Last Tango

Adam & Eve

Genre: Feature

Director: Thomas Paine

Cast: Alexandra Silk, Asia Carrera, Ericka Lockett, Mia Ciccero/Ciccichero,
John Decker, Peter North, Michael J. Cox, Alex Sanders

Length: 79 minutes

Date of Production: 5/25/97 (credits), 15/97 (box-kind of interesting there being only 12 months in a year...)

Extra's: None

Condoms: Yes

Audio/Video Quality: Last Tango was presented in the usual 1.33:1 ratio full frame color as originally shot on video. It looked fairly clear with accurate colors, solid fleshtones, and minimal grain. I saw no compression artifacts and only a bit of video noise but the uninspired settings of the scenes left me somewhat cold. The audio was presented in monaural English and seemed like it was all caught on a built in microphone for the equipment on hand. The vocals were almost clear and the music was about as good as I'd heard when this first came out. The overall quality of the production values wasn't bad but it did reinforce my belief that the movie was low budget all the way.

Body of Review: Sometimes we revisit older titles in order to see favorite performers that have since retired. That said, the limitations of older porn (at least on average) still bug me far too much to wear rode colored glasses when reviewing what such titles have to offer. Such was the case with Last Tango, a movie about a woman, Alexandra, who finds excitement by cheating on her husband. That's about it folks; a real family story. The acting is actually worse, in most cases, than most porn but most people will scan through that stuff to get to the sex acts. Are they worth watching? Only you can decide that and hopefully my brief descriptions will give you something to consider when looking at this one. The movie had about 6 sex scenes although the last two were interconnected. The movie included straight, oral, anal, lesbian, orgy, masturbation, and a threesome; all of which combined to make the show a bit more hardcore than usual for Adam & Eve. Here's a quick look at the scenes I gave it long ago:

Scene One: The first scene had Alexandra and John screwing on the floor of the house he had for sale. There was no furniture to speak of and they jumped each other right there. She was cute enough although we got to see every pimple on her ass thanks to a great zoom lens and a cameraman without a clue.

Scene Two: The next sex scene was between Alexandra and Michael. In the movie they were husband and wife. In the scene they had a good enough time and she took it anally for you ass fans out there. She always impressed me with her true love of sex and positive attitude that encompassed everything she did; including this scene.

Scene Three: The next sex scene was fairly short and had Alexandra masturbating. For whatever reason, I really liked this scene more than I should have. I got to see the same old floor from scene 1 (and would later see in scenes 5 and 6) which makes me wonder about who was in charge of locations. Solo scenes are fun to watch if the performer is into it and thankfully she was but it was far too short to completely appreciate.

Scene Four: The next scene was an orgy with most of the cast. Everyone but John and Asia took part here. I wasn't happy with it although it had some heat between the initial couplings; at the beginning, everyone paired up and then they got into groups. I think I missed more of the action than I saw due to the direction here. There was also potential for another masturbation scene, this time in an outdoor hot tub, but for some reason, it never materialized and it left me feeling cheated.

Scenes Five & Six: The next two scenes took place at the directors favorite location; that's right, the floor. Oh boy! If you have a floor fetish; you'll be one happy camper with this movie. Anyway, this was where Asia and Alexandra enjoyed each other. I liked both of them and the potential for heat was extreme here. The problem is that while the scene was fun, it just wasn't hot. The last scene was more of a continuation of that scene and John joined the two ladies on the floor. Perhaps he watched the movie Austin Powers the night before and all he could tell the crew to do was "shag". In any case, the scene was another blown attempt at real heat.

Summary: I've read that this was a couples movie but this simply wasn't the case. Couples movies, as a rule at least, don't have anal, orgies, and lesbian scenes. It wasn't a hardcore lover's delight either. Perhaps the best way to describe this movie is to say that it's a showcase for Alexandra. She was in every sex scene and was the focus of all the dialogue scenes. I can understand why she is the focus even if the director couldn't capture her usual energetic performance. The fact that her acting ability was not up to such a large speaking role doesn't mean the idea couldn't have worked with better direction. Granted, Mr. Paine is no Bud Lee, Nick Orleans, or Antonio Passolini but he's no Ed Powers or Randy West either. I've seen much better work from him (of course, I've also seen Thrust and Heartfelt 2 so he is very capable of lousy work too). Overall, the movie had a nice cast and decent technical qualities. The story
Line, written by our beloved director, left much to be desired though. Perhaps if he stepped back a moment and focused on what the purpose of the movie was, it could've been better. In porn, it's to show attractive people having a great time screwing. If you want to go further than that; fine, just remember the basics. Part of the director's job is to get the performers worked up so they'll have hot sex which your cameraman is supposed to capture on film/video. In too many of Paine's movies, the camera zooms in on whatever flaws a person has and amplifies them. I'm going to rate this one as a Rent It for fans of the cast but that's as much an homage to their enduring attractiveness as anything else since this release is far from their best work.

This Don Houston "retro-review" was written long ago before the so-called Professor of Porn had much experience writing reviews. Since that time, he has found Adam & Eve to have a lot of good releases and seen more porn than almost anyone reviewing on the internet. Keep in mind that his comments accurately reflected his fresh viewpoint of the time he first saw the movie.

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