Promises of the Heart

Wicked Pictures/Faraway Films

Genre: Feature

Director: David Stanley

Cast: Jenna Haze, Mia Smiles, Evan Stone, Adrianna Nicole, Tommy Gunn, Chris Cannon, Mika Tan, Gianna Lynn, Marcos Leon, Kelly Kline

Length: 89 minutes

Date of Production: 5/28/2006

Extra's: For many of you, the best extra will be the bonus scene between Jenna Haze and Evan Stone from The Morgan Sex Project 6. It was short and sweet but had a lot to offer so I described it below. It was shot when she was new to porn and well before her JKP contract so she was still an extreme queen at this point, the scene lasting 9.5 minutes. Personally, I enjoyed the 19 minute long Behind the Scene feature by talented Mark Stone more but I prefer unique extras in my movies. There was more sex, nudity, and short interviews as Mark meandered around the sets of the flick, talking with cast and crew, spending a lot of time getting the inside scoop from director David. There were also the usual photogalleries (7) and Star Stats (3), the 2005 & 2006 Promotional Reel, spam, DVD Catalog of Wicked Pictures titles, the usual DVD ROM material, and trailers to movies like The Visitors, Gossip, Eternity, Camp Cuddly Pines, Hook Ups, Curse Eternal, (but none for Fuck, Manhunters, or other new titles; curious...). There was also a cardboard protective sleeve on the DVD case and a double sided cover for those who care.

Condoms: Yes

Audio/Video Quality: Promises of the Heart was presented in the usual 1.85:1 ratio anamorphic widescreen color as shot by director David Stanley for Wicked Pictures. The use of lighting was moody with the use of shadow nearly as visually compelling this time, lending a slightly saturated color to the fleshtones of the scene. The video noise was minimal and the composition of the scenes was extremely well taken care of, enhancing the look of the ladies in all cases. The editing helped in this regard and the movie struck me as another time that I can state that David's attempt at art was completely successful. The audio was presented with numerous choices, the primary one being a 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround English track that balanced the vocals and music nicely. There were also 2.0 Dolby Digital tracks with Spanish, German, Greek, French, and Italian available for those who care but the fact is that the dubbing seemed quite off on both of them to me. Otherwise, the audio seemed to be a step forward for Wicked Pictures, even though the vocals were almost certainly recorded in monaural or dubbed in later. Still, the music was well done and the overall quality of the audio was better than average as well.

Body of Review: David Stanley has long been one of the most reclusive and creative directors in porn; choosing to focus on smaller features as a means of telling stories that often relate to tidbits from his life in a semi-autobiographical manner. This sometimes ends up being a double edged sword as he gets so close to his projects that refining them to work for outsiders can be hampered. His latest release for Wicked Pictures is a relationship movie called Promises of the Heart; a movie originally slated to star Jenna Haze and Randy Spears but later altered to put Chris Cannon in the role of Max, a shy guy in love with his best female friend. If you watch the movie closely, you'll see a number of minor homages to other shows, with the premise of the birthday marriage done at least a few times in the past. The cover put it like this (revised to change Chris for Randy): "Two best friends, Max (Chris Cannon) and Diane (Jenna Haze) jokingly agree to marry each other in a year if neither finds their true love. For Max, his true love is Diane, but unfortunately for him, Diane discovers her soul mate and makes wedding plans. Crushed, Max forces himself to go to the wedding only to be struck my even more tragedy and the newlyweds limo." As a couples flick, this one will be very high up on my list of suggestions to friends but it had a lot of rough edges too. If you're still interested, here's a quick look at the scenes by cast and action, noting that condoms were used in all the scenes:

Scene One: Jenna Haze, the cutie on the front cover, Asian hotty Mia Smiles, and the mighty Evan Stone, were up first in bed together with Evan eating Mia who was going down on a blindfolded Jenna. Jenna was quite vocal here. The blindfold came off and they reversed positions, allowing everyone a chance to get, and give, a little oral loving. Mia took first dibs on the cock and actively rode it but Jenna was even more active as her pussy took everything he had to offer with ease (she was really impaling herself hard too). The gals took, and shared, his dose of population pudding, kissing until the camera faded away in this heated little romp that was a surprise coming from David these days.

