Talent Scout (Vivid) Review

Reviewed by Saki  on  5/24/2000

Talent Scout (1999)
Studio: Vivid
Directed by: Paul Thomas
Starring: Olga Rios, Eva Black, Eva Braun, Anita Rinaldi, Julie, Cindee, Eva Blonde, Bobby Vitale, David Perry, Geroge, Frank Gunn, Kareem, Rinehart Goeble, Julian
Running Time: 1:46
Format: Single Sided, Dual Layer
DVD Features: Full motion video chapter selection; all sex scenes have multiple angles, 4 short video clips; scenes from Comix, Speedway, Speedway 2, Cream On 2, The Bitch, and Arcade; video profiles of 10 Vivid Girls; and trailers for Dangerous, Tangled Web, The Show, Ancient Asian Sex Secrets, Body Language, Star Hunter, The Awakening, Oral Obsession, Blondage 3, Lotus, Blonde Justice, Vagablonde, The House on Chasey Lane, and Extreme Sex

The First Word: Paul Thomas delivers the best Vivid feature since Seven Deadly Sins with this film shot on location in Hungary. There are a few problems that keep it from coming out on top, but it's surprisingly good for an adult film.

Plot Synopsis: Mitchell "King Kordova" Marx (Bobby Vitale) is a struggling talent agent in desperate need of a new star to resurrect his career. While scouting in a small Hungarian town, Kordova plays upon everyone's dreams of becoming famous by promising them auditions and parts in the movies--in exchange for a small fee, of course. Kordova's grand promises to the town's residents brings him under the scrutiny of the local police officer (David Perry), who warns him to stay away from his ward, Stella (Olga Rios), and not to tempt her with his false dreams. Of course, Stella comes for an audition, and the two secretly become lovers.

When Kordova goes to Budapest to pitch Stella to some movie directors, we learn that he's not respected by his colleagues and hated by just about everyone, especially by the women who gave him money in exchange for screen tests they never got. He returns to the town with famous director Ben Hunter (Julian) who is very interested in casting Stella. Kordova thinks that Stella is going to be his ticket to fame and fortune, but Hunter obviously has no respect for Kordova and intends on cutting Kordova out of the picture. When Hunter sends Kordova into town for some liquor, he and Stella have sex. Returning with the booze, Kordova stumbles upon the couple making love. Kordova drinks himself to a stupor, awaking the next morning to find both of them long gone, with only a note and some currency left behind, thanking him for his services as a talent scout.

What I liked: Gorgeous Eurobabes: All of the girls in this film are top-of-the-line Hungarian hotties: natural tits, long legs, shapely butts, and pretty faces. But the female star, Olga Rios ("Stella") is girl-next-door beautiful and looks/acts/sounds very innocent. The beautiful actresses are the best thing about Talent Scout and it's pretty easy to see why so many companies shoot using Eastern European women.

Eye candy sex: Whether it's the three outdoor scenes or the ones shot indoors, Paul Thomas does an outstanding job capturing the action on film. The penetration shots are well-lit and look very natural (what a concept--sexual positions that don't look mechanical or require the dexterity of a gymnast to pull off). If you like the look of gorgeous women sucking on, well, huge dicks (they didn't cast Julian and Bobby Vitale for their acting skills, that's for sure), then you'll love this movie since there's plenty of that too. Even something that could look obscene, in this case Stella taking a post-sex leak while outside AND standing up (!), comes across as beautiful and natural. We're not talking Andrew Blake quality or style here, but it's definitely a great example of what Paul Thomas can do with a high budget production and I'd like to see Vivid do more projects of the same caliber.

What I didn't like: Weak acting: One of the major shortcomings of this movie was the weak and unconvincing acting performances. First, Bobby V. and Julian are definitely good looking guys, but they can't act worth a damn. Every single line that requires some emotion behind it is delivered with absolutely none. Neither of them convinced me that they were the characters they portray in this film. I know it's porn, but for a big budget project like this one, I would have thought that PT would have done some talent scouting of his own.

Heavily accented English: The other major problem was the decision to have the Hungarian actors deliver their lines in English. Most of them can speak English fairly well, but it's very hard to understand what they're saying. I hate having to concentrate so hard to understand the dialogue just so I have an idea of what's going on. I think it would have been better to have the natives speak in Hungarian and used subtitles. Paul Thomas did use subtitles in Talent Scout, but on a limited basis. I guess he didn't want to turn it into a foreign film with extensive subtitles. But after trying to follow the broken English, I can see why Private chooses to dub their productions.

Lackluster scene endings: In other words, pretty boring climaxes, nothing on order of Private or Diabolic with the money shots. Most of the loads are small, miss their mark, and pale in comparison with the action of the scene. While the absence of monster cumshots adds to the couples appeal that this film has, I don't think it was intentional, just that's the way the filming went.

DVD Extras: Slowly but surely, Vivid is seeing the light! The biggest improvement is that now most (but not all) of the bonus video clips are now labeled with the name of the movies they came from. And the clips are starting to get longer--not full scenes, but most are longer than the one-minute clips that we've seen before from Vivid. Another improvement is the growing number of preview trailers (14 on this disc) that Vivid includes. The multiple angles are better than I've seen on most of the Vivid titles I've watched and are closer to real multiple cameras (though they still are made up of different edits of the same camera, with all of the problems associated with that). Unfortunately, there's still much room for improvement with the extras. The "Int. Tel. Sex game" (that never was really a game but rather a glorified selection menu) is now just a list of video clips, so why doesn't Vivid rename that feature? The same stupid VR interfaces are still there and still useless and boring as ever. I'm sure they spent a lot of time and money developing them, but they pale in comparison to what other studios are doing with menus nowadays. And that Vivid DVD logo on the multiple angle scenes must go away. Finally, I still don't think you'd get 2+ hours of extra footage when you combine all of the extras and multiple angles.

A/V Quality: While I'm not impressed by the transfer quality of this film, it's much better than most Vivid features. And unlike other Vivid movies that were shot-on-film, you can actually tell that it was. The transfer ranges from good to slightly below average. The video isn't as crisp and artifact-free as some of the other studios, but it's not as distracting as some of the typical Vivid productions. The stereo audio track has a noticeable "room echo" to it, again, like I expect from Vivid, but not as bad as I've heard from them either. If anything, the fact that most of the performers speak in very heavily accented English is what makes the dialogue so hard to understand, not the audio quality. In a nutshell, the A/V is respectable but still could be a lot better.

The Last Word: I'm pretty comfortable giving Talent Scout a "Very Good" rating, and would have given it an even higher overall score if it weren't for the minor distractions I talked about. The story, acting, language strategy, and A/V quality could have been improved to the point that might have given some of the European productions a run for their money. Regardless, it's probably the best Vivid DVD release of the first half of 2000 and definitely worth a look, if only to see the lovely Olga Rios in her adult debut.

Themes: Eurobabes, anal, outdoor sex, lesbian, public urination