Crème Brulee

Wicked Pictures

Genre: Feature

Director: David Stanley

Cast: Jessica Drake, Chris Cannon, Jassie, Faith, Randy "The Spear" Spears, Alana Evans, Courtney Simpson, Tony Tedeschi; Barrett Blade (bonus scene only)

Length: 136 minutes

Date of Production: 10/10/2005

Extras: For most of you, the best extra will be the bonus scene between Jessica Drake and Barrett Blade from the movie from Perfect Life. I described it below and it was well worth watching, even if you've seen it before. I also appreciated the 22 minute long All Access: Behind the Scenes of Creme Brulee by Mark Stone. It was fun, had some extra sex footage, and stands up as a solid production that added value to the DVD release. I also liked the audio commentary with Jessica Drake, Randy Spears, and David Stanley (and David's non-porn girlfriend Alajandra though she didn't comment much). David, Jessica and Randy all spoke at length about the technical matters, the wild anecdotes they had from the movie's production, and whatever popped in their minds. Fans of Jessica Drake will also want to watch the 1.5 minute long Box Cover Shoot, though it was too short to truly appreciate her fine form in action. There were also a number of photogalleries and star statistics, a classy cardboard protective sleeve, two promotional reels, DVD ROM materials like Wicked Awards and Nominations, company profile, and desktop pictures, a DVD catalog, some spam, and trailers to shows like Eternity, Camp Cuddly Pines, All About Keri, Sold, Secrets of the Velvet Rings, But I'm With The Band, and others.

Condoms: Yes

Audio/Video Quality: Crème Brulee 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 the first time 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 and German 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. As a side note, there were optional Italian subtitles, though I'm not sure how many people use them (an English language subtitle track might be worth exploring; perhaps a written commentary).

Body of Review: David Stanley is one of the new directors at Wicked Pictures, having left Vivid a year or so ago. I've seen an awful lot of his work in the past, often finding it pretentious, of limited stroke value, and offbeat to point where many great couplings were ruined by the artistic touches rather than enhanced. That said, now that he's allowed to make a far smaller number of movies, and given a bigger budget to do so, his artistic leanings have improved drastically in terms of providing not just the art, but some serious stroke value that we all seek from porn. Crème Brulee is his latest movie, his first 1st showcase title starring the beautiful and talented Jessica Drake. Aside from him hitting on all twelve cylinders, the cast was exceptionally gifted and things just clicked in this story of two artists working things out over time to become lovers. While labeled an Erotic Drama on the cover, there wasn't that much drama and fans of features will have something worth paying attention to here, especially given the non-sexual talents of leads Jessica and Randy Spears. Here's a more traditional breakdown of the sex scenes by cast and action, noting that all the scenes were fun to watch:

Scene One: Jessica Drake, the hotty featured on the front and back DVD covers, was up first with Chris Cannon on a bed in the studio. They playfully licked and teased one another before she started sucking him off. She did so with a paced tempo that increased as the oral progressed; acting as though nothing else was going on in the universe. Rather than try to get him off by slamming his dick down her throat, she slowly worked him over as though she was getting a lot of pleasure (and giving it at the same time). When she lifted her leg over his head to do a 69, I thought she looked even better but the emphasis was strictly oral here and I didn't mind a bit (though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't left wanting more). It was a good way to start the show with Jessica providing one of, if not her very best, blowjob.

Scene Two: Jassie, a skinny but beautiful brunette, was up next as a model to Jessica Drake's photographer in the loft. Jassie was the initial sexual aggressor as she started undressing Jessica on the bed. Jessica seemed to almost blushing at times, conveying the sense that she was at once turned on and appreciative at Jassie's teasing (and somewhat coy) style. The two ladies took time going down on one another before jilling themselves off beside one another on the bed. It wasn't a lengthy scene and there wasn't a lot of detail to go into but it worked in most ways for me; providing significant replay value like the first scene.

Scene Three: Faith, a relative newcomer in porn with a beautiful face, hot DSLs, and an all natural body with slightly more curves than Jassie, was up next in a candlelit room with studly Randy Spears. Her sheer allure before they went at it together was off the charts as a tease for the audience. He went down on her first, licking all over her crotch and feet before she aggressively blew him (using her hand in corkscrew fashion). In terms of energy, this was the best BJ of the movie though it wasn't as sensuous as Jessica's opener. She tore into his rod like she was on fire, then switching out to a footjob, before the standard vaginal action. To be fair, she was less enthusiastic during the screwing than I'd like to have seen but she wasn't bad overall with Randy popping out a load to her mouth (referred to as "cream of Randy soup" by Jessica when they goofed on the actor during his smoke break on the commentary).

