Sex & Revenge 2

Private

Genre: Feature

Director: Xavi Dominguez

Cast: Rita Faltoyano, Jessica Fiorentino, Silvia Lancome, Allyson Lee, Jade Taylor, Tera Joy, Lisa Lee, Melissa Black, Silvia, Melina Conde, Toni Ribas, Andrea Moranti, Robert Rosenberg, Don Ramon, Neeo, George Reno, various others not credited

Length: 142.5 minutes

Date of Production: 5/15/2004

Extra's: The best extra for virtually everybody will be the bonus short film The Kidnapping by director Xavi Dominguez. It was titled chapter 9 and went to work right away with some anal sex between a couple of uncredited performers. If this was just a 24.5 minute teaser of the actual movie, it might be worth looking into by those of you into the cast. I also liked the nearly 16 minute long Behind the Scenes feature as it had a lot of sex and some exploration of the story up for grabs although more screen time by a couple of the cast would've been appreciated. There were also trailers, a photogallery, a single page of production notes, and some made up biographies for those who care.

Condoms: None

Audio/Video Quality: Sex & Revenge 2 was presented in the same 1.85:1 widescreen it was shot in by director Xavi Dominguez for Private Pictures. It wasn't the best looking picture I've seen by the director for Private but most of the time, it looked competently shot. The fleshtones looked accurate, the focus was almost always sharp and the lighting was pretty good. There was some grain and video noise at times but my biggest complaint was the way the handheld camera seemed to move too much (without the kind of editing needed to compensate for some of the lamer movements). While I've seen worse, I've also seen a lot better from the company so don't buy the movie expecting it to be one of Private's yearly extravaganza releases. The audio was presented with the usual choice of various languages and subtitles with the stereo English track being the primary (default) track. It had terrible dubbing (bad enough to make some of the Godzilla movies by Toho Studios seem excellent by comparison) by the musical score was okay. There was some separation between the channels but the limited dynamic range hampered the enjoyment and the spoken lines often sounded really out of place (the translation appeared to either be off or someone deliberately made the dub sound stupid, even for porn).

Body of Review: Private is one of those companies that sometimes releases a great movie like Millionaire or compilations; full of great value for fans. On the other hand, they also release some really generic movies too, such as the feature porn release of today's review, Sex & Revenge 2. The movie is the second installment of a show centering on a kidnapping gone bad and the detective who tries to bring the culprits to justice in a foreign land. While the premise is about as solid as anything else you'll find on television or in a movie (mainstream or porn), it was the execution of the idea that proved inherently flawed. The motivations of the characters were sketchy, the plot convoluted, and the non-sex aspects simply a waste of time. That may sound like an oxymoron to some of you but a cursory inspection of some of the better releases on the market (by Wicked Pictures, Digital Playground, various other companies and even Private) will show that this doesn't have to be the case. In short, if you're going to spent time on acting, plot, and all the other aspects of a "regular" feature, they need to be well done or they stand out like a sore thumb.

This being a porno, many of you will forgive the plot elements in favor of great sex, if such sex is forthcoming. Sadly, this appeared to be a weakness too since the cast appeared to be (in large part at least) going through the motions in a mechanical manner. Sure, Rita Faltoyano's ménage a trios was pretty good (though not her best work by a long shot), and Jessica Fiorentino was looking good enough to eat, but even the rest of the mostly attractive and sexually skilled cast seemed to be having an off day. The sex followed the standard Private formula of oral, vaginal, anal (with DP's when two or more men were present in a scene) with all the usual taste testing and variations on a theme but the lack of energy and chemistry left me mostly cold this time. That's the problem with this type of show and something I can't overlook, no matter how fond of Private I may be (having been a long time supporter of the company, it pains me when they drop the ball this badly).

I'm not going to go into the "written on a napkin" plot, especially since I didn't see the first half of the story (Sex & Revenge 1) and there wasn't a lot of exposition here. If you can wade through that part of the DVD, you may find enough to like one time and consider it worthy of a rental but I couldn't get into it at all, even though so many of the gals of the cast were what I affectionately call "hotties". If your standards are lower or if you're a slavering fanboy of the cast, there's probably enough to appreciate here for a look but don't say I didn't warn you with my review (I tried to be as generic in my review as the movie was to give you an idea of what to expect; think of it as a karmic review).

Summary: Sex & Revenge 2 was one of those highly flawed releases that Private breaks up into two separate releases (as Private Movies 13 and 14) which means if you miss one, the other is going to suffer with regard to the thematic elements that they both depend on to keep our interest. This, in turn, causes the sex to come off as less worthy of our time and perhaps Private would've been better off simply cutting all the story parts (or offering a means to play the sex without the plot material as VCA Pictures has done in the past) in order to make viewing the show more acceptable. In all, it wasn't the worst I've seen in the past few months but it was definitely a Skip It for me (and I'm well established as a fan of several of the gals in the cast).