Promises Review

Running Time: 75 min.

Production Date: 6 / 15 / 1999

Director: Roy March

Cast: Envy, Taylor St. Clair, Taylor Moore, Allysin Chaynes, Tina Cheri, Kiss, Zhanalee, Chris Cannon, James Bonn, Mark Cummings, and Cameron Steele

Initial Expectations: I expect an average movie with a very good transfer due to Promises being a Collector’s Edition.

Initial Reaction: The sex is slightly above average, but there isn’t much of a plot. I wouldn’t call it a collector’s edition DVD.

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is mixed. The sex scenes mostly sound pretty good. The dialogue, however, is often very hard to hear or understand. Thankfully the video is better. It still has a few problems, like an extremely noticeable layer change and some bad focus flashes, but most of the picture is very clear.

Music: The music ranges from a little loud to very overpowering and is your typical porno music.

Review: Promises starts out looking like a romantic style couples movie. A small waterfall fills the background as the opening credits roll and a small picture of each woman appears on the screen with her name. It’s a nice touch and tastefully lets you know who each lady is. Unfortunately, this isn’t done for any of the men so I don’t have a clue who any of them are with the exception of James Bonn and Chris Cannon. The rest of the movie, however, doesn’t seem so couples friendly.

Tina Cheri and one of the nameless men open Promises the way most adult films should open - with sex. Although there are times when I like a little setup before the sex, there are times when I want to get right to the sex. Tina Cheri shows some decent enthusiasm here, and although she’s only average looking and has fake titties, she lets you know that Promises is about the sex, not the plot.

As soon as the guy spews his population pudding on Tina, we get to the real star of the show, Taylor St. Clair, who is just arriving at the couples resort with her significant other, James Bonn. Apparently they’ve been fighting a lot and came here to try and make up a little. I’m not sure how this is supposed to work in a porno, but they try limiting things right away by promising to remain faithful to each other their entire time on the island. Sadly, this doesn’t lead into a scene between Taylor and James. Instead they kiss and cuddle a little bit before going to sleep. Cuddling? This is to be a porno!!!

The next day James goes exploring the resort a little and meets Kiss, who offers to take him to a little party. James refuses Kiss, but can’t refuse Envy’s invitation back to her room shortly afterwards. Envy is a cute European brunette with fake tits who would be hard to resist. It’s a pretty good scene and they skip some of the foreplay so that James can get to pounding Envy’s luscious ass a little quicker. Man. This girl can do anal! Although her butt’s a little small for it, I’d love to see her in a Buttman movie.

James meets up with Taylor shortly afterwards and tells her that he’s been exploring the resort. Taylor isn’t paying too much attention to him as she’s trying to chase after Taylor Moore. They finally meet up at a convenient tub. After seeing the cover to Promises with the Taylors with their arms around each other I was hoping NuTech wouldn’t disappoint me by not having these two together in a scene. This is the first I’ve seen Taylor St. Clair, and so far I like what I see! She reminds me a lot of Elizabeth Hurley, only with extremely large (although real) tits. Taylor Moore, however, reminded me of a blonde Angelina Jolie, complete with natural tits. The idea of Angelina and Elizabeth going at it in a tub was enough to carry me through this scene no matter how bad it could be. Thankfully it was a pretty good scene. They even show the girls toweling each other off before they switched locations and moved to the bathroom counter. This was a very yummy scene, although I think my fantasies that were inspired by this scene were a little better.

In the woods we finally find out about the party Kiss invited James to. Since James wouldn’t go, they found Chris Cannon who gets a great double blow job from Kiss and Allysin Chaynes. James has the timing to walk by as they’re taking care of Chris, but once again declines Kiss’s offer. Granted, Kiss doesn’t look quite as good as she did in Face Dance Part 1, but it’s been seven years and it looks like time has treated her pretty good. He sticks around to watch for a little while before continuing on his walk. Allysin is also looking good, although it seems like she’s a little afraid of Chris some times. It’s an okay scene, but nothing too special.

Once again, Taylor and James meet up and while James sleeps by the pool, Taylor heads back to their room with another guy from the pool. This scene is slightly above average, but that’s all because of Taylor. She really does a great job and I know I’m going to be looking for more of her in the future. Finally, she meets up with James and they both talk about how they knew they could remain faithful to each other for an entire day. I’m sure Slick Willie would be very proud of them.

Promises does have a few problems. I think the camera work left a little to be desired. There were a lot of shots that just seemed to close. I don’t mean only showing an extreme close up either. A lot of the distance shots seemed a little too close. Somebody’s head was cut off in the scene many times. It was like they couldn’t make up their mind whether they wanted a close up or a distance shot so they compromised by cutting half of one of the people out for much of the movie. I also didn’t care for a lot of the plot. I don’t know if it was supposed to seem funny or not, but it didn’t come off at all humorous to me. I think it could have been a lot better if the James and Taylor would have been done as swingers instead of as cheaters. Just having them in a scene together would have worked wonders. Maybe a little twist at the end where they were masquerading as a couple so they could get some at the resort? Whatever it would be it would have been better with me than this.

Extras: The slide show is automated and lasts about two and a half minutes with about nine seconds per slide. It’s a little different from most slide shows as the picture zooms in or out on every one. It makes it seem a little more alive, but I don’t know if I really care one way or another about it. The bios cover Tina Cheri, Envy, Taylor Moore, Allysin Chaynes, and Taylor St. Clair. You get a little information about each person and a link to their scene. In addition to the trailers, there’s a screen that tells you about the movie. You can also select whether you want to watch R - rated or X - rated trailers. I’m not sure about this one. Are there people who are watching trailers for pornos with their kids around or something? It just doesn’t make much sense to me. Anyway, the trailers are available for A Peek of Pandora, Promises, Sensual Experience, Coming To Beverly Hills, Coming To Beverly Hills Too, The Price of An Education, and Sex, Lies, and the President . There’s also a list of Kaylan Nicole movies offered by NuTech. Finally, there’s a few website links.

Themes: Straight, lesbian, anal, spanking, rimming (female > female), group, and toys

Raincoat Factor: High

Overall: Currently, Promises can be found online for between $9 and $24 with most stores offering it for under $14. If you’re a fan of one of the stars, it’s worth $14. There’s some problems with the transfer and a plot is almost nonexistent. There’s also not much for extras beyond the standards.

Note to NuTech: Although it’s not a bad DVD, I’m not exactly sure why you call it a ‘Collector’s Edition’. In the future, please pay a little better attention to the transfer, as this is barely above average, and put a few extras on your DVDs. Thanks.

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