andyblake's Movie Reviews (67 - page 3)
Release date: 7/9/2002
Reviewed on: 8/22/2004
Studio: Arrow Productions
Starring: Paul Thomas, Don Fernando, Rock Steadie, Richard Pacheco, Sharon Thorpe, Eileen Welles, Amber Hunt, Mimi Morgan, Lauren Black, Nancy Hoffman, Cris Cassidy, Phaedra Grant, Bron White, Byron White, David Clark, Joey Nassivera, Marc Howard
Directed by: Bob Chinn
Review brief: This 1978 golden age classic by Bob Chinn is a lot of good, dirty fun. The set is convincing, and many have thought it was shot in a hospital although it was really shot on a sound stage in San Francisco. The acting is reasonably good, although the plot isn't complicated: a bunch of hospital patients who are more horny than sick, and three candy stripers willing to serve any way they can, including sexually. Many have commented that the women in classic porn are not as good looking as today's crop. Although that is generally true, Amber Hunt, for example, could hold her own even in today's porn biz. Arrow has done an outstanding job restoring sound and picture, and one of the cutest things about this movie is the song that was composed and performed for it. The fact that golden age adult films frequently had a song written specifically for them is one of the things that separates them from the current industry.
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Release date: 12/16/2003
Reviewed on: 8/2/2004
Studio: Private
Review brief: This disk was a serious disappointment. It has only 28 trailers (and they are not properly labeled) and three full scenes. To give you an idea what a rip-off this is, Private Sampler 2 had 87 trailers and three full scenes, and Private Sampler 4 had about 30 more trailers than no. 2. Worst of all, the trailers will not play back to back (although none of the other private sampler disks did either). Any store that is actually selling this should be very ashamed of themselves; a disk like this should be given away as a promotion. It is advertising, and not very much advertising. I paid $4.95 for this, and I feel violated.
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Release date: 8/15/2001
Reviewed on: 10/24/2003
Studio: Adam & Eve
Starring: Mark Davis, Alexandra Nice, Lexington Steele, April, Tina Cheri, Dale Dabone, Alexis Amore, Lee Stone, Sky Taylor, Briana Banks, Brooklyn Rhodes
Directed by: Nicholas Steele
Review brief: For some reason, much of this video, including several whole sex scenes, is laterally compressed, as though it were shot in widescreen and then compressed into the standard 1.33/1 television screen. Why? Did someone at Ultimate Pictures, Nicholas Steele perhaps, think this was cool looking? I found it extremely annoying. All the actors appear distorted; they look like some sort of bizarre stick people. When it is pointed straight out, as when he is receiving a blowjob, Mark Davis' dick looks like it is 3 inches long. What a mess! If you need to get up close and yet get more of the action onscreen, you use a wide-angle lens. This is what John Stagliano, Tom Byron, Seymour Butts, and everyone else making gonzo porn in the last 15 years has been doing. The best thing about this DVD is the trailers. All the trailers play back-to-back without stopping, which is a good thing. I noticed that the trailer for what was ulimately marketed as "Fiesta" is labeled "Dinner Party 3" on this DVD.
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Release date: 10/4/2000
Reviewed on: 4/27/2003
Studio: Vidco
Starring: Jamie Gillis, Georgina Spelvin, John Holmes, Marilyn Chambers, Desiree Cousteau, Jesie St. James, Mike Ranger, Christine Sarver, Ian Saltares
Review brief: This is a compilation of unrelated scenes featuring the late John C. Holmes, and his incredible 13-inch schlong. (This compilation is vastly superior to another John Holmes compilation DVD that I review on this site) Some of the scenes are from Holmes' Johnny Wadd series from the 1970s, directed by Bob Chinn. The plot and acting from the scenes included in this compilation makes me wish that the whole Johnny Wadd series would be rescued from the vaults and re-issued on DVD. I imagine that most of these movies simply no longer exist, which is too bad. A couple of years ago, Bob Chinn tried to re-start the Johnny Wadd series with a different actor. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a market for expensive, plot-driven features with high production values. These types of movies are out-competed by the flood of much cheaper gonzo material that completely dispenses with plot, writing, acting, outdoor shots, indoor sets, etc.
