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From: [email protected] (Thom Burr) I come not to bury Vivid (would that I could!), but to (very mildly) praise them. As one of out moderators noted recently, even a pig can root up an acorn every now and then, and, in truth, Vivid mostly does serve its purpose adequately ...even if most of the more more vocal commentators on RAME happen to despise that purpose. This DVD, however, is worthy of special consideration as it appeals to the Slavering Fan Boys of three of the Great Porn Girls: Christy Canyon, Racquel Darrian, and my All-Time-Favorite--Kelly O'Dell. What's more, Kelly and Racquel has a lesbian scene together in the vid, making it an automatic must-see for fans of either, despite the dubious picture quality and other typical Vivid problems. "Christy in the Wild" (hereafter CITW) dates back from 10/1992 and is the first part of one of Paul Thomas's infamous two-parters, the sequal (actually just the second half of the same movie, sliced off onto another tape/disc so they can squeeze out a little more cash from us poor, deluded fanboys) being "Racquel in the Wild". The plot is mercifully thin, yet more than sufficiently annoying. It starts out with Christy, John Dough, and Derek Lane driving around on mountain roads through rural SoCal. Derek is supposed to be a new-agey mystical kind of guy (a classic Vivid cliche) on some sort of spiritual quest, Christy is along as his main squeeze, and John Dough is Derek's grouchy best friend (who nonetheless has deep feelings for Christy)...in other words, the usual typical Vivid shlock. Probably the most absurd element in the flick is the old convertble they're driving around in, elaborately painted with a tiling of ghoulish heads. It is not explained why Derek feels the old Ghoulmobile is best vehicle in which embark on his journey, particularly when it suffers from the numerous mechanical failings that are regularly argued over in the spare but painfully bad dialog. Fortunately, they soon stop for the night in a small motel, and the first scene kicks off. It is unfortunately an dual/intercut scene, with Christy and Derek in one room and John and Heather Hart in the other, and the camera flipping from one scene to the next every three or four minutes. Christy's fanboys are going to be a little ticked, as (despiet the title) this is the only sex scene with her in the vid--plus, it's fairly brief, and she's not looking that good. I'll confess that I myself have never been obsessed with Ms. Canyon. However, I'll grant that she does have her legions of fans, and maybe they have a point, especially when one looks at her earliest scenes from the mid-eighties (hell, even as late as 1991 she looked okay in the On Trial series). This title does not play to her strengths, however. The picture on the boxcover should say it all: heavy and hard-looking (probably the straight hair, in contrast with her usual curls, just exacerbates matters). B-List porn girl Heather Hart looks quite nice in comparison, but she too is not faring well in the battle against age and gravity, and never fully removes her dress (which I can only assume is a good thing)--still her scene is better than Christy's, for all that's worth. The sex is entirely wholesome and hetero, with condoms in place and activted and, of course, no facials. The next morning it's back to the plot: they drive, argue some more in the process, and come across Racquel Darrian walking along the road. They argue for a bit about whether to offer her a ride--and surprise, they decide to ask. Racquel accepts, they introduce themselves, and after Racquel doesn't say much, start arguing again. Finally they pull into a campsite for the night, and argue a bit before settling down. Sex scene two starts after John gets the tent set up and goes off into the darkness looking for Racquel...And who does he stumble across, but Marissa Malibu and (the one and only) Kelly O'Dell sitting by a campfire. John does the only sane thing that a guy in his situation could do: he hides behind a rock and waits for the girls to start going at each other. Sure enough, Racquel wanders over out of nowhere and greets the girls, with whom she appears to be already acquainted, as a lesbian three-way quickly ensues. I used to be a big fan of Raquel, and I am still in the thrall of Kelly, so a lesbian scene with the two of them is A Big Event for me, and I was not disappointed. Kelly had just started in the business when this scene was lensed, and Raquel wasn't too long in tooth either in 1992, so both girls look very fine (except for R's implants, which, after all, could have been much worse)--even Marissa looks as good as a generic blond plastic porn girl can look, which is isn't bad (if she'd kept her real breats, she might have rated much higher). The scene is pretty good: Marissa goes down on