This British-made storyline porn video engages one's interest with a crime saga typical of mainstream Guy Ritchie style gangster films, but its way overlong sex sequences ultimately are wearying. Combo of action & sex & dialog turns out to have a running time rivaling LAWRENCE OF ARABIA.
Lengthy porn videos are very common, but generally are either compilation or vignette films, the latter equivalent to a collection of short stories. But CITY OF VICES maintains a continuous narrative, interrupted ad nauseum by everything halting for real-time humping. These ultra-longueurs reminded me of my Drive-In Movie period, when I (and other patrons) made a bee-line for the refreshment stand whenever a film segued into an obviously dull patch where you wouldn't miss a thing by leaving the car.
Not helping matters is casting of Ryan Ryder in the lead male role, corrupt vice squad sergeant Drake, whose drug habit is on screen from the beginning scene of his briefly humping wife Vicky (or is it Becky -the thick British accents here can be an issue), but going crazy when he finds his gear (drugs) missing and blames her. Ryan's over-the-top performance is poor, though his huge, ever-hard dick is perhaps his most important attribute.
Story involves British gangs, rivals but in cahoots in the drug trade, led by Vasquez (another huge-dick guy Michael Angelo) and Antonio (Eastern European-sounding Antonio Black). Tale picks up steam when a pair of prostitutes Cynthia (Jasmine Jae) and Val (Lexi Lowe) working for Vasquez pull a fast one and steal a shipment of cocaine from Antonio, with Cynthia killing Antonio and ending up with Drake's gun (he's in trouble at hdqts., not Scotland Yard but might as well be, as video is not set anywhere in particular).
Black humor of a surprising sort is injected when Cynthia, with Drake's help, work on disposing of Antonio's body -an impressive segue into blood and guts that is funny and in context rather tastefully presented. I can't recall a goofier take on a Hitchcockian theme in recent porn.
What is most unusual in the opening reels is director Dick Bush (not Ken Russell's brilliant cameraman of the '70s but rather a current UK pornographer) employing short & sweet sex scenes as almost a tease while doling out more dialog and action than you'd find in a dozen current sex videos. But the almighty pound (or dollar) takes over later on as the video pauses for a half hour at a time to deliver today's requisite of seemingly unedited (and quite repetitive) "going through the positions" sex fodder.
Femme lead is a brick-house beauty Aletta Ocean, though her rock-hard fake breasts have zero give, reminding me of the '70s and '80s soft-core queen Sybil Danning (I recall a colleague at Variety newspaper joking (apocryphally) back in the day how he bumped into her frontage in an elevator once and almost hurt himself). She's Jill (a name that doesn't fit the Hungarian actress at all), Vasquez's financial gal Friday, handling his books, and her toughness/sexiness and ability to Lean In with a vengeance forms the spine of the tale, ending with her taking over from the boys as Queen of this parallel-sex British gangster world.
En route are interesting subplots: after endless travails Drake finally reconciles in the sack with his rough sex-desiring wife, in the final sex scene which shows off well the natural charms of Valentina Nappi, an under-appreciated performer who I had previously seen in the Canadian (by way of Chatsworth) video MOTHER EXCHANGE 2. Drake's redheaded (and very fake-breasted with ugly scar marks where surgery took place) partner on the force Polly (Loulou Petite) figures prominently in the action scenes as well as a showpiece hump with Drake in a black tiled bathroom at hdqts. Cynthia (exotic and sultry Jasmine, also blessed with surgically enhanced massive ta-tas) dominates much of the action and ends up surprisingly intact and successful as Jill's right-hand woman.
Show-stopping scene (literally -it's way, way too long though arousing at first) involves Jill challenging Vasquez to prove his power after they wine & dine at his pad, with Anissa Kate guest-starring as the bartender who makes it a threesome. Vasquez's power is in his loins as he has anal sex with both gals over & over & over (enough time for the viewer to leave the room and make the proverbial ham sandwich in the kitchen before returning and not missing anything of note). Though similar types, the contrast of skin tone and natural vs. fake breasts between Anissa and Aletta makes this porn summit meeting vaguely interesting.
With a modicum of exploding blood packs and okay gunfight choreography, Bush delivers a pretty good XXX facsimile of what passes for mainstream action cinema, though I was surprised at the absence of fight scenes, perhaps a budgetary consideration. Feature has no credits attached, just a partial cast list (no character names - I had to do the match-ups myself as homework) and no director or other behind-the-camera credits at all.
