Vet filmmaker Paul Thomas has been this route before, with a successful re-do of Damiano's classic DEVIL IN MISS JONES and even a fine remake of his own THE MASSEUSE, but this Mitchell Bros. redux project is a misfire.
Chalk it up to a case of inflated importance: the subject matter, in this case the 1972 Marilyn Chambers film that stands alongside Damiano's DEEP THROAT as a pivotal breakthrough in the history of public exhibition of pornography. Filmmakers felt they had to pull out all the stops, and result is a downer.
Script by "Phil M. Noir" is first source of blame: it posits two extremely dis-likable central characters, both miscast: Brooklyn Lee is Hope Perdita (even her name is pretentious), a beautiful young woman living off her trust fund and searching for her birth mother (hint, hint, nudge, nudge). Her husband Mitch (the ubiquitous and tiresome James Deen) is a slacker - unsympathetic from the git-go - all we ever find out about him is that he studied medicine and didn't make the grade, plus he likes to waste couple's money. (Deen's one good scene was left on the cutting room floor, revealed by the modern DVD habit of including deleted material as a bonus.)
For reasons I deem to be commercial rather than artistic, PT emphasizes gonzo sex scenes over the film's story arc, which killed off my interest early on (in the industry I guess it is still graded on "how hot was that scene?" basis, but I found the sex off-putting: violent and forced, rather than sensual and stimulating - a key decision).
The couple is down and out, with clichéd scenes of TV and sports car being repossessed, but even in their "hot" sex scenes together there is no relief. Mitch cums prematurely and selfishly, as wifey is trying to get off, and this spurs yet another episode of "The Bickersons" between them in the first reel.
Steven St. Croix is cast as Harvey, the film's heavy, whose job is to be more hissable than the two leads, a challenge but he succeeds. They meet him inadvertently, as Mitch & Hope's only activity seems to be crashing rich neighbors' parties. When they crash Harvey's, Deen gets serviced by his two sexy blonde nieces (Penny Pax and Ash Hollywood) while Hope hooks up with an old high-school chum Richie Calhoun who she hasn't seen (or thought about) in years.
This is where the scene deleted would have appeared - Harvey is banging a high-priced call girl (Dana DeArmond, somewhat typecast after starring in THE ESCORT video series), who suddenly o.d's on cocaine, and is revived by good old Mitch, Johnny on the spot. I liked this short scene a great deal -it fleshed out both Harvey's (negatively) and Mitch's (positively) characters a bit, but the filmmakers deemed it 4 minutes too far for the final cut.
Rest of the story development is dreary, heavily using footage from the original GREEN DOOR film and references to it as a crutch. Film opens with heavy narration and a flash-forward of Hope's rape fantasy (being gang-raped by three Black studs, in honor of Johnnie Keyes from the first movie, who makes a self-serving cameo appearance in the remake and mouths a torrent of b.s. in an accompanying "memories" featurette opposite PT and Chambers' real-life daughter).
This particular sequence struck me as timidity with a capital T: despite the film's seemingly "bold" content, apparently the need for an immediate cop-out, essentially a "we don't advocate rape" (read: we simply exploit it) is a sign of the times, and perhaps why PT has reportedly retired from the porno wars, this being his final film.
Our couple splits up and Hope has a downward spiral, symbolized by an effectively sleazy subplot of her pawning her mom's pearl necklace with pawnbroker Herschel Savage, who later takes bondage photos of her and has a foot-fetish money shot on her feet, all because she's in need of cash.
The set-piece saluting the first film occurs when Hope takes up the opportunity (finagled by another evil character, seemingly innocuous Calhoun) to attend a private party, which turns into an orgy in which she is the centerpiece, living out her rape fantasy. Lots of big-name extras, ranging from Chanel Preston to an uninhibited (think masturbating with a huge dildo in her posterior) Chastity Lynn, partially steal the spotlight from Brooklyn, though her gonzo antics servicing the 3 Black stars sequentially and anally is impressive as far as gonzo goes. Mystery of who her mom was is revealed as if we didn't know and handled in poor taste (as far as I'm concerned, "taste" being foreign to a film like this one).
Especially annoying was the ending, as cynical as PT and collaborator "film noir" could come up with - Hope is a successful prostitute working for Harvey and Deen ends up a boy toy to MILF neighbor Kylie Ireland, who also doubled as the movie's art director. Of course, we never cared one whit about the spoiled brats in the first place so their fate is just a source for ridicule.
