Scandalous (Wicked Pictures) Review

Reviewed by Count Serreno  on  10/16/2018

Directed by Stormy Daniels, this movie has a nice premise, but doesn’t deliver on its potential. Julia Ann and Marcus London offer solid performances but the supporting cast falls a bit flat and some of the camera work really breaks the immersion in some scenes. For instance, in the scene with Julia and Ryan, there’s about a 15 second shot that cuts off the tops of their heads while they’re kissing. We get a transition to a different angle then it goes back to the first angle with their heads still not entirely in the frame. After about 15 more seconds the camera visibly corrects to get their whole heads into the shot and zooms in with staccato. The sequence takes a little over a minute but I found it very jarring. In addition, the middle of the movie felt disjointed. It seemed to cut its way through the story’s exposition quickly in order to get to the next sex scene.

Julia is fine as the scheming mother willing to con and/or fuck whomever she has to to get what she needs. She tricks rich men into marrying her, then she sends Abby in to seduce them so she can catch them in the act, ultimately divorcing them to get piles of money in the settlement. She also has no problem with small scale hustles like dropping fake insects into food at restaurants in order to get free meals, (a well constructed scene in which Julia really shows off her comedic ability).

Fans of the teen genre should enjoy Abby and Michael (London) together as she totally looks the part. Foot fetish fans will also enjoy this scene as there is a ton of podiatry play and London really hams up the fetishization of this kink with his performance. It’s fun stuff. In fact, I found Michael to be the most enjoyable character in the film although his late re-insertion into the plot seemed to be just an excuse to fit one more sex scene into the movie. That said, the final sex scene is the best one in my opinion. Julia and Marcus showed nice chemistry and she seemed to be genuinely enjoying herself. They also looked fantastic when they were spooning.

Maxim Law’s scene with Tyler Knight had some nice shots that showed off Maxim’s large, natural tits and there’s a cool standing doggie moment where you can see her reflected in the screen of the computer on the desk. Plus the scene offers a bit of variety because Maxim is wearing stockings.

Abby and Josh (Echo) have a side romance storyline revolving around their growing feelings for each other, Abby’s distaste for her mother’s solution to their debt problem, and Josh’s desire to open his own restaurant. Their romance is meant to complicate matters but it doesn’t have much of an impact on the overall plot. Still, Elsa does get to show off her cowgirl skills in her scene with Robby Echo and again, those who like the nubile teen genre should find plenty to enjoy here.

The movie ends rather abruptly with an ambiguous solution to the main problem Katrina and Abby were facing, but there’s no payoff to that ambiguity. It’s loosely implied that Tito and Josh go into business together but it makes little sense that Tito would loan Josh the money to finish his restaurant and then have to wait for that restaurant to turn a profit to get paid back when Katrina still owes him money. It also doesn’t make sense because Josh explains to Abby that he could just pay Tito off for them and then save up money again to open his restaurant at a later date but Abby refuses his offer. So it’s not like Josh needed Tito’s money to open the restaurant at all. The entire ending left this reviewer confused. It felt like the movie just ran out of time.

There are plenty of other movies out there featuring these performers and this director that have a more streamlined story, better visuals and a more satisfying ending. Julia Ann and Marcus London are the standout performers here but there are better films that you can spend your money on to see them. I viewed this movie on Wicked.com so I was not able to view any of the extra features.