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Release date: 4/24/2000
Reviewed on: 3/7/2003
Studio: Caballero
Starring: Mai Lin, Jamie Gillis, Ron Jeremy, Don Fernando, Eric Edwards, Samantha Fox, Michael Morrison, Lisa De Leeuw, Veronica Hart, Jon Martin, Arcadia Lake, R. Bolla, Frank Hollowell, Herschel Savage, Pat Manning, Nicole Black, Brooke West, Lee Carroll
Directed by: Robert McCallum
Review brief: Here is a Harold Lime/Robert McCallum classic from 1982 that is still famous over 20 years later. It won six adult film critic awards, including best picture. Because it was filmed near the end of the "golden age," there aren't quite as many exterior shots as there would have been in movies a few years older. The plot involves a madam named Amanda (Veronica Hart) who, as a favor to her former pimp and lover (Jamie Gillis), sets up an S & M session for a local politician. The girls that she sends for this session (Lisa de Leeuw and Samantha Fox) are later found dead. R. Bolla plays the straight-arrow homicide detective trying to solve the case, without much help from Amanda. To make matters worse, there's a corrupt vice squad cop (Ron Jeremy) who is constantly getting in the way. By today's standards, this is couples' fare, with relatively short sex scenes, and loads of plot. It's so good-hearted, it could almost be on the Family Channel. Veronica Hart gets to over-act and ham it up ridiculously. It's a good movie, but a poor DVD.
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Release date: 8/26/2000
Reviewed on: 3/7/2003
Studio: NuTech
Starring: Angel, John Leslie, Annette Haven, Harry Reems, Janie Robbins, R. Bolla, Herschel Savage, Colleen Brennan, Janey Robbins, Larry Charm, Heinz Gegler, Edmund Simmons, Melanie Scott [II] (1980s)
Directed by: Robert McCallum
Review brief: This 1984 release from Cal Vista is a couple of years too recent to be considered "Golden Age," but is definitely a classic. Produced by Sam Norvell and directed by Robert McCallum, it features 70s porn superstar Annette Haven, along with John Leslie, Harry Reems, R. Bolla, and Hershel Savage. It also features "Angel" who was breifly the rage during the mid-1980s. She does a scene with Leslie and another with R. Bolla. My favorite performer is the under-celebrated Janey Robbins. She had a great body and was a very enthusiastic sex performer. Robbins also has a cute Minnesota accent (like the female sheriff in "Fargo"). Here, she does two scenes, one with R. Bolla and one with Hershel Savage (a purported incest scene). Strangely, it appears that this movie was intended to have a sequel, but I've never seen it, and I don't think it was ever made. Nu-tech has done an acceptable job on the DVD transfer; it looks much better than the tape I had. Nu-tech also features Dolby surround sound, but I couldn't detect any improvement in the sound.
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Release date: 2/17/2001
Reviewed on: 3/24/2002
Studio: NuTech
Starring: Jamie Gillis, John Leslie, Kay Parker, Jesie St. James, Juliet Anderson, Shirley Wood, Dewey Alexander, Desiree West, Lottie Hayworth, Dorothy LeMay, George Spelvin, Aaron Stuart
Directed by: Anthony Spinelli
Review brief: Old timers will recognize the reference to "Harper Valley P.T.A.," a story song written by Tom T. Hall and recorded by Jeannie C. Riley in 1968. The song went to number one on both the pop and country charts, and later became the concept of a 1978 movie starring Barbara Eden, as well as a short-lived TV series also starring Eden. This film was shot around 1979 or 1980, and it is hot!! Jessie St. James is the star, but there is a lot of good female talent including Dorothy LeMay, Kay parker, and Sharon Kane. This film is surprisingly mean spirited, and some people will be disturbed by depictions of incest (compare the Kane-Gillis coupling in this film with the duo's scene in Michael Ninn's New Wave Hookers, almost 20 years later). The film is plot driven and the sex scenes are typically much shorter than today, but they are very effective. The film was shot on film, and the DVD transfer is very good. The extras are the usual from Nu-Tech, nothing spectacular.