Chalk it up to a case of inflated importance: the subject matter, in this case the 1972 Marilyn Chambers film that stands alongside Damiano's DEEP THROAT as a pivotal breakthrough in the history of public exhibition of pornography. Filmmakers felt they had to pull out all the stops, and result is a downer.
Script by "Phil M. Noir" is first source of blame: it posits two extremely dis-likable central characters, both miscast: Brooklyn Lee is Hope Perdita (even her name is pretentious), a beautiful young woman living off her trust fund and searching for her birth mother (hint, hint, nudge, nudge). Her husband Mitch (the ubiquitous and tiresome James Deen) is a slacker - unsympathetic from the git-go - all we ever find out about him is that he studied medicine and didn't make the grade, plus he likes to waste couple's money. (Deen's one good scene was left on the cutting room floor, revealed by the modern DVD habit of including deleted material as a bonus.)
For reasons I deem to be commercial rather than artistic, PT emphasizes gonzo sex scenes over the film's story arc, which killed off my interest early on (in the industry I guess it is still graded on "how hot was that scene?" basis, but I found the sex off-putting: violent and forced, rather than sensual and stimulating - a key decision).
The couple is down and out, with clichéd scenes of TV and sports car being repossessed, but even in their "hot" sex scenes together there is no relief. Mitch cums prematurely and selfishly, as wifey is trying to get off, and this spurs yet another episode of "The Bickersons" between them in the first reel.
Steven St. Croix is cast as Harvey, the film's heavy, whose job is to be more hissable than the two leads, a challenge but he succeeds. They meet him inadvertently, as Mitch & Hope's only activity seems to be crashing rich neighbors' parties. When they crash Harvey's, Deen gets serviced by his two sexy blonde nieces (Penny Pax and Ash Hollywood) while Hope hooks up with an old high-school chum Richie Calhoun who she hasn't seen (or thought about) in years.
This is where the scene deleted would have appeared - Harvey is banging a high-priced call girl (Dana DeArmond, somewhat typecast after starring in THE ESCORT video series), who suddenly o.d's on cocaine, and is revived by good old Mitch, Johnny on the spot. I liked this short scene a great deal -it fleshed out both Harvey's (negatively) and Mitch's (positively) characters a bit, but the filmmakers deemed it 4 minutes too far for the final cut.
Rest of the story development is dreary, heavily using footage from the original GREEN DOOR film and references to it as a crutch. Film opens with heavy narration and a flash-forward of Hope's rape fantasy (being gang-raped by three Black studs, in honor of Johnnie Keyes from the first movie, who makes a self-serving cameo appearance in the remake and mouths a torrent of b.s. in an accompanying "memories" featurette opposite PT and Chambers' real-life daughter).
This particular sequence struck me as timidity with a capital T: despite the film's seemingly "bold" content, apparently the need for an immediate cop-out, essentially a "we don't advocate rape" (read: we simply exploit it) is a sign of the times, and perhaps why PT has reportedly retired from the porno wars, this being his final film.
Our couple splits up and Hope has a downward spiral, symbolized by an effectively sleazy subplot of her pawning her mom's pearl necklace with pawnbroker Herschel Savage, who later takes bondage photos of her and has a foot-fetish money shot on her feet, all because she's in need of cash.
The set-piece saluting the first film occurs when Hope takes up the opportunity (finagled by another evil character, seemingly innocuous Calhoun) to attend a private party, which turns into an orgy in which she is the centerpiece, living out her rape fantasy. Lots of big-name extras, ranging from Chanel Preston to an uninhibited (think masturbating with a huge dildo in her posterior) Chastity Lynn, partially steal the spotlight from Brooklyn, though her gonzo antics servicing the 3 Black stars sequentially and anally is impressive as far as gonzo goes. Mystery of who her mom was is revealed as if we didn't know and handled in poor taste (as far as I'm concerned, "taste" being foreign to a film like this one).
Especially annoying was the ending, as cynical as PT and collaborator "film noir" could come up with - Hope is a successful prostitute working for Harvey and Deen ends up a boy toy to MILF neighbor Kylie Ireland, who also doubled as the movie's art director. Of course, we never cared one whit about the spoiled brats in the first place so their fate is just a source for ridicule.