, VANESSA VIRGIN (A.K.A. ESTHER VIRGIN), DAVID PERRY & FRANK GUN
The Girls
Tchanka is a very attractive blonde who is as cute as a button.  She has a fantastic body and has a cute little criss-crossy ribbon on her forehead that just completes the package.  Vanessa is marginally less attractive to me, although in the context of the cast of this movie, she's still damn hot by regular porn standards.  She is a brunette with a somewhat odd face.  Both girls have their hair tied up during the scene and wear sexy, white, period, easy-access costumes.

The Action
Frank Gun starts things off by eating and exchanging grapes with Tchanka and Vanessa.  After a bit, David Perry joins them and Caesar (Frank Gun) graciously offers him Tchanka.  Frank Gun goes to work munching on Vanessa's pussy while Cynthia gropes Tchanka and gets his cock sucked.  Both men get their sword swallowed for while, and finally some proper pussy pumping takes place in the spoon position between Frank Gun and Vanessa, and in the RCG position between David Perry and Tchanka.  Both girls look attractive enough and the setting is very nice, but the dubbing is so awful here that I'm too distracted by the sound to enjoy it much.  After some RCG for Vanessa and some standing doggy for Tchanka, the two women switch partners.  Caesar takes Tchanka's pussy standing from behind and Vanessa gets it anal cowgirl and then doggy as she stares at the camera.  Both girls take popshots that are intended to be facials, but only Vanessa's hits the mark.  The scene ends and my cock is left only marginally hard.

The Gist
This scene was very much like the first.  It had well made up and beautiful girls, but the sex was mechanical and formulaic.  The scene again lacked much of the aesthetic style and fantasy that Adamo has infused to some of his other work that somehow makes the sex he shoots artfully erotic.  In this one, I was left bored and impatient for the scene to end--although when I remembered that I would have to endure more plot and badly dubbed "acting", only then did I start to grasp how long and flaccid this interminable night might become.

Tchanka & Vanessa Video Captures
Click for Larger Size

SCENE 3:
SOPHIE EVANS, CYNTHIA, NIKE, LISA, JULIAN ST. JOX & TONI RIBAS
The Girls
Sophie Evans is a well established star and is a regular performer for Private and Antonio Adamo.  She used to be blonde but has, in the last few months, adopted the brunette look, and in my opinion looks even better that way.  She is an attractive girl, with a great body, but for some reason I've never really gotten all that excited over her. More attractive to me is Cynthia, a blonde with a nice face and equally nice body.  Nike and Lisa are two very nice looking brunette's that play a smaller, exclusively girl/girl roll in this orgy scene.

The Action
The scene takes place in a Roman brothel, where three of the four girls start by getting their pussy's licked by their respective partners.  Sophie Evans is with Toni Ribas, Cynthia is with Julian St. Jox, and Lisa is eaten out by Nike.  This moves into cock sucking for those girls with men, and more pussy licking and fingering for the other two as they switch positions.  The overdubbed moans continue to befuddle me and are really quite silly, but the girls do look nice.  Cynthia is the first to take a penis and does so in the spoon position while she plays with herself and breaks the fourth wall by looking at the camera.  Sophie takes it from her man in the same position, and the two other brunettes continue their little girl/girl twosome.  Both Sophie and Cynthia move to the RCG and then doggy positions as this boring but pretty scene continues to plod onward.  Both Sophie and Cynthia take nice facials at the end, but they don't necessarily make this scene worth watching.

The Gist
This is more of the same nicely shot, but fairly boring sex that matches nicely with what's been offered so far.  The girls are nice, the costumes are nice, the set is very nice, and the video is beautiful, but again for lack of the artful touch, and any kind of sexual heat I barely managed a hard on during the whole scene.

Sophie Evans, Cynthia, Nike & Cleare Video Capture
Click for Larger Size

SCENE 4:
RITA FALTOYANO, TONI RIBAS
The Girl
I've talked about Rita already, but I must reiterate.  She is FUCKING gorgeous, and is extremely well made up here.  Wow.

