The Movie:

Director Octavio Winkytiki's third feature for Vivid Alt, Bad Luck Betties, takes a page from Johnny Legend's Hot, Young N' Nasty Teenage Cruisers and fuses some seriously bad ass rockabilly beats with explicit pornography. Whereas Legend's film was 70s ode to 50s hot rod movies, Winkytiki's 2008 production pays homage to the juvenile delinquent/bad girl movies made around the same time, with a little bit of Japanese style pinky violence camp thrown in for good measure. Think of this as Switchblade Sisters meets Girl Boss Guerilla meets New Wave Hookers and you're on the right track, but still probably unprepared for the greatness that awaits you...

The titular 'Betties' are a small gang of four tough gals - Smoking Mary Jane, Mika Tan, Bianca Dagger and Marie Luv - who have been used and abused by the seedy side of Hollywood. As such, they have to resort to more drastic measures to make ends meet and before you know it, the four beauties have gained control of the rackets in 'Transaction Junction' and they aim on keeping it. With the turf secured, the 'Betties' stand to get a cut of every illegal going-on in the area but of course, a monkey wrench or two gets thrown into their plans...

Admittedly plot very definitely comes second but when there's this much style on display it's easy to overlook the lack of substance, and let's face it, the old exploitation movies that this picture pays dirty homage to weren't usually blessed with the deepest of plots. This sex and violence first attitude is completely in keeping with Octavio's influences and it's obvious from the care and attention put into the costumes, the sets and the tough talking dialogue that he's having a good time here and that he obviously loves these movies.

But what about the sex? Oh, there's plenty of that. For instance:

Scene One - Marie Luv And Daniel: A cop moves in on Marie Luv and corners her in her apartment. One thing leads to another and after some seriously high quality foreplay the couple gets to fucking. He taps her from a few different positions - doggy style, cowgirl, and reverse cowgirl - using a conveniently placed chair when needed. When it's time for the big finish he pulls out and shoots his wad onto her face, coaxed on with some help from her sexy mouth. Not the best scene in the film, this is never the less a solid start as it generates some heat and uses some effective comedy to keep the mood light.

Scene Two - Smoking Mary Jane And Paige Richards: Ah yes, there is a God. Two Bettie Page look-alikes (Paige even played her in Nico B's biopic, Bettie Page: Dark Angel and this reviewer couldn't be happier to see her in hardcore lesbo action in this film!) start the scene by wrestling. If you dig the old Irving Claw black and white female fight loops, you'll catch that same vibe from this scene. Of course, with emotions running high, their anger soon turns to lust and the girls eat one another out and use a black dildo on each other. Both of these two dirty debs are completely delicious and obviously having fun with each other. As such, the screen almost melts from the heat they generate. Damn!

Scene Three - Bianca Dagger And Tommy Pistol: If the last scene didn't drain your balls, well, third times the charm, right? Pistol, playing a greaser and sporting some seriously manly sideburns, gets into it with Bianca and the two get into a bit of a scuffle. They head into the bathroom to work out their differences and soon enough, Tommy's cock is in Bianca's mouth. They move into the stall and he spends most of his time fucking her from behind with what looks like some pretty genuine enthusiasm. He pulls out and delivers a money shot into the nearby sink to end this steamy scene on a humorous note. These two are obviously very comfortable working with one another and that comes through nicely here, making this another very good pants tightener.

Scene Four - Mika Tan, Cheyne Collins And John West: This scene might irk the more racially sensitive smut fans out there (though in an industry that applauds efforts like Slant Eyed Sluts and Mexi-Whores that seems unlikely). Mika plays a Vietnamese whore paid to service to American G.I.'s played by Cheyne and John. She speaks with a phony Asian accent and uses all sorts of stereotypical jargon to get things moving. Once the sex starts, it doesn't take long for the inevitable double penetration but with the trio cracking jokes fairly consistently along the way it's hard not to snicker despite a bit of honest and strong fucking. This one is played for laughs but it doesn't skimp on the hardcore as Mika gets fucked in the ass and in her pussy and delivers some quality oral as well before taking two loads on her face. Me love you long time, indeed.

