Whatever It Takes

Wicked Pictures

Genre: Feature

Director: Stormy Daniels

Cast: Tori Black, Barrett Blade, Stormy Daniels, Brendon Miller, Lisa Ann, Anthony Rosano, MacKenzee Pierce, TJ Cummings, Billy Glide

Length: 87:51 minutes

Tori Black with Barrett Blade

Date of Production: 3/14/2010

Extras: For most folks, the unrelated bonus scene from What Went Wrong starring Tori Black with Marcus London, lasting 14:31 minutes, will be the best extra; the Jonathan Morgan movie quite a nice little offering from what I remember of it. There were also 8 trailers spread throughout the disc, a promo reel, a modest photogallery, and slip cover rounding out the usual extras (as well as a true double sided cover). For me though, the best extra was the 16:27 minute long Behind the Scenes featurettes, Lee Snijders & Jef~ doing a capable job of balancing the two sides of the production (from Stormy's words of wisdom to what Tori Black and others had to say).

Condoms: Yes

Stormy Daniels

Audio/Video Quality: Whatever It Takes was presented in an anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen color as it was shot in by director Stormy Daniels for Wicked Pictures using the MPEG-2 codec employed by most standard definition titles these days (with a 480i resolution). The lighting was better than usual in most scenes, rare;y devolving into the grainy look the director has offered up in some of her more stylish efforts, even the video noise covered up in most cases. The composition of the shots helped enhance the look of the ladies too, a blend of medium, long, and close up shots establishing various perspectives. The bitrate seemed to frequently hover in the upper 3.2 Mbps range so it could have looked worse, some shadows on sex scenes used to work the story rather than allow for the usual flat lighting of a porno. It was a decent looking fuck flick at times, even for a smaller budget release from the company, striking me as big on creativity even if low on actual budget, not surprising given this was attributed to Stormy and her award winning sensibilities. The audio was presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround English track showing a 384 Kbps bitrate (twice the normal rate for a porno) and a 48 kHz sampling rate, it did have some separation between the channels but most of it appeared to be related to the musical score and not the vocals.

Tori Black and Lisa Ann

Body of Review: Stormy Daniels is one of the female performer-turned-directors in the industry that people pay attention to, her work for Wicked Pictures over the years securing her status as someone that rose above the usual ranks to form a long term career in the industry. Her niche as a director has been to make small dramas that appeal largely to couples, the sex more realistic than the lengthy gonzo trysts I tend to favor and the scripts decidedly more down to earth in a manner that works best for those that have to read them. That said, I have made it a point of promoting her work to some of my fellow reviewers that I know adore everything she does in recent years, their descriptions of her works far less jaded than I could provide. Frankly, most people either like her work a lot or hate it just as much, little middle ground offered up from the comments I've received, my belief that there is a market for everything proven time and again in that sense. Her latest movie is called Whatever It Takes, a tale starring hotty Tori Black as a women fallen on hard times, her desire to maintain her lifestyle via a non-traditional route (prostitution) coming back to bite her when her husband finds out about it.

Tori Black with Anthony Rosano

The back cover described the movie like this: "When life takes a turn for the worse, Zoë (Tori Black) and her husband reach desperate times. Afraid of losing her home, Zoë seeks advice from her friend Amber (Stormy Daniels) who lets her in on a little secret: that she's an escort. Frantic, Zoë decides to try it...just once. Once turns into twice and soon it becomes a way of life. But when tragedy strikes, she's forced to come clean to her husband. Will it tear them apart? Sometimes when you do whatever it takes, you lose the very thing you were trying to save... In what could be one of Stormy Daniels most defining moments as a director, Whatever It Takes is a potent combination of hot sex, top rate acting performances and inspired vision. A must see!" Here's a brief look at the scenes by cast and action, noting that condoms were used for those still interested:

MacKenzee Pierce

Scene One: Tori Black, the fetching young brunette featured on the front cover, was up first in bed wearing a baby blue nighty, woken by Barrett Blade who made her coffee and changed the baby's diapers in order to get some quality time with her. They kissed and caressed, Barrett working his way down to her tits and pussy as he orally prepared her for fun. She provided ample aural inspiration for him to continue, their playful demeanor leading to her providing a fine hummer. The vaginal penetration went from missionary to cowgirl to doggy, Barrett rubbing out a wad of genetic juice to her ass before their tryst ended in a rush.

