Tricks

Vivid Entertainment

Genre: Feature

Director: David Stanley

Cast: Ava Vincent, Cheyne Collins, Sunrise Adams, Eric Masterson, Briana Banks, Bobby Vitale
Non-sex: Sharon Kane, Frank Bukwyld, Tammy Jones

Length: 80 minutes

Date of Production: 9/3/2002

Extra's: The best extra were the five bonus scenes, three with Briana Banks starring and the other two seemingly random picks from the Vivid archives. The next best extra for me was the 7-minute Behind the Scenes feature by Dave Rave. It showed some sexual antics but also some of the goofing around that takes place on a set. There was also two photogalleries, a mini-biography of Briana, trailers, a double-sided DVD cover, and spam.

Condoms: Yes

Audio/Video Quality: The picture was presented in the usual 1.33:1 ratio full frame color, the industry standard. The picture looked a bit washed out and there was a lot of grain but you could see the action clearly in most cases. I've seen far worse from Vivid lately so this was a pleasant surprise for me in terms of the technical quality, even if it wasn't the best looking show on the market. The audio was presented in stereo English and was a bit on the low side but other than not having any real separation between the channels, it was okay.

Body of Review: Feature porn can be some of the most taxing on a director's skills in the porn world since it takes more than just hot performers boning to make it all work. Many porn watchers have expressed the opinion that if a company can't do it right, providing some sort of decent entertainment along with the sex, they should just skip the story and acting altogether. Vivid is a company that has certainly had its share of successes and failures in the feature market and their latest effort, Tricks, seems to be a bit mixed in terms of heat and chemistry. Fans of Briana Banks will definitely want to see this story about a guy, Eric Masterson, who uses voodoo on Ava Vincent in order to get her off repeatedly, while Briana decides to use her professional skills to help her friend retaliate. Here's a breakdown of the scenes by cast and action, noting that the sex wasn't the hottest I've seen of late:

Scene One: Ava, the lean blonde hotty, and Cheyne, had a scene in bed. They did the usual oral on one another and seemed to enjoy it, with some chemistry between them to go with the energy each often brings to their performances, but when the straight sex started, he could barely maintain an erection. This kind of killed it for me since if the guy having sex isn't into it, how can the guy watching it two years later enjoy it all that much. She did look good but the mechanics of the scene were too far gone to appreciate.

Scene Two: Sunrise, looking vastly different with a dark wig on, had a scene with Eric in bed. He snacked on her crotch and she seemed to enjoy it a little and gave him a short blowjob before they boned. She didn't seem as into the screwing as he did, barely moving her sweet looking ass, and it ended when he rubbed out a load onto her face and chest.

Scene Three: Briana, the lead performer that can be seen on the front DVD cover, and Eric, had a scene of sorts after she massaged him on a table. She played with his nipples and then started to act like she was going to blow him but ended up just jerking him off with some panties. It was a limited scene but I have to give credit to the director for trying something new, even when it doesn't work.

Scene Four: Briana, showing off her acrobatic body, had a scene with redneck Bobby at the massage parlor. She blew him as she hung upside down from the table and then he gave her some oral loving before he boned her. She did anal here and it ended when she licked his nuts as he jerked off on her chest. I think the two of them had some chemistry going on and wish it lasted longer.

Scene Five: Briana, looking even better this time, had a scene with Cheyne on a bed. He went down on her and then they screwed somewhat energetically after which he jerked off on her stomach. I would've liked the scene to have some more variety and heat but the limitations of the director and premise were probably the biggest factors preventing that from happening.

Scene Six: Ava, the other blonde lead and quite a hotty, and Eric, had some mad voodoo love on a bed after performing a ritual in order to get back at Briana. He went down on her and she reciprocated before they boned a bit. He finished it off by jerking his load onto her feet.

Summary: If you are a big fan of Briana Banks and Ava Vincent, you'll probably think this one was worth more than a rating of Rent It but even someone who likes those two as much as I do has to accept the limitations of the majority of scenes here. It was worth watching at least once but the limited replay value hurt it too much to make this worthy of more.

Note: You can see recent candid shots of performers by visiting: My Photo's and read about their antics at 2004 AEE Show.