Fallen

Wicked Pictures

Jenna Haze!

Genre: Feature

The orgy (one small part of it)

Director: Brad Armstrong

Jessica Drake!

Cast: Jenna Haze, Brad Armstrong, Jessica Drake, Jada Fire, Gianna Lynn, Lana Croft, Michelle McLaren, Ryder Sky, Derrick Pierce, Barry Scott, Eric Masterson, Sean Stylez, Randy Spears, Jennifer Dark, Tommy Gunn, Marcus London, Herschel Savage, Angie Savage, Shyla Stylez, Niko

Non-sex roles (at least in the movie itself): Alektra Blue, Jenaveve Jolie, Hunter Brice

Jennifer Dark and Marcus London

Length: 172:48 minutes (standard ending); 170:55 minutes (happy ending); and 173:23 minutes (vengeance ending)

Jessica Drake!

Date of Production: 8/3/2008

Jessica Drake with Herschel Savage

Extras: As the blockbuster of the season for Wicked Pictures, this four disc extravaganza was expectedly rich in extras, even if the fourth disc was the previously released "What Excites You" promo disc seen before. Disc Four included the cool "What Excites You" montage, trailers to all the 2008 AVN Award nominees (almost the company's entire catalog for the previous year; including The One, Operation Desert Stormy, For Love, Money, or a Green Card, Candelabra, The Predator, Coming Home, Kaylani Unleashed, Mobster's Ball, The Craving, Love Always, Just Between Us, Black Widow, Delilah, Zen, Melt, Supernatural, and Driven), 7 director biographies, 5 contract lady biographies (despite the montage, Julia Ann is off the roster according to this), a lot of phone sex spam, and five bonus scenes from various movies that I'll describe below (Black Widow, Candelabra, Coming Home, The Craving, and Just Between Us).

Angie Savage in the sex club

The Third Disc was the so-called "Bonus Disc" and included two unrelated scenes described below (from Operation Desert Stormy and Cockstar), a short deleted scene between Jessica Drake and Barrett Blade in the tattoo parlor lasting 13:47 minutes (oral and vaginal only with anal fingering), a deleted scene of dialogue between Brad Armstrong and Gianna Lynn that also included a blowjob lasting 8:17 minutes (heavy on dialogue and light on blowjob action but furthering the plot a bit too), four "Sex Booth" scenes with two camera angles each as Alektra Blue, Jenaveve Jolie, Hunter Bryce, and Angie Savage were allowed to masturbate in tidbits related to scene Seven in the flick (with toy action, anal, dirty talk, and each gal showing some personality in scenes ranging from Angie's 7:31 minutes and Jenaveve's 7:55 minutes to Alektra's 10:51 minutes and Hunter giving some fine squirting solo work for 11:33 minutes), a far better orgy scene lasting 40:06 minutes, and two interviews; one with Brad lasting 19:15 minutes and one by Jessica lasting 13:54 minutes.

Shyla Stylez and Jessica Drake!

The Second Disc was labeled the "Special Features" disc and had all the usual stuff on it, like trailers to Cockstar, Predator 2, The Artist, Fallen, and four more. There were seven sex scene galleries, four Star Stats, 13 photogalleries for the ladies, a general movie photogallery, a 5:40 minute long Box Cover shoot, a 4:28 minute long Bloopers Reel, a lengthy 17:56 feature called Leap of Faith (about Jessica and Brad jumping off the building for the movie), a 12:02 minute long set of interviews by the ladies called Angels on Angels where the female cast members got to talk about their beliefs regarding actual angels, a 11:37 minute feature on Jessica getting her body painted wings on at Brad's hands (with a spray can), another feature starring Jessica called Closer to Heaven lasting 2:34 minutes, still another with her called Angel's Flight Fantasy lasting 2:12 as she sat on the cabbie while being driven around (it looked really grainy and full of noise though; due to lack of lighting), a 38:17 minute long Behind the Scenes feature starring the majority of the cast & crew by Jax and Miller (which I really liked a lot), and for those of you so equipped, a digital download of the movie for your computer/transportable player. There was also a cool book sized case the DVD set came in that folded out with great artwork and a true double sided DVD cover, the first disc including three endings you could pick from (though curiously no audio commentary). Whew!

