Short & Sleazy

Pulse Pictures

Genre: Vignette

Director: Bryan Xin

Cast: Penny Flame, Mark Ashley Ashley, Jersey Jaxin, Christian, Vanessa Lane, Sascha, Cassie Courtland, Barrett Blade, Kaiya Lynn, Courtney Simpson

Length: 176 minutes

Date of Production: 9/10/2005

Extra's: Most of you will appreciate the bonus scene lasting about 36 minutes between Courtney Simpson, Sascha, and Christian. I detailed the scene below, flaws and all, but in the big picture, it was a decent extra. I also liked the 16 minute long Behind the Scenes feature by Sun Chen although it could've been longer. The inclusion of showering footage was a great idea with Penny providing the most laughs and getting the most footage (some were shortchanged though). There were also trailers, a photogallery, credits, and a double disc set inside a clear plastic case for those who care.

Condoms: None

Audio/Video Quality: Short & Sleazy was presented in the usual 1.33:1 ratio full frame color as originally shot by director Bryan Xin for distribution by Pulse Pictures. I thought the technical matters were improved from his last effort for the company, Cheek Freaks, but the sense of lighting wasn't where it should be and the camera work seemed a bit too jumpy. In terms of lighting, the scenes almost all had large windows behind the cast causing various issues with the picture. This led to parts were the shadows kept the bumping of uglies from being plainly observable (how many porn fans prefer not knowing which hole is being filled?) and some color over saturation that isn't a problem on many other gonzo movies. For my part, I prefer the flat lighting of many of the Red Light District movies over this style but you can adjust the rating as you see fit to accommodate my personal preference. The camera work jumped about more than average and cut off body parts (compositional errors are another area some people dispute) but in terms of "raw energy", I think Bryan did a good job, especially with the first three gals of the movie. The DVD itself had some signs of minor video noise but I really liked the menus (the cover was visually appealing too) and the number of compression artifacts was minimal too. The stereo audio track was pretty basic with some hollowness to the vocals, no separation between the tracks, and a decent music track in the background used at the beginning of the scenes.

Body of Review: Bryan Xin has been one of the under-represented directors in porn for the last several years for a host of reasons. Staring off on his own, he started working for a new company called Pulse Pictures in order to push himself to the limit and offer up something more to his own liking and the second release out of him is Short & Sleazy, a series of vignettes featuring short gals in action. As a moderately tall guy, I have nothing for short women or against them in porn so long as they provide the kind of energetic, passionate performances that show sexual skill in action. Bryan can be quite a capable director so I figured I'd give this one a shot and I'm glad I did, regardless of whatever minor flaws it had. Here's a brief look at the scenes by cast and actions they engaged in, noting that no condoms were used:

Scene One: Penny Flame, the gal on the right hand side of the front DVD cover standing 5'2" and impressing me several times in recent months, was up first as she teased the camera in a bedroom. I liked the tease footage and agreed with her about it being all about "anticipation". The light from the windows caused some minor issues with pattern noise but she looked very good here as the sweat gleamed off her skin. After some masturbation footage, she walked downstairs where she hooked up with Mark Ashley. She gave him a very sloppy blowjob as he face fucked her and brought tears to her eyes with this leading to her receiving his penis in her pussy as she held her legs back in missionary style. They boned in numerous other positions and while the colors were somewhat oversaturated, it looked pretty good. The scene ended with a large facial and I thought she did a good job in terms of energy and passion.

Scene Two: Jersey Jaxin, the diminutive little brunette on the left side of the front DVD cover, was a mere 4'11" with her all natural body and state of Texas tattoo on her stomach. She followed the formulaic tease that was done to music inside the house and fans of tiny gals will love her almost boyish body. The lengthy tease gave way to Christian picking her up (literally) and playing with her before the sex began on the couch. The windows were so bright from the outdoor sun that the room looked nearly white, causing them to look suspended in air at times. She eventually got around to blowing him slowly, with me noting that his penis looked as big around as her forearm, but he wanted to screw her so it didn't seem to last all that long. They went to the beige couch where she striped off her outfit and he hammered away at her pussy in a modified missionary (leg in air) position. The lighting was such that you almost couldn't see his meat sliding inside her at times due to the way the shadows were at play but this is something of a personal choice for fans (I like to see the action in full glory rather than extrapolate as some reviewers seem willing to do). Thankfully, the weaker moments were outweighed by the better moments and the two boned vaginally for some time after in other positions better suited for the lighting. She wasn't very active in returning his thrusts but given their size difference, I'm not sure how she could be and the scene ended with the facial as expected.