The Action
Toni Ribas is one lucky bastard.  First of all he's married to Sophie Evans, which of itself is certainly enviable.  But then to be able to say--"Nah, not today.  I'm gonna fuck Rita Faltoyano today...", well, that's nothing to shake a stick at either.  Rita is truly among the most beautiful performers I've ever seen, and after trying my best to get my glimpses of her during an enormously long and silly story sequence, Toni finally ends up licking Rita's pussy.  I would have been happier skipping the story nap all together and going straight to this, thank you very much. The formula sex continues as lovely Rita's mouth takes care of Toni's cock followed by some brief tit fucking and ball licking.  Reverse cowgirl is the first proper sex position, as she bumps and grinds her sexy body onto Toni's cock.  This is all too brief as the Adamo favorite spoon position is next up followed by missionary.  Rita then mounts Toni in the CG position and continues to look damn sexy doing it.  Doggy style finishes things out, and Rita really manages to convey some great energy and sexuality during this scene even with the director's heavy hand.  Toni cums on her tits, and thus concludes the first decent sex scene of the movie.

The Gist
Did I mention Rita Faltoyano?  She is amazingly beautiful (even with the couple moles on her breast area--which to me further define her beautiful individuality), and manages to really add some sexual heat to this scene with Toni Ribas.  Between her grinding and her very convincing facial expressions, I almost thought I was seeing actual human pleasure there for a while.  I liked this scene quite a bit.  Toni is an excellent cocksman, and Rita is beautifully made up here.  This scene was a nice oasis in the middle of an otherwise barren wasteland of bad acting and sterilized sex.

Rita Faltoyano Video Captures
Click for Larger Size

SCENE 5:
BLACK WIDOW & DAVID PERRY
The Action
The scene starts off with some light male to female groping before moving on to the obligatory blow job.  More of the same old Adamo spoon position is next on the menu, but I must admit that Black Widow is looking very nicely fuckable here.  Her very beautiful ass is nicely showcased in the doggy position, and they even do some naughty naughty pussy to mouth maneuvers to mix things up a little.  Cowgirl and missionary positions close out the scene before Black Widow coaxes a fairly week facial out of Perry's cock.

The Gist
Black Widow is extremely attractive here, and again that's about the best thing I can say about this scene.  This may very well be enough for many fans, but it isn't for me.  All it does for me is to make me want to find a GOOD Black Widow scene...

Black Widow Video Capture
Click for Larger Size

SCENE 6:
JULIA, CLEARE, ALBERTO REY & BOB TERMINATOR
The Girls
Both these girls have fantastic bodies.  Cleare especially has some extraordinarily nice breasts and legs.  I don't find Cleare's face that attractive though, and that's a big part of my enjoyment of a girl.  Julia on the other hand is quite pretty and has a plenty nice body of her own.  As with the other scenes, the women are dressed very nicely, and look amazingly good.

The Action
More of the same formulaic sex takes place here with some pussy fingering and licking for both girls followed by blowjobs for both boys.  Julia assumes the now antiquated spoon position, and Cleare goes straight to doggie with a P2M interlude.  Julia changes to the RCG position and the dubbed moans continue to grate on my already somewhat raw nerves. The girls exchange positions (but not partners) as Julia now works her man doggy style, and Cleare rides hers RCG.  Cleare has a couple tattoos, but she still has a damn fantastic body and she gets fucked rather nicely.  Both girls actually take cock in the ass in this scene--which for this movie so far has been very rare.  Julia looks frickin' great getting anally pounded doggy style and then in the CG position, and Cleare is analyzed in the spoon position followed by RCG.  Finally, Cleare takes the only DP in the movie in doggy position while Julia looks on and doles out some light kissing. Oddly, both men manage two cumshots here, albeit only Alberto's is of any real note.  Most of the cum lands on the women's faces, and they kiss a bit before the scene fades.

The Gist
Same ol' same ol'.  Julia is the more attractive of the two, and after seeing Cleare in two movies now, I've pretty well had my fill.  She never was for me, but a lot of people will find her the absolute cat's meow.  As for the sex itself, well... I think you know by now what I would say...

Julia & Cleare Video Captures
Click for Larger Size

PRODUCTION QUALITY:
The quality of the video production was very good.  I find it offensive and pompous that the production announces itself as "An Antonio Adamo Film" when in actuality it is simply a high quality video production.  That's a personal pet peeve of mine though, and I realize that very few others will care.  That said, however, in terms of production quality, this is very good.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the production elements and the women's looks are the only saving graces of this otherwise horrid adult video.  The sets are immaculate and interesting.  The costumes (for the women anyway) are beautiful, the hair and makeup is flawless, and the lighting is excellent.  These statements only apply to the sex scenes however, as the story, acting and plot elements are laughably bad, and a complete waist of time.  A friend of mine described it as a cacophony of "video game quality special effects" and I'd say that's putting it nicely.