Jessica Drake and Brad Armstrong

Note: I did have some difficulties playing the extras discs on my standard definition DVD players (including a Toshiba, Panasonic, and two no name brands as well as my various computer drives. I ended up trying my Sony Playstation 3 where they played more consistently though the picture still froze a time or two. It might have been an early pressing at fault but I wanted to make sure folks knew about the issue since it has yet to be reported elsewhere and few reviews seem to have covered the extras in any meaningful manner.

Pick and ending!

Condoms: Yes

Disc Four!

Audio/Video Quality: Fallen was presented in an appealing 1.78:1 ratio anamorphic widescreen color as shot by director Brad Armstrong for Wicked Pictures in the standard definition MPEG-2 codec (in the usual 480 resolution). While filmed in high definition, it was down converted to a regular DVD so there was some grain in certain scenes where lighting was minimized as part of the scene (darker scenes tend to do that, especially those shot at night). The video noise was minimal in most cases and the composition of the scenes was well taken care of, enhancing the look of Jessica Drake and the other ladies in nearly all cases but there were times when I wished the high definition version were available to enhance the viewing experience. There were no obvious compression artifacts and the bitrate was typically in the mid to upper 3.1 Mbps range, some scenes nearly twice that but most of them on the lower end of the spectrum. The editing was pretty decent too, not the very best provided by the company but in the top third (a few out of focus moments, compositions cutting off heads or other body parts, and obviously distracting parts in need of polishing up by editor Eddie Door took away from the otherwise well done flick). The audio was presented with a choice of three audio tracks, the primary one being a 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround English track that balanced the vocals and music nicely (using 192 Kbps and a 48 kHz sampling rate), while the other two versions either enhanced the music over the vocals or the vocals over the music. The audio seemed to be another step in the right direction for Wicked Pictures, even though the vocals were almost certainly recorded in monaural or dubbed in later (not to mention limited in scope) instead of recorded in surround as would be needed for a higher rating. Still, the music was well done and the overall quality of the audio was better than average as well (much better in a few non-sex scenes such as the uncredited jazz club number).

Bonus material galore!

Body of Review: Jessica Drake is one of my all time favorite performers in porn, aging extremely well over the last ten years to become a surefire candidate for the Hall of Fame when the clock strikes the magic number. In recent times, she has been focusing more energy on working behind the scenes, even directing her first release reviewed last week by yours truly. Well, her number came up to star in Brad Armstrong's yearly blockbuster title for Wicked Pictures called Fallen, and there was never any doubt in my mind that she was the best lady capable of pulling off the role on staff. The movie details the life of an angel stranded on Earth after neglecting her duties to protect a young lady from a disastrous elevator ride that claims her life. As punishment, Jessica is banished from Heaven to live among the humans, the story picking up after four years to see her embracing the nastier side of life in a series of meaningless sexual encounters. That is, until she falls for her soul mate as played by Brad Armstrong, the quirks of fate providing enough material for discussion in how the plot shows her inevitable attempts to seek redemption. While the plot had some serious holes in it (no pun intended) and a number of you may be put off by the religious angle displayed here, the nod to several mainstream movies as inspiration once again earned Armstrong some respect.

Extended orgy scene!

I don't want to spoil the movie for you so I'll concentrate on describing the sexual aspects instead of the plot elements in more depth, the cover saying this about the movie: "An erotic masterpiece comes to life as award winning director Brad Armstrong tells the tale of "Angel" (Jessica Drake), a fallen Gregorian Angel who has been banished to earth and stripped of her wings after the accidental death of the young woman she was sent to watch over. Alone and desperate for companionship, she finds it in the city's seedy underworld, far from the idyllic heavens she once knew. Follow Angel on her dark journey through some of the most sinful and perverse places this world has to offer. As she continues her fall into darkness, she discovers a glimmer of light in Keith (Brad Armstrong), a handsome mortal that she is inexplicitly drawn to. As Keith helps guide her back towards the light, a secret from the past comes back to haunt the duo, threatening to tear them apart. Can Angel regain her wings and soar once again. Or has she fallen for the last time, doomed to live out her days trapped in the purgatory she now calls home... Destined to become an adult classic, Armstrong's stunning visual style, combined with Drake's top-notch performance, mind-blowing sex scenes and a screenplay that delivers till the very last frame, Fallen is an unforgettable film." Here's a brief look at the scenes by cast and action, noting that condoms were used for those still interested:

Pretty cool menus too!