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Release date: 8/23/2000
Reviewed on: 3/24/2002
Studio: Cal Vista Classics
Starring: Paul Thomas, Jamie Gillis, Erica Boyer, Tara Aire, Lynx Canon, Janie Robbins, Juliet Anderson, Ashley Welles, Rosa Lee Kimball, Herschel Savage
Review brief: This Cal-Vista shot-on-film feature from around 1984 has very little to recommend it. The sex is routine. Even the delightful Janey Robbins, one of the unsung heroines of early porn, is largely wasted. The plot has stewardess Juliet Anderson wanting to be the first female pilot on her airline, with sister Tara Aire trying to help her along. There are alot of shots inside airliner shells, and outside of windows during flights, and pirate shots at airports, but we've seen it all before in better films from that era. This film features an extended mud wrestling scene, so if you can remember the mud wrestling fad of the 1980s, you can date this film. On the bright side, the film quality is excellent, and the transfer to DVD is very good as well. Technically the disc is very good.
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Release date: 6/27/2000
Reviewed on: 1/15/2002
Studio: Caballero
Starring: Paul Thomas, Jamie Gillis, Georgina Spelvin, Don Fernando, John Leslie, Desiree Cousteau, Nancy Suiter, Robert Bullock, Turk Lyon, Stacy Evans, Frank Hollowell, Laurien Dominique, R.J. Reynolds, Richard Norris, Jaquita Johnson, Con Covert, Randy Roetman, Jerry Mills, Harold Lime, John F. Goff, Lesllie Bovee, Bonnie Werchan, Jean Clark, Gary Graver, Serena [II] (classic)
Directed by: Robert McCallum
Review brief: Here is a splendid little classic from 1979, produced by Harold Lime and directed by Robert McCallum. As is usual with "Golden Age" classics, the plot, acting, exterior shots and general production values are outstanding. This flick was shot on location in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe and San Francisco. They dont make them like this anymore. Jamie Gillis plays a washed up B-movie star who is down on his luck. He has been reduced to escorting starlets to movie premieres, a service for which his agent pays him a few bucks plus expenses. He still makes the rounds of Hollywood parties, however, and at one such event, his host, J.C. Church, observes him seducing Desiree Cousteau. It is a hypnotic scene; Cousteau was a beautiful girl with wonderful, natural breasts. Georgina Spelvin secretly observes them, while being secretly observed herself by J.C. Church telephones Gillis that night with an interesting proposition. J.C. is the brother of Edgar Church, a rich industrialist from whom J.C. stands to inherit money.
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Release date: 4/24/2000
Reviewed on: 1/15/2002
Studio: Metro
Starring: Asia Carrera, Michael J. Cox, Brittany Andrews, Dave Hardman, Alyssa Allure, Chloe, Rick Masters, Vince Vouyer, J.J. Michaels, Susy Cat
Directed by: Jace Rocker
Review brief: The best thing about this movie is it's own preview, which is tightly edited, funny, and very entertaining. The movie itself is not so great. This was an attempt to parody the 1940's private detective genre, the type of Sam Spade/Phillip Marlowe roles that Bogart played. I'm a fan of Jace Rocker comedies, but this one fell flat. It simply wasn't funny, even where it could have been. It is supposed to be set in New York City, the "Big Apple" but, last time I checked, they don't have many palm trees in New York, nor a lot of pools in the back yards. The end credits state that it was shot "on location in Southern California" but that was a) not where the movie is set (in other words, not the location), and b) painfully obvious throughout. The sets are cheesy and cheap looking. A better approach would have been to use actual footage from old 1930s and 1940s movies for all of the exterior shots, per Steve Martin's "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (although that would probably have caused too many copyright problems). Despite the presence of the always wonderful Asia Carrera, the sex was pretty much by the numbers.
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Release date: 4/24/2000
Reviewed on: 1/4/2002
Studio: I-Candy
Starring: Paul Thomas, Joey Silvera, Kristen, Jesie St. James, Jon Martin, Misty Dawn, Lynx Cannon, Mantra Stark, Rock Steadie, Herschel Savage, Tigr, Bonnie Jean, Kathleen Kristel
Directed by: Tony Kendrick
Review brief: Here is another porn film that follows the time-honored convention of parodying a mainstream movie or television show. Shot on a soundstage in San Francisco in 1982, the movie has the look and feel of the hit seventies and early 80s TV show, M*A*S*H. In fact, the overhead footage at the beginning of the film is the same outdoor set built for the mainstream show. Paul Thomas plays the Hawkeye character, called Jaybird, and Joey Silvera plays the Radar character. The female lead, hot hips Henderson, is played by Jessie St. James, who looks remarkably like hot lips Hoolihan. St. James does a remarkable acting job, and even seems to have some of Loretta Swits style and mannerisms. Unfortunately, this films close similarity to the show it is parodying is about the only thing it has going for it. The sex scenes are brief, a couple of them lack money shots, the women are average in the looks department, and the script is lame.
