Return of Johnny Wadd, The (Adam & Eve) Review

Distributor: Adam & Eve Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Feature Film, Classic Run Time: 89 minutes Rated: XXX Release Year: 1986/1993 Director: Patti Rhodes-Lincoln (as Patty Rhodes) Written by: Raven Touchstone Cast: John Holmes, Sheri St. Clair, Billy Dee, Mai Lin, Bunny Bleu, Nick Random, Lisa Melendez (as Denise Ford), Melissa Melendez, Tim Connelly (as Dick Howard), Buck Adams, Kimberly Carson, Tony Tedeschi, Heidi Kat, Frankie Penn Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

The Return of Johnny Wadd marks the return of porn's private dick Johnny Wadd. Given a short rebirth by John Holmes and Penguin films, reportedly with permission of character creator Bob Chinn, The Return of Johnny Wadd was made toward the end of Holmes career. Much of the fun of the earlier entries in the Johnny Wadd series are missing here. Most of the film takes place indoors with very little for exterior locations, much like the first film in the series. The overall film comes across looking like most of the generic shot-on-video releases of the mid to late 1980s. In this entry in the series, Warren North, friend and ex-partner of Johnny Wadd (John Holmes) is murdered. Wadd, a private detective, returns to investigate North's murder. The Return of Johnny Wadd isn't a horrible film, but leaves much to be desired when compared to the rest of the series.

The Return of Johnny Wadd is presented in its original full screen aspect ratio. The video presentation is, overall, not that bad. There are a few places where reds are over saturated. One scene has a lack of detail throughout. The background lacks definition. Overall, not bad for a shot-on-video quicky from the mid-1980s. When compared to the earlier EVN release of The Return of Johnny Wadd, the video presentation here is only slightly better and definitely not worth upgrading. Especially when considering the larger issue discussed later. The Return of Johnny Wadd has a Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural soundtrack, which sounds typical of any from this period. There isn't anything that stands out as great about it nor anything horrible with it.

The biggest problem with this release is that for some reason Adam & Eve has chosen to use the 1993 version of The Return of Johnny Wadd, which adds a fifteen minute sex scene with Tony Tedeschi and Heidi Kat that doesn't have anything to do with the original film. In addition to adding the fifteen minute scene, roughly seven minutes of the original film has been edited out of this version. As a result I can not recommend this release. Instead, if this is a title that you have to have for your collection, I would seek out the now out of print EVN release of The Return of Johnny Wadd that contains the original 1986 version seemingly intact.

The only extras that Adam & Eve have included on the disc are a bonus scene from Marina Vice and a gallery of stills from The Return of Johnny Wadd, which come off looking rather poor since they are just frames from the video.

The Return of Johnny Wadd was the last entry in the Johnny Wadd series, which was made without any participation from series creator Bob Chinn. Overall, the movie is your typical 1980s quicky and isn't anything remarkable. This edition contains a later re-edit of the film, has missing footage, and includes a scene never intended for the original film. For this reason, this edition is not recommended.

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