Scene Two: Adrianna Nicole, a curvy vixen with more flesh then the last two ladies (and I mean that in a nice way), shared a similar scene with muscular Tommy Gunn and male lead, Chris Cannon, in bed. She was slobbing Tommy's ample knob while Chris buried his face inside of her ass cheeks, switching to allow Tommy access to tap her tight pussy while she reciprocated on Chris' cock. He throat fucked her as Tommy drilled away, with her showing a desperate kind of urgency as she went for the cock. She was not as active a rider as the previous gals but they unleashed their loads onto her face and the scene ended into some of the plot material.

Scene Three: Mika Tan, playing a jaded dominatrix in full fetishware regalia, was up next as she mind fucked Chris Cannon into admitting how much he cared for Jenna. Her affected Russian accent was hilarious and I can see why David left it in the finished movie, but her oral skills served the movie even better as she polished his pecker really well. At first, I thought he'd lose his load into her mouth but she then climbed onto him and rode with a sense of abandon, the kind of riding that would have caused my load to hit the ceiling in record time. He did eventually rub out the load to her face and mouth but the oral was only one part of the very heated scene.

Scene Four: Gianna Lynn, a cute brunette at a fancy restaurant, was up next in a short, impromptu blowjob and titty fuck scene with Marcos Leon as they lost control of themselves and went at it on the dance floor. He popped on her face but the scene as a whole served mainly as a distraction for both the plot and the sex of the story.

Scene Five: Jenna Haze, all dolled up in a stripper style wedding outfit (a white bra, thong, and veil), was led to bed by Chris Cannon as his fondest wish appeared to come true. He sucked her toes, working his way up her lean limbs, and settled in on her pussy for awhile before she took over to power suck him in her little mouth. That led to him hammering away on her pussy in doggy style as she made with the best dirty talk of the movie, bouncing back on his dick in a pleading manner. A few positions of vaginal sex later, his seed was landing on her face and the moment the feature lovers out there were waiting for was over.

Scene Six: Kelly Kline, having been introduced as the attendant on the ambulance with little make up, was now all dolled up for her big day with Chris Cannon. They looked good together as his cast was taken off and he went true to form by sucking on her toes and working to her pussy. I thought a little variety would've been nicer but perhaps it was a thematic sexual routine used to establish something about his character. He fingered and ate her in such a manner that she got really wet but then there was a single position of vaginal screwing where she was terribly passive, ending in a modest facial. It was a weak sexual ending to an otherwise decent movie.

Bonus Scene: Morgan Sex Project 6: Jenna Haze, when she was young and fresh, was giving the mighty Evan Stone a blowjob on the open seas as the cast were out boating during the movie. I never saw this release before but it was such a cramped looking spot to work on, everyone was practically in each other's laps (with Red Ezra shooting a second camera). Perhaps this was the true inspiration for Evan's Pirate chasing captain from last year's blockbuster effort but the technical values aside, the raw energy was very much in evidence here as they sucked and fucked into oblivion. His nut went everywhere and it was a cute scene, if too short.

Summary: Promises of the Heart by director David Stanley for Wicked Pictures was worth a rating of Recommended from me thanks to the casting, the sex, and the thematic elements that generally worked pretty well. I liked several of the extras provided a lot but clocking in at under 90 minutes, the amount of fuck for your buck value was on the low side to rate any higher. Perhaps if a few newly shot bonus scenes were provided starring Ms. Haze or the ones in the movie were fleshed out beyond their simple formulas, I'd have felt comfortable rating it higher but more movies are lasting far longer these days so the entertainment value of Promises of the Heart seemed too light for a higher rating.