The era of dominance in Adult Cinema by Vivid is well and truly over, as evidenced by this embarrassingly bad cash-cow feature by its top director of yore, Paul Thomas. Even the talented screenwriter "Raven Touchstone" flunks out with a turgid, lousy script.
Belladonna is seriously miscast in the central Georgina Spelvin role, this time posited as Melinda Jones, a fame-seeking reporter for the Seattle Free Press. Picture is a creature of its time, as dated as the flip-phone Melinda uses, and her casting merely reflects her superstardom as the ultimate gonzo actress of the day, underscored by the hit "Fashionistas" and its followups.
For this followup, PT unwisely shot on video rather than his 35mm film used for prestige Vivid projects, losing the patina of importance such a pretentious film requires. Instead we get a jumble of over-extended, indulgent gonzo sex scenes owing far more to the pernicious influence of Max Hardcore than to the genius of Gerard Damiano, the creator of the DMJ film and myth.
It's a very cornball story of easily corruptible reporter dealing with a trinity of evil, 3 cardboard characters essayed by Savanna Samson (then the numero uno Vivid contract star who is overemphasized here for commercial reasons, natch), hammy as usual Evan Jones as a corrupt preacher and slimy/slick Nick Manning with his shoulder length hair and non-acting as what is called "the go-fer from Hell". They lure Belladonna and her ho-hum boyfriend Kurt Lockwood to L.A. and Savanna's mansion, and manipulate the heroine into depravity and oodles of guilt for her various misdeeds climbing to the top.
With lousy Mickey-Mousing music (imitating classic films like "The Exorcist" for example), feature fails to create the desired suspense, especially in showing the key scene, wherein Belladonna as Miss Jones becomes a media superstar solving the case of the Halloween Bandit (Steven St. Croix in a guest role wearing a Devil mask/horns), strictly in flashbacks, and leading to several anticlimaxes including a thrown-in BDSM orgy scene that is pure sex filler. There's also a lengthy, imaginary swimming pool threesome with Lockwood and Rebeca Linares that has Carmella Bing's humongous hooters stealing the show for a couple of reels from Bella.
Worst scene is the trio of satanic demons lecturing our poor heroine on her faults, delivering indigestible pithy dialog that is so ridiculous it verges on satire (or "porn-parody" to use the industry's favorite buzz word). Cryptic open ending (the fools at Vivid evidently hoped for more money-grubbing sequels spin-offs that fortunately didn't happen) is terrible.
Irony here is that late in the film Belladonna is sent undercover posing as a hooker to get the goods on hooker Penny Flame, leading to another gonzo toss-in, as Penny sodomizes our tattooed leading lady with a long- necked wine bottle. Sad to say, the gap-toothed wonder playing Miss Jones is instantly believable with clownish makeup and trashy clothing as a whore, while she is a non-starter made to look plain (but skanky) in the heroine role. A simple switch of actresses' parts from Bella to Penny could have solved that problem and made for a far better movie, but the great Ms. Flame (terrific in PT's movie "Layout", made at around the same time as this clunker) was unfortunately not an industry "star" like Ms. B.
Very cheap props and sets, annoying "flashy" editing and other gimmickry betray PT, though fortunately we have dozens of great films by him to treasure apart from misfires like this one, clearly produced merely to make a fast buck. It's production date is clearly displayed on the DVD as Feb. 24, 2007 (for legal purposes to comply with actors/actresses at least 18 at time of filming), so why it sat on the shelf for over 3 years before release remains a mystery, likely NOT because (too obvious and logical) it was a stinker.
Belladonna is seriously miscast in the central Georgina Spelvin role, this time posited as Melinda Jones, a fame-seeking reporter for the Seattle Free Press. Picture is a creature of its time, as dated as the flip-phone Melinda uses, and her casting merely reflects her superstardom as the ultimate gonzo actress of the day, underscored by the hit "Fashionistas" and its followups.
For this followup, PT unwisely shot on video rather than his 35mm film used for prestige Vivid projects, losing the patina of importance such a pretentious film requires. Instead we get a jumble of over-extended, indulgent gonzo sex scenes owing far more to the pernicious influence of Max Hardcore than to the genius of Gerard Damiano, the creator of the DMJ film and myth.
It's a very cornball story of easily corruptible reporter dealing with a trinity of evil, 3 cardboard characters essayed by Savanna Samson (then the numero uno Vivid contract star who is overemphasized here for commercial reasons, natch), hammy as usual Evan Jones as a corrupt preacher and slimy/slick Nick Manning with his shoulder length hair and non-acting as what is called "the go-fer from Hell". They lure Belladonna and her ho-hum boyfriend Kurt Lockwood to L.A. and Savanna's mansion, and manipulate the heroine into depravity and oodles of guilt for her various misdeeds climbing to the top.
With lousy Mickey-Mousing music (imitating classic films like "The Exorcist" for example), feature fails to create the desired suspense, especially in showing the key scene, wherein Belladonna as Miss Jones becomes a media superstar solving the case of the Halloween Bandit (Steven St. Croix in a guest role wearing a Devil mask/horns), strictly in flashbacks, and leading to several anticlimaxes including a thrown-in BDSM orgy scene that is pure sex filler. There's also a lengthy, imaginary swimming pool threesome with Lockwood and Rebeca Linares that has Carmella Bing's humongous hooters stealing the show for a couple of reels from Bella.
Worst scene is the trio of satanic demons lecturing our poor heroine on her faults, delivering indigestible pithy dialog that is so ridiculous it verges on satire (or "porn-parody" to use the industry's favorite buzz word). Cryptic open ending (the fools at Vivid evidently hoped for more money-grubbing sequels spin-offs that fortunately didn't happen) is terrible.
Irony here is that late in the film Belladonna is sent undercover posing as a hooker to get the goods on hooker Penny Flame, leading to another gonzo toss-in, as Penny sodomizes our tattooed leading lady with a long- necked wine bottle. Sad to say, the gap-toothed wonder playing Miss Jones is instantly believable with clownish makeup and trashy clothing as a whore, while she is a non-starter made to look plain (but skanky) in the heroine role. A simple switch of actresses' parts from Bella to Penny could have solved that problem and made for a far better movie, but the great Ms. Flame (terrific in PT's movie "Layout", made at around the same time as this clunker) was unfortunately not an industry "star" like Ms. B.
Very cheap props and sets, annoying "flashy" editing and other gimmickry betray PT, though fortunately we have dozens of great films by him to treasure apart from misfires like this one, clearly produced merely to make a fast buck. It's production date is clearly displayed on the DVD as Feb. 24, 2007 (for legal purposes to comply with actors/actresses at least 18 at time of filming), so why it sat on the shelf for over 3 years before release remains a mystery, likely NOT because (too obvious and logical) it was a stinker.