Scene One: Jenna Haze, a lean little tight bodied hotty that has been in most of the big "name" movies this year, was up first in bed playing a gal named Denise. She was in her black underwear and bouncing around in the sack with Brad Armstrong, showing a surprising amount of heat and sexual agility as the pair went at it. The editing was too heavy handed for stroking pleasure but even the montage aspects of it at the beginning seemed to illustrate some care went into the scene. This was probably the shortest full scene of the movie but he came in her mouth and even the use of the expected condom did not weaken it any more than Jenna's lack of chemistry with Brad. In all then, Jenna looked very sexy and it was a shame she wasn't able to be in a longer scene (or several scenes due to the plot).

Unrelated Bonus scenes!

Scene Two: Jessica Drake, Jada Fire, Gianna Lynn, Lana Croft, Michelle McLaren, Ryder Sky, Brad Armstrong, Derrick Pierce, Barry Scott, Eric Masterson, and Sean Stylez, were then up in an orgy scene where the people paired off in the smoky bar setting as Jessica established her need for some form of love/physical contact with others. The scene lasted about twenty minutes (out of the over three hours shot) and the extended version on the bonus disc flowed much better (and was twice as long). In any case, the emphasis was on oral loving, with the ladies slobbing knob much more readily than the guys ate the ladies out, a bunch of anal sex included such as Jada getting planked or Jessica and Gianna taking DP's but the enthusiasm here was my favorite part of the scene overall. Eric looked weird with his modified Mohawk hairdo and Michelle still didn't do much for me, Jessica coming across as the nastiest and most driven of the entire cast, other minimal distractions including cast members looking right at the camera (Derrick in particular), too many close ups, or the rapid fire tempo of the edits that dragged it down to merely good when it could have been great. Orgies are tough to get right though, needing a great editor to supplement exceptional camera work so I cannot be too tough on Brad's direction even if it looked like Jake, Francois, and the others needed him behind the scenes more than in the limelight. The scene ended with multiple wads of genetic juice scoring on the faces of the ladies, a fair bit of it cumswapped by the gals.

Alektra Blue in the bonus Sex Booth scene.

Scene Three: Jessica Drake, walking the street at night in search of meaning in her existence, came across policeman Randy Spears who wanted some fun with her on the back of his patrol car while his partner smoked a cancer stick. He was Officer Sinclair and knew how to use his night stick in Jessica's sweet ass nearly as well as his personal version of the device in her pussy, the blowjob and other tricks minimal as she cried out for him to fuck her. Randy could have had a bigger role here and this was a scene in need of more positions, perhaps beckoning for extended versions of the scenes like P2 provided to give the consumer the best of both worlds. The scene finished up with Jessica taking a face full of population pudding after fingering her own ass while Randy drilled her pussy. Her vocals were too low in the balanced version of the soundtrack but her moans are always appreciated by this reviewer.

Jenaveve Jolie in the bonus Sex Booth Scene.

Scene Four: Jennifer Dark, a lean brunette with a smoking hot body, was up next in bed as she engaged in nasty sex with both Tommy Gunn and Marcus London. She blew Marcus while Tommy ate her out, her black corset looking good on her all natural body. She really played the oral lover well this time, savoring the taste of cock as she wrapped her lips around them one at a time. In return, they fingered her pussy and ass before pounding her two holes, Jennifer showing more active riding in the ass than the pussy. The guys did manage to provide some DP footage too but it was not as inspired as the single pecker plowing she did, some chemistry displayed all the same as the trio got dirtier with time. The ending nuts went on her chest and face with Jennifer providing post coital sucking, the wave of light washing down on her far too heavily and the editing fair.

Hunter Bryce in the Bonus Sex Booth Scene.

Scene Five: Jessica Drake, having had a sensual time in the jazz club with Brad Armstrong, was up next in bed with him as he ate her and fingered her perfect pussy. This scene probably had the most chemistry of the entire movie, the real life couple showing they still had the hots for one another after considerable time. He would finger her and feed her some of the juices, the eager Jessica enjoying his attentive actions. She reciprocated with a swell hummer and the pair began screwing like horny students of love, the clock in the background demonstrating why clocks shouldn't be left in scenes that are edited. Jessica did some PTM and rode most aggressively, pumping herself on his rod with a degree of familiarity but passion as well. Her technical DP (her fingers in her ass and his cock in her pussy) was heated and the ending crotch pop was not the worst of the movie.

