Vortex Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  7/31/2000

Running Time: 94 min

Director: Jim Enright

Cast: Juli Ashton, Vicca, Nikita, Shayla LaVeaux, Nici Sterling, Johnni Black, Syren, Melanie Stone, Rayveness, Jonathon Morgan, Kyle Stone, Tony Tedeschi, Dave Hardman, & Ian Daniels

Extras: Preview, photo gallery, and a short interview with Juli Ashton

Audio / Video Quality: Typical of VCA, it's excellent.

Review: Vortex is one of the few adult films which raises your expectations throughout the first five minutes, and then meets them throughout the rest of the film. From the box cover I was expecting a 'Quantum Leap' spoof, although Vortex is more of a parallel of it. Similar to Quantum Leap, Juli Ashton plays a scientist experimenting with psychic time travel. Apparently our bodies can't be transported through time, but our minds can be (although the bodies seem to disappear). Mike Horner is a rival scientist on the project who believes that everything is ready to go and that Juli is dragging the project out too long. In her attempt to stop Horner from sending himself into the past, Juli is pushed into the Vortex machine and is transported herself, shortly after banging Toni Tedeschi in her office.

Enright does a good job of using the setup to do a lot of period piece sex scenes as Juli is transported between times. She lands in Nici Sterling in the old west for a threesome (with DP), before shooting forward in time to her mother's sorority initiation with Johnni Black and Rayveness. Juli even jumps into her grandmother's body as she has a fling with a guy on their way over to the United States. In between, Toni Tedeschi and Vicca get it on during a break from trying to find Juli in the past and then have to deal with Mike Horner escaping from jail and making his way into the past, where he plans to take over a billionaire and buy the project for himself. We get a couple scenes of Mike as the billionaire (Jonathon Morgan) in a threesome and a boy / girl. Neither of the scenes are anything special. Finally, after Horner is brought back to the present, Jonathon appears and has bought the project, as Mike swore to do. We are left with Toni Tedeschi in Horner's cell swearing to get Juli back. Hopefully, we get to see him try, as Vortex was very entertaining.

The Good: Enright paid a lot of attention to production values. There are several non - sex characters, most surprisingly Shayla and Mike Horner (all the sex he had was in Morgan's body). Shayla's character actually has a lot to do in the plot, which I haven't mentioned as it can be confusing. The story is also quite well written and has very few plot holes. The sex period pieces are very good, especially when Juli plays her grandmother and the scene is done in black and white.

The Bad: The story gets a little confusing when Horner jumps into the past and into Morgan's body. The sex scenes with Morgan are also very typical and nothing special. It's also short on extras, although this appears to be one of VCA's early DVD releases which did not have a lot of extras.

The Ugly: I haven't heard of the sequel yet!

Overall: Pick this one up. It's fun and well done with better than average sex.