Scene Three: Vanessa Lane, one of the most energetic gals I've seen in recent months was up next as she paraded her 5'1" body in front of some stained glass doors. In some ways, she's a guilty pleasure of mine since she's so lean (though fit and flexible) and high strung with a raspy voice and implants that she definitely falls outside of my usual taste in gals but the tease was solid as was the rest of her scene with partners Christian and Sascha. She initially played coy with them but turned on her acting abilities and really went to town as they guys struggled to keep up with her. The oral was among the best in the movie and she took a pounding in both holes like nobody's business. The anal wasn't quite as appealing in terms of her thrusting back but she still managed to do a fine job of milking their loads better than could be expected. She did the usual taste testing too and finished up with the pop shots to her mouth but some of you might be upset that she wasn't a DP queen here (it didn't both me a bit). Still, it was a solid performance all around.

Scene Four: Cassie Courtland, a skinny bleach blonde standing 5' even was up next as she teased the camera by the staircase in her generic outfit consisting of a patterned muscle shirt, blue jean skirt, and tiny thong. She used a lot of facial expressions to get the message across that she was sleazy, succeeding quite well in fact although I'd be misleading you to say I thought she was looking as cute as her cover shot (she was located in the middle of the front DVD cover). Her partner for the scene was Barrett Blade and her oral, while the most limited of the cast, was acceptable in the sense that it seemed like he was the one pressing to rip into her pussy. He really went to town on it in fact but she wasn't particularly enthusiastic about pumping back to meet him so much as to suck her own juices off of his rod. In general, this was the filler scene and Barrett nearly lost his load before the camera caught it on camera but he tossed a lot of semen onto that face of hers nonetheless.

Scene Five: Kaiya Lynn, a fetching little 4'11" Asian gal that was sadly not gracing the front DVD cover, was up last in terms of the movie but seemed to offer a different dynamic to the show as she sucked on a cool glass dildo and tasted herself off of it. I'm not familiar with her body of work but aside from her implants, she had few curves to speak off. Her scene was with Mark Ashley and he seemed enthralled by her moves from her skillful oral to the way she rode his cock in her pussy. She looked upset at the anal, even though he prepared her with the glass toy, and yelled out loud to the point of distortion as he rammed his rod deep inside her rectum. I got the impression that he just wanted her to lay back and take whatever he slammed inside her three holes, which was good because she wasn't nearly as active as the earlier gals in the show. It ended when he held her head down to take the facial that fell to the side of her face as she refused to take it in her mouth. If you like passive types, she'll work for you more than she did for me but she was cute.

Scene Six: Courtney Simpson, one of the taller gals at 5'2" looked nothing like Jessica Simpson but managed to make me laugh due to her funny t-shirt as she teased the camera outside. She's another very thin gal with bleached hair but pretty eyes and a modicum of skill at stripping during the tease portion of a scene. It started outside but sadly enough, she went inside to enjoy a round of screwing with Sascha and Christian on the couch. They didn't spend a lot of time teasing her other than to jill her a bit with Sascha giving her head before she took them both on orally. I always like to figure out why a scene is included in the bonus section rather than included in the main movie, especially when the performer seems plenty cute enough to rate the movie. In this case, it seemed that after the oral, the guys could only do her one at a time, also sticking with vaginal activities on her acrobatic body. She contributed to the weakness by routinely forgetting to engage in dirty talk, looking almost prompted to do so on queue. The guys popped at two different times, Sascha finishing up with her to the point where he had to call for Christian to take round two. Fans will appreciate the 36 minutes they went at it but it didn't have much replay value.

Summary: Short & Sleazy was a mixed bag of tricks for me but a couple of very heated performances on top of several others that were well received gave me pause for thought. The replay value was reasonable and the extra scene worth checking out with Sun Chen's capable BTS feature added in as a bonus so I'm going to suggest this one as Recommended. As Bryan grows as a director, I get the feeling that he'll be making some truly fine porn (he has the eye for talent and the ability to bring out significant raw energy in his performers) but he still needs to polish up his technical skills further before that's going to happen. I know it'd be easier to grin like a chimp and suggest there were no problems with his work but I'll leave that for others more willing to let consumers down and block the progress of guys like Bryan to do. In summary, Short & Sleazy was neither short, nor sleazy with a lot of fuck for the buck offered up on the two disc set. Director Bryan Xin is poised on the edge of his own success and I think he'll break through in the coming year based on improvements he's made since I first started watching his movies. In that sense, I wish him well and all the success in the world as he competes against some of the more established names in the business but give him a look and I think you'll see what I mean when I say he's moving upward.