Lengthy porn videos are very common, but generally are either compilation or vignette films, the latter equivalent to a collection of short stories. But CITY OF VICES maintains a continuous narrative, interrupted ad nauseum by everything halting for real-time humping. These ultra-longueurs reminded me of my Drive-In Movie period, when I (and other patrons) made a bee-line for the refreshment stand whenever a film segued into an obviously dull patch where you wouldn't miss a thing by leaving the car.
Not helping matters is casting of Ryan Ryder in the lead male role, corrupt vice squad sergeant Drake, whose drug habit is on screen from the beginning scene of his briefly humping wife Vicky (or is it Becky -the thick British accents here can be an issue), but going crazy when he finds his gear (drugs) missing and blames her. Ryan's over-the-top performance is poor, though his huge, ever-hard dick is perhaps his most important attribute.
Story involves British gangs, rivals but in cahoots in the drug trade, led by Vasquez (another huge-dick guy Michael Angelo) and Antonio (Eastern European-sounding Antonio Black). Tale picks up steam when a pair of prostitutes Cynthia (Jasmine Jae) and Val (Lexi Lowe) working for Vasquez pull a fast one and steal a shipment of cocaine from Antonio, with Cynthia killing Antonio and ending up with Drake's gun (he's in trouble at hdqts., not Scotland Yard but might as well be, as video is not set anywhere in particular).
Black humor of a surprising sort is injected when Cynthia, with Drake's help, work on disposing of Antonio's body -an impressive segue into blood and guts that is funny and in context rather tastefully presented. I can't recall a goofier take on a Hitchcockian theme in recent porn.
What is most unusual in the opening reels is director Dick Bush (not Ken Russell's brilliant cameraman of the '70s but rather a current UK pornographer) employing short & sweet sex scenes as almost a tease while doling out more dialog and action than you'd find in a dozen current sex videos. But the almighty pound (or dollar) takes over later on as the video pauses for a half hour at a time to deliver today's requisite of seemingly unedited (and quite repetitive) "going through the positions" sex fodder.
Femme lead is a brick-house beauty Aletta Ocean, though her rock-hard fake breasts have zero give, reminding me of the '70s and '80s soft-core queen Sybil Danning (I recall a colleague at Variety newspaper joking (apocryphally) back in the day how he bumped into her frontage in an elevator once and almost hurt himself). She's Jill (a name that doesn't fit the Hungarian actress at all), Vasquez's financial gal Friday, handling his books, and her toughness/sexiness and ability to Lean In with a vengeance forms the spine of the tale, ending with her taking over from the boys as Queen of this parallel-sex British gangster world.
En route are interesting subplots: after endless travails Drake finally reconciles in the sack with his rough sex-desiring wife, in the final sex scene which shows off well the natural charms of Valentina Nappi, an under-appreciated performer who I had previously seen in the Canadian (by way of Chatsworth) video MOTHER EXCHANGE 2. Drake's redheaded (and very fake-breasted with ugly scar marks where surgery took place) partner on the force Polly (Loulou Petite) figures prominently in the action scenes as well as a showpiece hump with Drake in a black tiled bathroom at hdqts. Cynthia (exotic and sultry Jasmine, also blessed with surgically enhanced massive ta-tas) dominates much of the action and ends up surprisingly intact and successful as Jill's right-hand woman.
Show-stopping scene (literally -it's way, way too long though arousing at first) involves Jill challenging Vasquez to prove his power after they wine & dine at his pad, with Anissa Kate guest-starring as the bartender who makes it a threesome. Vasquez's power is in his loins as he has anal sex with both gals over & over & over (enough time for the viewer to leave the room and make the proverbial ham sandwich in the kitchen before returning and not missing anything of note). Though similar types, the contrast of skin tone and natural vs. fake breasts between Anissa and Aletta makes this porn summit meeting vaguely interesting.
With a modicum of exploding blood packs and okay gunfight choreography, Bush delivers a pretty good XXX facsimile of what passes for mainstream action cinema, though I was surprised at the absence of fight scenes, perhaps a budgetary consideration. Feature has no credits attached, just a partial cast list (no character names - I had to do the match-ups myself as homework) and no director or other behind-the-camera credits at all.