Angie Savage in the bonus Sex Booth Scene.

Scene Six: Jessica Drake, still in her dark outfit, was up next showing her trade with Herschel Savage, as she blew him in return for the cab ride she took from him (the gal riding on top of the cab as if flying through the city late at night). The alley was the best place for the action to occur, her attentive mouth very inviting but she showed precious little skin and even the theme of a public blowjob was not enough to make this a good scene compared to the others (it wasn't bad, just not complete or as heated). He rubbed out a load of spew to her mouth to finish up for those that care.

Scene Seven: Jessica Drake, preying on a newcomer at a local sex club, watched Angie Savage masturbate for her as she rubbed herself across from the glass partition. Both gals stripping and getting themselves off was a welcome change of pace, but it got better as the pair ended up together where they rubbed, caressed, and ate each other silly. There was some technical DP work here and I wished that the gals shown out front (Jenaveve, Alektra, and Hunter) could have joined them to make it a lesbian orgy but in fairness, this was a well done scene with only the two playing it up. The phone dynamic at the front gave Angie a Courtney Love kind of appeal too, at least when the musician was substantially younger and hotter. The tease was fun as well, precious little employed in most Wicked titles of late in favor of pacing, each gal getting ample time to shine before the ending kiss.

Scene Eight: Jessica Drake and Shyla Stylez, both exceptionally sexy looking in their angel wings and torn clothing, were up next in a fantasy sequence flashback with Niko. The rapid editing and close ups were heavy here too, the montage impact weakening the scene but still providing some true fun time as the gals blew him and treated each other to a lot of sexy times. The gals were active vaginal riders here and seemed to compete for Niko's attention as they double teamed him in the smoky room with religious accents. The ladies cumswapped his seed after jerking it out of him, resulting in a modest load all over their faces.

Scene Nine: Jessica Drake, all dressed down as she enjoyed the simpler things in life by the campfire, began necking with Brad Armstrong on the open campground by the fire. They had been toasting marshmallows and one thing led to another, serving up to show her evolution as caring for him way more than she initially wanted to when they first met. He went down on her and she blew him after he fingered her snatch, leading to a few vaginal positions on the open range (the couple on top of a sleeping bag). His semen seeped out of his cock to her mouth, the short scene okay but not the best of the show by any means.

Unrelated Bonus Scene: Operation Desert Stormy: Jenna Haze, a cutie with a lengthy career on both extremes of the spectrum (lesbian-only to hardcore gonzo anal princess), was up next as a scientific weapons, gadget siren type, showing agent Steven St. Croix the latest virtual reality technology that included her in a naughty aqua nightie that showed off her curves as she ravished his body. They pawed each other through their clothing in this simulation, the thumping soundtrack was a chore but she gave a far better blowjob than Stormy had in the previous scene; making me wonder why his sex starved character didn't pop before her lips ever wrapped around his modest member. Still, she was the same as ever, pushing back on his cock during the vaginal sex and making those moans of hers, the picture deliberately made to emulate that of a computer screen as they worked it to the bone. She was also active during the anal ride, her dirty talk providing a much more satisfying experience even with the condom being used, Steven eventually rubbing out a modest load that oozed from the head of his cock as she licked him clean. For a feature fuck, this was actually pretty solid!

Unrelated Bonus Scene 2: Cockstar: Kristen Price, Alektra Blue, and Lexxi Tyler, were up first as a trio of lesbian rocker chicks satiating themselves on each other's juices. The fingering and titty play were decent, some rougher edged action included as they pushed each other's limits before eating each other out. The impression I got from them was that they were putting on a lipstick lesbian showing though, the toys hardly used before Kirsten started her solo act while watching. My biggest grievance with the scene was how it kept breaking up to move to the guitar playing portions, my taste for gal on gal action not limited to ladies truly into it if I like them enough. Alektra was the main driver of the scene here and if you enjoy this kind of thing, there was some minor stroke value.