Scene Five - Pinky Lee And Alec Knight: Last but not least comes this final scene where Pinky Lee (the only blonde in the film, not that this fan of dark haired women is complaining!) heads to the mayor's office to get what she needs to finally get the 'Betties' to let her into their gang. Knight, the mayor, talks her into posing for some photographs and then cons her into sucking his cock with promises of stardom. The oral leads to some classy office fucking as he takes her from behind and on the couch, working her cunt and her asshole before pulling out and shooting his goop onto her face. This is a decent scene but it's the weakest of the five. Regardless, it's still much better than average and, like the first four, effectively blends some quality fuck footage with a playful sense of humor.

The DVD

Video:

This shot on video production looks pretty clean presented here in a reasonably stable 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen presentation. There is some mild edge enhancement in a couple of spots and a noticeable bit of mpeg compression evident in some of the darker colors and the blacks but other than that, there's not a lot to complain. Skin tones look nice and natural, the compositions are dead on, and aside from the fact that this digital video production looks like a digital video production and as such suffers from the minor defects usually associated with the format, everything is coming up roses as far as the look of the film is concerned. Bad Luck Betties looks pretty bad ass!

Sound:

The Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track is quite sufficient. The dialogue comes through cleanly and clearly as do all of the moans and groans. The soundtrack is mixed in properly at a decent level to make sure that we can hear both the music as well as the performers as the same time. Bass response is nice and lively and overall, for a porno movie, this is a way, way better than average effort and it actually sounds really good.

Extras:

The first disc is completely barebones save for some stylish menus and a scene selection option.

The second disc has got a nice selection of extra features starting off with a surprisingly lengthy behind the scenes documentary entitled If You Build It, They Will Come (1:41:17). This is essentially a bunch of behind the scenes footage with commentary over top from Winkytiki and Vivid Alt head honcho Eon McKai. Shot in McKai's home (look for the Slayer poster in the background and the sizeable collection of LPs behind them), the pair discuss the making of the film in a fair bit of detail with McKai basically playing commentary moderator and interviewing Winkytiki about the film. We get a chance to check out some on set footage and hear about the trails and tribulations of making an adult film. It's all handled with a very laid back and humorous attitude and, surprisingly enough when compared to the countless other behind the scenes documentaries out there, it's interesting and well worth watching (seeing Tommy Pistol black his fight scene with Bianca Dagger is pretty rad!).

The other substantial supplement on the disc is the Historic Footage That Influenced The Movie (1:14:21) featurette. Here we see clips from four different public domain films: The Changing City, We Learn About The Telephone, Why Vandalism?, and Booked For Safe Keeping. While this probably won't appeal as much to the porno hounds as it will to the genre geeks, it's never the less an entertaining assortment of past cinematic oddities and it's fun to see it included here.

Rounding out the extra features on disc two are a pair of quality still galleries (Winkytiki's Bad Luck Betties photo gallery and Winkytiki's Vivid Alt photo gallery - both set to some swinging rock n' roll background music), trailers for all the other Vivid Alt DVD releases, and some spiffy menus.

Also included with this release is the kickin' soundtrack on CD. Tracks are as follows:

Damn Good N' Ready by The Goomen

Breakout by the Firecrackers

Big Belt Buckle by The Tijuana Bibles

Hard Headed Woman by Chuy And The Bobcats

Baby Please Don't Go by Giselle And Luis Arriaga

Chills And Fever by Giselle

You Gotta Move by Santos

Wild In The Heat by Luis Arriaga

Hammond Jam by Luis Arriaga

A Bailar by Luis Arriaga

Heartbreaker by Candy Crash

Final Thoughts:

Bad Luck Betties is steamy, sexy, stylish and most importantly, a helluva lot of fun. Shot with a pin up photographer's eye for capturing the finer points of the female form, this is on that'll appeal to smut movie fans and b-movie enthusiasts alike. With a very nice transfer, solid audio and some quality extras, this one easily earns a rating of highly recommended. Roll up the cuffs of your jeans, slick back your hair, and jump in.