$2 Bill (Lanny Barby)

Vivid Entertainment

Genre: Vignette

Director: B. Skow

Cast: Lanny Barby, Evan Stone, Lucy Lee, John Strong, Jada Fire, Manuel Ferrara, Tory Lane, Trent Tesoro, Jerry
Non-sex role by Shylar Cobi

Length: 100 minutes

Date of Production: 7/5/2005

Extras: I was disappointed that there was no Behind the Scenes feature added in this time (a rarity on a Vivid shoot since the company has long acknowledged the value of such features). Most of you will likely prefer the five bonus scenes but lead contract performer Lanny Barby wasn't in anyof them, marking a major shift by Vivid in offering at least semi-related material in the extras section of their DVDs. There were two photogalleries (one starring Lanny Barby), a short text biography of Lanny, a positions room, trailers for movies like The New Devil In Miss Jones, Desperate, Where the Boys Aren't 17, and others, some advertisements (that can be skipped at the front of the DVD thanks to Vivid listening to our pleas), and a true double sided DVD cover.

Condoms: Yes

Audio/Video Quality: $2 Bill was presented in the same 1.33:1 ratio full frame color it was shot in by director B. Skow for Vivid Entertainment. The lighting was decent and that minimized the grain and other flaws for the most part. There was a slight bit of pattern noise at times and some shadows left from lack of fill lighting but they were hardly common and I appreciated the variety of settings too. The best part of the picture, aside from the attractive women of course, was the creative composition of the shots used throughout the movie's five scenes. Each seemed to enhance the gals best attributes and there didn't seem to be too much time spent on any specific type of shot (some directors love close ups, other get into weird positions, and still others pay no attention at all to such considerations by Skow apparently did his homework again). There were no compression artifacts and I liked the picture as part of Vivid's push to improve of late. The audio was presented in 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo English but most of the time; the audio was simply a series of generic musical scores. I thought some of them were too loud and others fairly decent but this is an area in need of more work in my opinion.

Body of Review: B. Skow is one of the up and coming directors you hear about on the internet with as much mystery behind his real identity as you can have in the limited world of porn. I've found his handful of titles released so far to be a cut or two above average and his latest movie is $2 Bill, a vignette driven show showcasing the talented Lanny Barby as a stripper at a local nudie bar. The movie is a gimmick driven flick that follows a $2 bill as it changes hands, serving as a nice lesson in local economies (I wonder if my old Economics professors would be able to use this to teach the multiplier effect?) being inter-related. That said, here's a quick look at the scenes by cast and action, noting that condoms were used in the scenes but they really weren't that obtrusive:

Scene One: VIP Room: Lanny Barby, the hotty on the front DVD cover and well known Canadian beauty, was up first as she provided a private dance for the mighty Evan Stone inside a strip club's VIP room. Her teasing gyrations on the metal pool, the way she gave him those sultry looks and the generally seductive manner she employed all enhanced the preliminaries here before she orally attacked his penis with her loving mouth on the purple velour couch. That led him to snacking on her as she moaned in pleasure, eventually leading to her actively riding his shaft on top of him. If there's anything better than a beautiful gal bouncing on your cock as though it's the only thing in the world of importance, I'm unaware of it but once again Lanny showed the world that Vivid is a company changing with the times as this former gonzo gal displayed lots of passion in her scene. For those of you into anal, she was just as aggressive at taking him inside her ass though he sure couldn't last long when she did, blowing his load like nobody's business. She tried to save what could be salvaged in terms of doing a facial but it was a chemistry filled, heated scene nonetheless.

Scene Two: Massage: Lucy Lee, the lean Asian gal with the implanted chest and skillful hands of a masseuse, was up next with John Strong as she rubbed him down. The massage alone looked pretty good to me but her oral skills were even better as she seemed determined to give him a happy ending one way or another. She went to bobbing on his knob after a short time, working his shaft like she meant to drain every drop of semen from him orally but the scene then switched gears and she sat on his dick to give a decent, active ride (not as good as Lanny's but still well worth watching). They screwed in several positions, working up quite a sweat as they did, before he rubbed out a load to her face. In all, it provided some decent replay value for me and I'm not her biggest fan.

Scene Three: A Big Spender: Jada Fire, a curvy black gal with nice DSLs, was up next with Manuel Ferrara after meeting him at a bar. They went into the back room and were soon tearing off each other's clothes as he kissed and fondled her breasts. I liked her squealing noises as he went down on her meaty ass though her own oral was too limited to appreciate much. This led to a short titty fuck and him banging away at her pussy in numerous positions, some of which appealed to her enough to ride him fairly well. The scene closed out with a titty fuck and a load to the face and wasn't bad at all although it lacked the replay value of the previous scenes in my opinion.

Scene Four: Getting Into It: Tory Lane, one of the most skilled brunette newcomers in porn, was up next in a bedroom scene with Trent Tesoro as he diddled her pussy with a large metallic vibrator upon arriving home to their apartment. She turned on her special reserve of energy and gave him a powerfully sweet blowjob, never losing eye contact with him as she worked him over in a passionate fashion. He gave her some oral too but it wasn't on the same scale of quality as hers was. In my estimation, she's one of the premiere oralists in porn and this scene showed it in spades. The scene then switched to vaginal sex and she was just as active as he boned home on her tight pussy, making me think she was a close second place to Lanny (though more vocal) for passion and heat. The scene ended when he bathed her from crotch to neck in semen.

Scene Five: Taxi Fare: Lanny Barby, back in the same VIP room and looking just as fine as ever, finished up the show in a scene with Jerry. There was less tease this time and that kind of sucked but she was still on a roll in terms of her oral skills. She sucked as though she were trying to inhale his balls through his shaft, stroking his rod to increase the friction. Whereas in her initial scene she seemed willing to slowly coax out the load and playfully tease her way through the action, the dynamic changed this time to add in a kind of frantic energy; almost as if she were hoping to finish him off quickly though it didn't work out that way. She gave just as much energy and passion here though she didn't do anal this time yet it really didn't matter to me given the strength of the action. Whew!

Summary: $2 Bill was a title that had some flaws but reminded me that the strength of the sex scenes meant the most in terms of rating so I gave it a Recommended. Lanny's two scenes were very well done and the others were not slacking either. The extras were weaker than I expected with no bonus scenes starring Lanny, no BTS feature, and limited replay value but the technical quality of the movie itself was higher than usual and I could skip the opening commercials (Vivid has finally listened to those of us that complained) so there were definitely changes afoot here. If you're a fan of Lanny Barby or Tory Lane, this is a no brainer in terms of value but even those of you who aren't should find the variety of action worth checking out. I don't know much about B. Skow's background (some suggest he's more well known under another name) but he did a decent job here, continuing his winning streak nicely.