Bonus Scenes from the Fourth Disc included in the package:

Scene One: Black Widow: Stormy Daniels, the curvy hotty on the front DVD cover with the knife, was up first in a scene with perennial favorite Randy Spears in the bedroom. She was the femme fatale wearing a loose fitting polka dotted dark dress and he was the businessman wanting some play from his sweetie. She undressed him and while at no point did I think she looked even close to 20 years old, she slowly savored the moment as she built up some sexual tension nicely. The Stormy corkscrew handjob during her hummer was hot and I can safely say that her oral skills have long been among my favorite at the company, Randy's sweaty brow providing enough evidence of the way it felt too. His oral was truncated so she did not get as much fun before they screwed vaginally in several positions but they did manage once again to display some energy and chemistry that is lacking in feature porn all too often. There was some porn overacting during the sex but the artistic manner in which it was shot really did lend itself to the comments on the commentary track about a sensuous look. He busted a nut of population pudding on her chest to close it up and while I wished it lasted longer, it fit the story elements well.

Scene Two: Candelabra: The scene opens to Chris and Kaylani sitting at the dinner table with her blowing out the candles on her birthday cake. Chris gives her his birthday gift. The slow romantic moving seduction ends up in the bedroom with Kaylani wearing the argyle thigh high stockings. The both go to town on the other giving and receiving oral, then she rides him CG with Chris then flipping her over for some missionary ending the scene giving her a facial. (by Ravyn)

Scene Three: Coming Home: Kirsten Price, wearing a green shirt and blue jean shorts, was up next by the lake with real life partner Barrett Blade; the two having decided to consummate their burgeoning relationship as she came to terms with her loss. It was a slower, more seductive scene than the previous bouts of boning, catering to the plot dynamics better than a mechanical bit of screwing would have provided. I almost always sense real chemistry between these two in their scenes, their real relationship adding the spice needed to make it come across as true to their characters. The hummer and other oral tricks seemed heated with the passionate vaginal screwing completing the action before the obligatory abdomen pop shot. Whew!

Scene Four: The Craving: Jessica Drake, playing a princess or forest nymph traveling down a winding path; surrounded by nature's creatures (per the narration). She stumbled across a talking frog, well he talked to her at least since all the audience heard was some fake frog noises, and after kissing him, he turned into Chris Cannon; complete in costumed attire. He asked her how he could pay her back and she whispered in his ear; presumably saying something about doing it froggy style as they were all over each other after that. He went down on her and she blew him to completion for a facial, the scene ending too quickly. That would have been it except that she continued on her way, finding a series of other cursed frogs asking for a kiss; the lady refusing to turn them down as she blew Joey Ray next. This was a really quick scene (a few minutes and he was popping a nut) and she was approached by one last frog to kiss; the magic not working as Marcus London walked up on the crazy women to inquire what her problem was. They kissed, she blew him to a facial after a couple of minutes, and she walked away with the guy to a slightly ominous ending in cliffhanger fashion.

Scene Five: Just Between Us: Carmen Hart, the hottest honey at the party, was up next in the bathroom with Brad Armstrong after he made his move on her. This act set the stage for the story's infidelity theme, the chemistry between the couple decidedly more out in the open than the smoldering flames from the first scene. She just couldn't help herself so after a gimmicky halt to the space time continuum, she dropped to her knees to blow Bard; savoring the taste of his cock with the rush of the cheating and possibility of getting caught by Randy. She aggressively blew him and it ended too soon when he started throatfucking her to completion, his wad hitting her face in no time at all. As a change of pace, I appreciated the lack of a full scene only because of how skillfully she drained him dry.

Summary: Fallen starring Jessica Drake by director Brad Armstrong for Wicked Pictures was easily the best sex the company has provided in recent memory combined with a light plot that a great many people will enjoy for all the plot holes it provided. The packaging was superb and the extras included on the second and third disc were some of the best offered by them in a long time (I don't give as much credit for the fourth disc since it is a rehash freebie but newcomers might find it more representative of the company's other efforts). As the best showcase spotlight I have ever seen on Jessica Drake, this was an exceptional movie and fans of hers will definitely want to own a copy, maybe even upgrade if a high definition Blu-ray version comes out in the future. If you like feature porn at all then, the movie is clearly worthy of being rated as Highly Recommended or better, again depending on your taste for this kind of fuck flick. In short, Fallen may have had some quirky extras discs but it was the blockbuster title of the company for the year on all other levels, even the sex ramped up beyond what was expected. The editing and production values could have used some polishing up but this was a winner as far as I was concerned. Good job!