Scene Two: Stormy Daniels, having introduced Tori to making money the old fashioned way, ended up with moper Brendon Miller, on a couch. She was wearing an animal print stripper outfit and he was all over her, his hands roughly pinching her nipples and feeling her crotch before she dropped down to blow him. It took him awhile to get hard and he reciprocated, Stormy offering herself to him in a few passive positions and the guy busting a load of population pudding to her upper leg when pulling out of her snatch. Stormy showed no chemistry for the guy but she performed much like strippers seemingly do for clients, my nod to the way this was handled as part of the story rather than unrealistic fun times.

Scene Three: Lisa Ann, the leading MILF of porn these days, was up next as a stern businesswoman who hired hotty Tori Black, for a lesbian tryst in the office. Lisa admonished Tori for being late, brandishing a riding crop on her ass until Tori started eating her out. Eventually, Lisa reciprocated on Tori's younger box, the overacting kept to a minimum until the sex toys came into play. Lisa was more active, and as the dominant partner it made sense, some taste testing ending the scene all too early.

Scene Four: Tori Black, dressed in purple and black, was up next with her former boss in a hotel room, Anthony Rosano liking her more as an independent contractor from the looks of how he treated her. She wore fishnet stockings to drive him wild and she aggressively slobbed his knob, Anthony shoving his head between her ass cheeks to reciprocate orally. They screwed vaginally in a few positions, his need to blow out some seed causing her to take his chest pop far too early after a handful of modest positions. I was surprised that the dialogue leading him to be portrayed as a foot freak but nothing was done with it, this being an ongoing problem with quickly written scripts failing to take advantage of situational elements.

Scene Five: MacKenzee Pierce, a cute brunette wearing an animal print dress, was up last as she filled in to work for TJ Cummings and Billy Glide on a huge brown couch. She initially blew Billy while TJ took her from behind vaginally, their roles reversed to show her throating TJ as Billy went down on her. She really let loose from there, jumping actively on their cocks vaginally and anally, the anal action rarely slowing her down significantly. They did a DP on her with all the trimmings, the men tossing off two facials of spunk to her before their terms of service changed for the worse.

Bonus Scene: What Went Wrong: While in Europe, Tori Black barges into Marcus London's room. Her persistent horniness seduces the man well. They kiss and start to make out. He removes her intimate panties and eats her muffin with desired energy. Then, he rubs it very aggressively which makes her moan wildly. Afterwards, the woman's blow job antics are energetic. The scene shows pure lust. A 69 follows in which Tori is on top. There is good work at both ends. His missionary and doggie rhythms continue their raw passion. An aggressive rub-a-dub of her pussy follows. Next, Marcus pumps her forcefully during the cowgirl moments. Tori bounces on his manhood with good passion. His spoonful of pleasure is solid and easily satisfies her greatly. Then, she rides him reverse cowgirl style. By now, the couple has lost it's connectivity to the viewer on account of the many position changes. Lastly, he cums on her mouth. (review by Apache Warrior)

Summary: Whatever It Takes by director Stormy Daniels for Wicked Pictures was a little gem of a flick that relied on a balance between the dialogue and the sex, the storyline believable enough as written by someone in the field (Stormy) and acted at least as well as late night cable, just with better sex so I rated it as Recommended. If you're a fan of Tori Black, consider this showcase drama a "must have" though since she did a far better job of acting outside of the sexual expectations one might have, a few of the others admittedly needing more polishing up. My biggest issue with the movie had nothing to do with the use of condoms in each scene or the relatively short sexual trysts but the over use of the "one week later" method of advancing the timeline as a clumsy device to move the plot forward. In short then, Whatever It Takes showed some realistic, pragmatic choices available to those suffering from tough economic times, the consequences presented in a fashion that served the story rather than the rose-colored version viewers expect to see so check it out and have fun.