DVD QUALITY:
The video quality of the DVD itself is outstanding, and there's nothing to complain about.  Don't get me started on the absurd language dubbing that you have to endure throughout the movie, however.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  Please, for the love of god, let me hear the actors original voices, ESPECIALLY during the sex scenes, and then offer me an English language subtitle track.  I'd much rather watch the movie hearing the voices of these performers in the moment than have to endure the fake moans of someone in a sound studio trying to sync their performance with the sex.  If you can't dub convincingly and professionally (which it has long been proven, that Private can't) don't dub at all.  It's just another element of Private's movies that separates me from the sex.

EXTRAS:
This disc comes with Private's standard compliment of extras, which is certainly more than a lot of adult companies offer.  There is a decent photo gallery, and a very nice section called "cast profiles" that is a great aid in identifying the female cast members.  There's a few pages of production notes for those who are genuinely interested in the making of the movie.  There are a number of trailers for other Private efforts, as well as a trailer for the Gladiator II movie itself.  The other trailers include Lust Treasures, Sex Survivors, The Gladiator, Private Castings #10, and Perfect.  Finally, there's a typically propaganda-like "Private Report" video piece on the making of The Gladiator which I was only barely able to sit through.  If you want to see some behind the scenes snippets during the making of the video, though, this offers that opportunity.  I would suggest you turn down the sound though, unless you want to get sick to your stomach listening to Private pat itself on the back. Finally, for DVD-ROM owners, this disc offers a couple other goodies, including some desktop background images in the preppy Private style.

OVERALL:
There are some absolutely beautiful girls here, and that is a fact.  In my eyes, Rita Faltoyano is head and shoulders above them all, however, by virtue of the fact that she offers pure beauty as well as a modicum of actual sexual performance despite Adamo's efforts to sterilize it as much as possible.  Her best scene on this disc is that with Toni Ribas, but in my opinion, it's still very weak when put into porn perspective.  If you like beautiful girls and good production elements to the exclusion of all else, you MIGHT want to check this out, but failing that, I think you would be better served if I spend the rest of this section providing much better alternatives to Gladiator II based on what you might be looking for.  If you're looking for a good feature set in this period  with a good story, a lot of action and some nice special effects; go watch Ridley Scott's Gladiator from Dreamworks and Universal Pictures and leave this ridiculous piece of tripe on the porn shelf where it belongs.  If you're looking for absolutely beautiful women having hardcore sex in an artfully produced way, may I suggest Adamo's efforts for the Private Penthouse series, including Italian Flair, Sex Shot, and Fashion.  Better yet, give some of the early Andrew Blake movies a try, including Night Trips, Night Trips II, and Secrets.  If you want to see excellent feature porn that marries good story with excellent sex, you've once again missed the mark with Private Gladiator.  Try these excellent movies instead:  The Fashionistas, The Ass Collector, Euphoria, Bad Girls (80s), or High School Memories (80s).  Even Private's 1st Age stuff including Pierre Woodman's The Tower series, and The Pyramid series is far far better than this misguided attempt at high budget porn.  Additionally, if you're looking for a softer introduction to porn with good production elements that you feel good bringing home to your significant other for their first porn experience, allow me to suggest some Vivid, Wicked, and Metro features.  Vivid offers Bad Wives, and Bobby Sox from Paul Thomas (although for reasons I don't want to go into here, I'd recommend sticking with the VHS versions).  Metro employed excellent director James Avalon for a while and his Red Vibe Diaries series is quite good.  And Wicked has a long standing reputation for quality feature porn with Flashpoint and Euphoria from Brad Armstrong being only two excellent examples.  Finally, if you're just looking for some good alternate vehicles for some of the beautiful cast members of The Gladiator series, my friend and fellow ADT reviewer Speelie had these recommendations:  Exxxplosion from Elegant Angel and Enjoy 1 from Sineplex (both featuring Rita Faltoyano and Black Widow), Orgy World 3 features a Black Widow with her natural chestnut hair color, and Rocco's True Anal Stories #15 features a nice scene with Rita.

The point I'm trying to make is that I can't recommend against Private Gladiator II enough, and the merits of the movie are only in its beautiful cast and pretty production.  The only way I could justify a nod would be for die hard Rita Faltoyano fans, or those who have absolutely nothing better to do with two hours of their time.  There are a lot of alternatives in todays feature porn landscape, and if I were you, I'd find one.

Questions or constructive comments about this review? Email me at MLyons@my.adultdvdtalk.com


Other Adult Movie Reviews by Mike Lyons