Racquel, then Kelly goes down on Racquel (who also laps Marissa), and finally Racquel and Marissa simultaneously service Kelly. Thankfully, no toys are in evidence, but there is quite a bit of softcore footage and kissing, which is nice. Kelly looks absolutely great-- she's one of the few pretty, feminine porn girlies out there that could play both the hetero hippy chick and the lipstick lesbian. And Racquel looks her usual: pretty but bored--it seems like she goes on autopilot in every sex scene she's in, but especially during girl/girl scenes (which I think it would be safe to say are Just Not Her Thing). The scene lasts a solid fifteen minutes, with just one significant kvetch, which is the picture quality. I'll treat this in greater detail later, but the combination of sex by campfire-light and the apparent color deterioration of the actual filmstock conspire to make this scene the most problematic on the disc. The picture is okay--it's watchable--but not much more than that...Hopefully the transfer to DVD precludes any possibilty of future deterioration, and perhaps jiggling with the color contrast might prove helpful in actually improving it... And to wrap things up: the next day all four argue about where it is they're driving and whether or not they're lost. Racquel more or less directs them to...somewhere. The convertible stops in what looks like a small forested mountain valley, R takes off her top, jumps out of the car, and annouces that they've arrived. Kelly and Marissa pull up behind them in an SUV, and all three girls prance off into the woods. The other three porners sit in the Ghoulmobile and argue some more, before Derek finally remembers he has to star in the third and last sex scene, and wanders off to find Racquel. The scene is rather short and entirely forgettable--allah only knows how many scenes this real-world couple did together. No condom, but no facial, either. The vid concludes with a trailer featuring scenes from the thrilling sequal, "Racquel in the Wild", including clips of a lesbian scene with Kelly and Marissa that becomes a four-way after the introduction of two bikers, and another girl/girl scene with Christy and Racquel that straightens out after John and Derek find them. Run time is a short 1:15 or so. Note that there are only three (or maybe four) scenes. Typical of the Paul Thomas two-part rip-off manuever. It's worth noting that the vdeo quality is somewhat problematic throughout just about all of CITW. While the picture is reasonably sharp, the colors--espcially flesh tones--are quite faded, apparently from the use of a film master that had been degraded by age or overuse. The resulting color scheme tends to favor yellow and brown, especially where the original lighting was less than adequate in the first palce. The lesbian camp-fire scene looks like it was filmed in sepia in parts, for example. The problem is not so bad as to seriously diminish the vid, but the fresh print must have looked much, much better. While I'm at it, the sound's not that great either--it has a slight metallic echo throughout the whole vid--but that's just a quibble,
DVD extras on the A (feature) side of the disk include an ad for Wave's
web site, a nice introductory ad/music vdieo featuring Wave/Vivid girls
of the past, an Intel. Sex feature, and ten DVD previews. The pointless
Intel Sex feature includes three random clips, each roughly two minutes
long, featuring Lexi Ericksson, Chloe, and Ariana. It's almost a total
waste of time, as these are just random snippets (but it was nice to see
Lexi again, no matter how short the appearance). The previes include Bad
Company, On Trial #1, OT #2, Endlessly, Asian Chow Down, The Masseuse,
Nymph, Immortal Desire, A Geisha's Secrets, and Ginger on the Rocks. The
last of these is almost hilarious, seeing so many of today's comeback
girls (as well as the guys that never left) back when they were (very)
young and fresh. The only ones that look really bad are "A Geisha's
Secrets" (with South Asian LBFMs dressed up like Japanese girls) and
"Immortal Desire" (art porn gone terribly wrong). "Asian Chow Down"
might actually be worth checking out, in fact, with its all
Asian-American cast... All said, rabid fans (like myself) of Kelly O'Dell and/or Racquel Darrian are going to like this title. Christy's fans, on the other hand should note that despite the title, she's only in one fairly brief sex scene. Fortunately, the disk is part of Vivid's budget line--I picked it up for $10--which makes the purchase of such a brief and flawed DVD much more justifiable. And I suppose it should be obvious that anyone who is not already a Slavering Fan Boy of one of these girls should strictly avoid this one. Anyway, I ordered "Racquel in the Wild" the other day and I expect to be reviewing that one very soon. Review #XVII
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