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Release date: 10/31/2000
Reviewed on: 10/15/2001
Studio: Taboo
Starring: John Holmes
Review brief: This is a complete mess. The menu indicates that there are ten scenes, but there are nowhere near ten complete scenes. There's only one decent length, watchable scene in the whole movie. This DVD consists mostly of scraps and fragments, and the video quality is appalling. Its not that the transfer is especially bad, it's just that the footage looks like it was shot in the silent era. Old, scratchy, blurry, most of it was probably shot in or before 1974. The women, with a couple of exceptions, are downright skanky.
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Release date: 8/15/2000
Reviewed on: 10/14/2001
Studio: Vivid Wave
Starring: Nick East, T.T. Boy, Mickey Ray, Randy West, Tom Chapman, Ashlyn Gere, Racquel Darrian, Jonathan Morgan, Francesca Le, Nikki Dial, Francesca, Alex Jordan [I] (female), Nick E., Derek Lane
Directed by: Paul Thomas
Review brief: It's always fun to compare a Vivid DVD to a VHS tape of the same film. You never know what cuts and changes will have been made to the DVD version. This film was originally shot around 1992-1993. The movie opens with Bonnie and Clyde (Ashlyn Gere and Randy West) robbing a bank. Although the real Bonnie and Clyde operated in East Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma, the landscape here looks suspiciously like Southern California. The first scene is between Randy and Ashlyn, and it has been re-edited and shortened. The music is downright bizzare; the DVD features Strauss waltzes such as the Blue Danube waltz. Now, I'm no big fan of the porn Jazz-o-lite of the tape version, but this waltz music is really inappropriate. The scene ends in a long and very unerotic shot of Randy masturbating to climax. Was that necessary? The next scene features Racquel Darrien, solo, masturbating. (There's a masturbation theme here). The video quality sucks -pixelation galore-- and the scene has been shortened by two or three minutes.
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Release date: 4/24/2000
Reviewed on: 5/24/2001
Studio: Ultimate
Starring: Lisa Ann, Stephanie Swift, Sophia Ferrari, Cortknee, Montana Gunn, Diamond, Tyler Sweet, Nanna, Midori, Kelly Trump, Kimberly Kummings
Directed by: Seymore Butts
Review brief: This film was made back in 1996, when Seymour Butts was in a short-lived partnership with Ultimate Pictures, which was in association with Adam & Eve. Although this is not one of Seymour Butts' familiar "home videos", he is listed as "director of erotica." A sequel in name only to Cameron Grant's "Dinner Party;" this film is directed by "Willy Red." The formula is typical: rent a nice house, a nice car, get some porn starlets together and get after it. There are ten scenes including an orgy scene at the end of the picture. There's a strong emphasis on interracial sex; the movie has both Sean Michaels and Mr. Marcus. The first scene is a lesbian coupling of Tyler Sweet and Lisa Ann. In a warm scene, Tyler uses a strap-on on Lisa Ann. Almost all the natural noises are muted and jazz soundtrack takes their place. The next scene has Mr. Marcus paired with red-headed Nanna, another merely warm pairing. The third scene features Sean Michaels and two blondes in a swimming pool.
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Release date: 4/24/2000
Reviewed on: 4/21/2001
Studio: Tip Top
Starring: Vicky, Mike, Rosa, Tanya, Valentina, Aliona
Directed by: Joe D'Amato, Luca Damiano
Review brief: In this European production, Rocco Siffredi is allowed to be as nasty as he wants to be, and he wants to be pretty nasty. Although this is a costume drama that appears to have been made about six or seven years ago, and was directed by Joe DAmato and Luca Damiano, the sex is about as raunchy as the stuff Rocco directs himself in now. In fact, there is a pissing scene in which Rocco relieves himself on one of his paramours. Ive never seen anything like that in American porn before. The scene was deleted from the VHS version of the movie. Another difference between this disk and the tape version is that in the tape there was English dubbing, whereas in the DVD, the movie is left in Italian but with English sub-titles. The sub- titles are a lot dirtier than the dubbing was. Unfortunately, the color is not as good on the DVD as it was on the tape. Costumes that were a beautiful royal blue on the tape are a dingy green on the disk.