Scene Four: Alana Evans, a light haired cutie that reminds me a lot like a much younger version of Jill Kelly, was up next as a camera wielding gal in bed during a lesbian scene with Jassie. I know a lot of porn scenes have the gals going through the motions but these two really seemed into one another. The gals licked and rubbed each other while wearing their lingerie; never coming across as having less than a great time. They had some chemistry together (though not like Jessica had with Chris) and used digital manipulation (fingering/rubbing) more than previous scenes with only a little of the "over the top" vocals by Alana. They kissed, stroked, and ate each other out before the scene finished up (at this point, Randy had to leave the commentary too).

Scene Five: Courtney Simpson, everyone's favorite Arizona State University Cheerleader, was up next with greasy Tony Tedeschi on the couch after a brief little erotic play by Jessica and Randy in the kitchen. Tony was going down on Courtney at first but there wasn't much of that before she tore into his cock orally. They boned after that, showing a much more mechanical style than the others did to this point (perhaps a nice contrast for some of you), employing light and shadow for additional visual texture. Her flexibility was just as great as I remember it (during the standing vaginal sex, she did a split in the air that defied gravity). It eventually ended when he popped a load onto her abdomen but as much as I didn't like it as much as the others initially, it seemed better the second time it played (when I listened to the commentary track).

Scene Six: Jessica Drake, lacking the make up and glamour of her previous scenes, wore glasses, jeans, and a poofy shirt in a more natural scene with Randy Spears on the bed. Her ass looked even better in the jeans (I know, I'm a shallow jerk) but what really worked for me about the scene was how playful she came across once again. I know they're two of the best performers in adult entertainment and the common claim that this means they "have to be" faking it comes up a lot but whether they were getting each other off for real (as it looked to me) or just far better actors than most mainstream talent. Her oral was once again playful; she toyed with his dick and showed incredible skill, and otherwise provided a great blowjob again. He reciprocated with some foot fetish work, from toe sucking to Jessica's first on-screen footjob, to the active vaginal riding she did. There was some PTM and she even fingered her ass but it was the chemistry they shared as combined with the heat that worked the most for me. It ended with him jerking off onto her feet, closing out a very good scene.

Bonus Scene: Perfect Life: Jessica Drake, the most beautiful woman of the movie to me, was up last in a scene with Barrett Blade on a bed with a blue screen set of clouds flying by them as though they were on cloud 9. The scene contained more foreplay and teasing by each of them than the others with each seeming to take their time to ready the other as though they got off trying to outdo the other. It was more of an erotic scene than an explicit hardcore bone-fest but the person watching it with me last night thought it was the hottest thing she'd watched in weeks. If you want to see circus act sex, you probably aren't reading a review of a Michael Raven movie for Wicked Pictures, but it had a lot to appreciate on several levels.

Summary: Crème Brulee was the best David Stanley release to date on so many levels that I'd be hard pressed to find the best spot to begin so I'll use the metaphor mentioned in the audio commentary where the listener is asked: "Do you like soup?" If Crème Brulee were a soup, it could be described as being stocked with the finest ingredients (ladies), excellent production values (thanks to David Stanley), a lot of heat, and the kind of chemistry that only a lot of care could provide. The scenes had a lot of replay value, the erotic tension that was built over the course of the movie was a few steps ahead of what I expected, and as one of David's biggest critics in the past, I concede that he has finally shown the kind of skill those who support him have touted for years. My guess is that most of his past works were truncated thanks to an artificial timetable and budget concerns since a quick check of a few of them on my part revealed a number of glimpses into the realm of what he'd been fussing at me about for a long time (though not enough to overcome what amounted to a learning curve). He puts a lot of himself in his movies, though not enough to work within the constraints of modern porn in most cases, but as he truly begins to hit his stride, I see a lot of positive things coming out of him when given the right "ingredients" to work with. In that sense, Crème Brulee was as tasty as your grandma's favorite recipe earning a Highly Recommended for the quality displayed.