Thrust (Ultimate) Review

Reviewed by Principal Skinner  on  9/7/2000

Who can resist Stacy Valentine? Blonde, dangerously curvy, fresh-faced and cute as hell, this babe is a wet dream (and well-fed) Barbie doll come to life, which is not unusual in porn, but Stacy definitely has a charm which will work on even the most ardent brunette fans (such as myself). Although when it comes to fair-haired girls, women like Ginger Lynn, Juli Ashton and Shayla LaVeux float my boat moreso than the common bleached blonde sex dolls, but Ms. Valentine is simply irresistable to me. She gives blowjobs with a rhythmic, sensuous passion and looks just plain sexy while getting fucked.

Well, as it turns out, she is really the only redeeming feature in Adam & Eve's THRUST, yet another strictly plain vanilla, straightforward porn movie shot several years ago, which is only average at best. The plot (more like a theme, actually) involves sex within a military setting, so you get lines like "Drop your bombs all over my face..." which will have you rolling your eyes instead of indulging in other physical activities. Like most hacked-out porn videos, this movie feature five standard scenes, with the main attraction participating in two of them. All the sex is performed competently, and the overall production of the video makes this DVD acceptable, but that is about it. Dirty blonde and hard-looking Johnni Black performs in two straight scenes, and although she does not shy away from anal or cum facials, I found her performance rather boring. Another blonde, Timber, does better in her threesome with two guys, especially where she receives a nicely-shot facial and reacts with more passion. But since Stacy only sits in the background without any active participation, this scene was only above average. There are no girl-girl scenes in this video, so fans of girls making out, carpet munching, and dildo sharing will have nothing to watch here. Part of the problem is that there is no build-up to the sex, a few suggestive lines of dialogue are spoken, the music fades in, and then the couples get it on with some oral sex, then a few fucking positions, and then a money shot which lands either on the girl's face or chest...then on to the next scene. Of course, when you break any sex scene down to its basic componenets, it all seems the same. But THRUST really doesn't even try to do anything special, either with the storyline or with setting...it's just assembly-line porn.

Given the lack of creative direction by Thomas Paine, credit should go to Stacy for managing to generate a consistent level of heat in her scenes. As the credits roll at the beginning of the video, Stacy takes a nice, long shower before joining Mark Davis in a bedroom romp for what is probably the best scene in the whole film. Although she just got herself cleaned up, Stacy works up a good sweat during their coupling, which was probably due more to the camera lights and climate (I assume it was filmed during the summer time) than do to her physical exertion. Beads of wetness (as in perspiration, not any other bodily fluid) are sprinkled all over her face and body, which actually enhances the overall excitement of the scene. Their encounter in a satisfying oral orgasm (for Marc, that is), which is rare in Stacy videos of today (especially where she is under contract with VCA Pictures which has a mandatory safe sex policy), so earlier videos like THRUST or HABITS OF THE HEART or RED VIBE DIARIES are the only ones where Stacy does it without a condom and gets splashed all over her face. Unfortunately, Stacy's second guy-girl scene, which comes in the middle of the movie, features only a splooge shot to the chest, although the sex that preceded it was pretty damn good. Again, Stacy is excellent when it comes to giving head, and both of her vignettes are worth watching if only for that activity.

Overall, the picture quality on THRUST is good. The images are bright and clear, but the transfer is not exactly pristine: digital artifacts and moire can be seen at times, but I have no real complaints. As with HABITS OF THE HEART, there are absolutely no extras on this disc...this disc is probably no better and no worse than the original VHS release (except for picture quality).

Clearly, this DVD is for Stacy Valentine fans only. Anyone else interested in more ambitious porn should turn to the Laure Sainclair series produced by Marc Dorcel and released on Wicked Video, or else go grab any Andrew Blake release out there. If it weren't for Ms. Valentine, I would have given this DVD a polite pass.