Stuck in the Deep End

VCA Pictures/Excessive Entertainment

Genre: Gonzo

Director: Mark Wood (under the pseudonym "Maestro Claudio Fletcher")

Cast: Katja Kassin, Flower Tucci, Mark Wood, Vanessa Lane, Tony T., Brooke Haven, Anthony Hardwood, Marie Luv, Mark Ashley, Keeani Lei, Alec Knight

Length: 145.5 minutes

Date of Production: 8/13/2005 (box); 8/11/2005 & 8/13/2005 (credits)

Extra's: The best extra was easily the 30.5 minute long Behind the Scenes feature by Francesca Le (I recognized her voice). It started out wisely with Katja Kassin and then Flower Tucci before showing the others and finishing up with a bit by Vanessa Lane. As a series of interviews, complete with nudity, this was actually very well done. There was also a slide show and some trailers as well as spam.

Condoms: None

Audio/Video Quality: Stuck in the Deep End was presented in the usual 1.33:1 ratio full frame color as originally shot by director Mark Wood for distribution through VCA Pictures under their Excessive Entertainment label. There must've been a reason why the back box cover and credits listed his name as an alias (probably contractually based) but he did a decent job here with often solid lighting keeping the grain at bay and limiting the video noise. The composition of the shots was often favorable to ladies and other than a few shadows at times, it looked good. There were no compression artifacts noticed and the DVD mastering also seemed well done. The audio was presented in a basic 2.0 Dolby Digital English stereo. The vocals were low on a few scenes (thankfully so on Tony T.'s scene) and the tease music was generic as could be but it didn't hurt the heat in any major way.

Body of Review: VCA Pictures was once the leader in the porn industry with regard to DVD releases. Over the years, they sold out to Hustler, lost their contract staff, and the inevitable budget cuts greatly impacted the quality of their releases. Recently, the company has been taking steps to revive itself and one of their latest efforts in this regard is Mark Wood's Stuck in the Deep End. The idea was to provide a great cast of anal queens for your viewing pleasure and there was a lot of quality on the front end of this back ended release. That said, here's a breakdown of the cast and action, noting that no condoms were used:

Scene One: Katja Kassin, Flower Tucci, and Mark Wood, were up first. For those of you living under a rock the last few years, these two gals are two of the hottest (if not THE hottest) anal queens in the industry with fleshy asses that can take a licking and let guys keep on sticking. While not lean like some of the others, they were women in every sense of the word and this was an excellent way to start the movie out. Katja was dressed in neon pink and Flower wore a neon blue outfit, both accentuated with fishnet stockings. They teased very heatedly by the outdoor pool before giving some minor lesbian teasing yet it was the introduction of Mark that set them off the most. They did the booty rub on him before double teaming his shaft orally. Katja took first honors at riding him vaginally with Flower oiling up her pal's ass in a manner that nearly caused me to lose a load. Flower then took a turn riding him and each appeared to be in top form as they actively rode his shaft (with some taste testing for good measure). Flower did her pissing routine and then they cooled off in the pool before going inside the house for some anal. There was a lot of anal by both gals and it ended with the typical facial yet the scene itself had tremendous energy and chemistry between the trio. Whew!

Scene Two: Vanessa Lane, an up and comer of an anal queen, was decked out in black lingerie bearing the Hustler logo as she teased the camera by the raggedy outside staircase leading to the house. I've never been quite able to pin down why she appeals to me since she's very lean, has a throaty voice, and sometimes comes off acting like a substance abuser but in fairness; she also brings some significant energy to her scenes of late. She eventually walked into the house to find lame Tony T. waiting for her at the bar and I was hoping she'd be able to offset his usual style. Thankfully, he kept quiet as the two went at one another fiercely, her providing an exceptionally heated blowjob, even more heated than the effort opening up the movie. They screwed pretty well together; lacking chemistry but making up for it in sheer raw energy as they practically attacked one another. She did anal and also showed off her flexibility (doing a split on two bar stools while he tapped her ass from behind) and after a few more positions, he rubbed out a load onto her awaiting face. This was another great scene!

Scene Three: Brooke Haven, a curvy cutie with lightly colored hair and large implants, was up next in a scene with Anthony Hardwood. This is a gal that I've seen far too little of in recent months but she has not always been too consistent in her work so I had mixed feelings this time. After some swell teasing outdoors, she went inside to start orally savaging Anthony's shaft. Her full, undivided attention was on him, and the scene showed me that this would be one of her better performances quite early in the scheme of things. While not as active a participant in the scenes as the last three gals, she was pretty good taking the cock vaginally and anally here, using dirty talk to enhance the mood of the scene a lot. I liked watching her in action too although she still wasn't up to her best work and could use a boost in terms of meeting her partner's thrusts to make future scenes look more heated. Still, she did what was expected of her well enough and except for him rubbing out the majority of his load on her chest, it wasn't a bad scene for replay too.

Scene Four: Marie Luv, the lean black gal featured on the right hand side of the front DVD cover, was up next as she teased in the bathroom of the house. I'll be the first to admit that she's never been all that appealing to me but I have a couple of friends that'd eat dirt just to act as her floormat given the attractive face and body as well as her general sense of playfulness. After bathing, she ended up in a scene with Mark Ashley in the living room, bending over as she sucked him off. It was a sloppy blowjob and technically well handled but lacking in chemistry a bit. She tried to make up for it with extra energy and I think she succeeded beyond her usual attempts. He returned the favor with some oral on her and the two were screwing in no time after that. It was a good ride from his point of view but she was kind of lazy in being more of a receiver than an active participant. Perhaps she ran out of steam from the decent oral but even the anal was weaker than average for her. Eventually, it ended with him jerking out a large load onto her face and into her mouth but I didn't care for it beyond the oral portion of the scene.

Scene Five: Keeani Lei, a girl next door Asian, was up last wearing some blue fishnet stockings, black fishnet top, a micro-mini skirt and thong. She pranced through the house and settled in on a fancy lounge chair to perform her tease footage on before being joined by Alec Knight and Mark Wood. They double teamed her by poking their meaty shafts inside her mouth and she tried to handle them as best she could but it was a sloppy mess by the time they switched out to the screwing part of the scene. She was moderately active during the vaginal sex but slacked off in the anal. I liked her dirty talk but she had a wasted look on her face that turned me off more than a little bit, thereby weakening the scene. The trio did a DP and she managed to get better towards the end but it was a little too little, a little too late. The guys jerked off to her mouth at the end of the scene but missed as much as they got inside her mouth.

Summary: Stuck in the Deep End was worth a rating of Recommended although most of that derives from the great first two scenes and the interesting BTS feature in the extras section of the DVD. The technical aspects of the movie were above average overall and I thought that there was a good amount of fuck for the buck. For the meeting of Katja and Flower alone you'll want to get a copy of the movie but don't overlook Vanessa's scene if you're in the mood for raw energy. If this is a sign of things to come, I think VCA is on the road to recovery, despite what some have stated in the recent past. I wish them well in this regard.