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Release date: 11/28/2000
Reviewed on: 2/12/2001
Studio: VCA
Starring: Sharon Mitchell, Jamie Gillis, Bobby Astyr, Annette Haven, Constance Money, Cami Graham, Alan Marlow, Michael Gaunt, Clea Carson, Peter Andrews, Camilla Farrell, Sybil Kingmaner, C.J. Laing, Wade Nichols, Zebedy Colt, David Savage, Suzanne Mcbain, Shirley Peters
Directed by: Henry Paris
Review brief: Barbara Broadcast is a Radley Metzger classic from 1977, starring Annette Haven and C.J. Laing. For more on Metzger, see my review of "The Opening of Misty Beethoven." The plot, to the extent there is one, involves C.J. Laing as a reporter interviewing Annette Haven, as "Barbara Broadcast", a sort of "Happy Hooker"/Xaviera Hollander type character. This is my least favorite of the Metzger hardcore pieces, but is still an excellent example of golden age adult film making. My favorite scene is a simple oral scene with under-celebrated seventies star Suzanne McBain. There is also the famous kitchen scene in which C.J. Laing does an anal scene with Wade Nichols. Nichols went on to star on a daytime soap opera for about 7 years, later succumbing to AIDS. There is a scene with Constance Money that was an unused leftover from "Misty Beethoven." In accordance with current law, because Constance was securely chained in the scene, no sex is shown, which is a darn shame.
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Release date: 1/29/2001
Reviewed on: 2/8/2001
Studio: VCA
Starring: Jamie Gillis, Constance Money, Gloria Leonard, Marlene Willoughby, Jaqueline Beudant, Jenny Baxter, Mary Stuart, Terri Hall
Directed by: Henry Paris
Review brief: This 1976 Golden Age classic is, by critical consensus, the best adult film of all time. It was directed by Henry Paris, a stage name for Radley Metzger, who directed several soft-core movies of the 1960s, including The Dirty Girls (1964), The Alley Cats (1965), Carmen, Baby (1967), Therese and Isabelle (1968), Camille 2000 (1969), and The Lickerish Quartet (1970). Its safe to say he is more famous for this film than for any other; millions more people have seen Misty Beethoven than have seen any of those non- explicit movies. By the way, Im not talking out of school by giving his real name; on the commentary track of this disk, Jamie Gillis and Gloria Leonard use his real name repeatedly. They arent talking out of school either, because some quick Internet research on any number of sites would give you his real name. The plot is an x-rated takeoff on George Bernard Shaws 1916 play Pygmalion which was the basis for Lerner and Loewes successful Broadway musical and Academy Award-winning film, My Fair Lady.
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Release date: 4/24/2000
Reviewed on: 1/28/2001
Studio: Vivid
Starring: Tricia Devereaux, Dyanna Lauren, Steven St. Croix, Missy, Melissa Hill, Tony Tedeschi, Stephanie Swift, Jon Dough, Mickey G.
Directed by: Paul Thomas
Review brief: There was an excellent film called "Bad Wives" directed by Paul Thomas for Vivid, and featuring the incredibly beautiful Dyanna Lauren and Melissa Hill. Unfortunately, that movie is not available on DVD. The DVD that Vivid is marketing under the name of "Bad Wives" has been cut to ribbons. It should really be called "Outtakes from Bad Wives." Comparing the VHS version with the DVD, I counted over 20 separate cuts, some of them lengthy. We're not talking just cutting out dialogue; sex scenes have been cut up, too, including some of the best parts. The best scene is between Jon Dough and Dyanna Lauren, taking place on a stairway. Large chunks of it have been excised. Even the final three-way between Steven St. Croix, Melissa Hill, and Dyanna Lauren, which should have been sacrosanct if no other scene was, had cuts in it. As presented in the DVD, the plot makes no sense whatsoever, whereas in the video version, the film has at least an adequate plot. I now know why other highly praised Vivid films I have seen only on DVD, such as "Bobby Sox" and "Beautiful", were choppy and made no plot sensel.
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