Second Chance (Wicked) Review

Reviewed by Nat Hocken  on  7/5/2003

“Jezebelle Bond,” I wrote in my notes for the first scene of Wicked’s “Second Chance,” “smiles like a whore whose only thought is to get Steven St. Croix off; she never comes close on her own.” Little did I know the reason for that when I watched the scene. Director Jim Enright cleared it up for me later as I perused this disc’s Behind the Scenes featurette. Turns out that Ms. Bond appears here in her first ever boy/girl scene on camera. And that’s an interesting fact, I think, but it didn’t make me like the scene any better. However, I will say in her defense that Jezebelle’s performance isn’t the worst thing in this movie.

Written by Melissa Monet, this is the story of John, an “old man” (he looks to be in his 50s) who’s just buried his best buddy, Harry. Or thinks he has. What John doesn’t know is that his friend’s death was a sham, cooked up to provide him a “second chance” at life—in a younger body, with a successful career and all the women he can handle. Harry’s contract, however, requires him to recruit new members into the second chance program, and Harry goes to work on John, cutting a few corners in the process. So it is that John winds up the unwilling inhabitant of Randy Spears’ body.

I’m not very difficult to please when it comes to porn stories, but this one grated on me for two reasons. First, it’s largely a downer; second, John is played by Dave Cummings, who hangs on to his role until after the third sex scene. I’m not into older women, let alone older men. (Granted, Dave doesn’t screw anybody here, but just having him around is enough to blunt the movie’s overall sense of eroticism.) I will give the story (and Melissa) one note of praise, though. The movie’s second scene is an office fuck with Aurora Snow and Jay Ashley. The office belongs to John, who catches the two youngsters getting started. “You were young once,” Jay says, and it’s supposed to be a crucial moment for John, who’s still weighing the idea of taking Harry up on his proposition. A better job of integrating into the story an extraneous sex scene is rarely encountered in porn.

It’s Jim Enright himself who really sinks this film, though, and he does so very quietly, with shot selection and editing. This is one of those movies where the performers move from one position to the next between edits. It’s a style that I think is meant to speed up the action, but which actually distorts the flow of the scene instead. And this is a particularly bad strategy in a narrative-based film since those transitional moments can really help humanize the characters. Which is exactly the service the two-shot can provide. Rarely used, Enright opts instead to keep his camera in close for a monotonous series of one-shots and close-ups.

The sex isn’t much better, though it has its moments. Aurora Snow, on her belly on a desk with only her head and shoulders hanging over the edge, manages to give Jay Ashley a good-looking blowjob. Avy Scott eats pussy as though she truly enjoys it during an international threeway with Alexis Amore and Fujiko Kano. And Cameron’s post-facial blowjob on Steven St. Croix is nice. As for the rest, it’s hardly worth the price of admission.

Man, I used to think Alexis Amore was hot. She’s got very little working for her here. Her boob job looks awful and her choice of clitoral hardware is simply a nuisance to poor Avy Scott (who does her best work on Fujiko). And hardcore fan of girl/girl that I am, I have to admit that Jezebelle Bond, with all of her tattoos, can stick with boy/girl as far as I’m concerned.