I buy lots of titles, but I always try to find a review first. If I can't find a review, I go on my viewing experience with that particular studio & director and consider the rest a roll of the dice.

As far as the subject line "I think [SOME] people grade to easy on their reviews" ...I agree. I've just always thought others enjoyed porn more then I do. And that's knowing these same reviewers are buying/renting many of their DVD's.

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For the reviewer who said he didn't feel obligated to review your movie because he didn't get it directly from Evil Angel, perhaps you jumped the gun and misunderstood his intentions. Like astroknight said earlier, he does feel an obligation to review his screeners FIRST (not better) because the company has taken their time and money to send them to him and await his feedback. That is an obligation of sorts. Because this reviewer didn't have that arrangement with yourself, Jules or your company, he didn't mind spreading the word and saying he liked your work, but at the same time didn't feel rushed or obligated to post a detailed review with reasons because that pressure wasn't on him due to his not having any ties. So, it is indeed a slippery slope: on one hand you want people to buy your movies and provide feedback, but on the other hand the people who buy your movies often don't post reviews nor feel "obligated" to. I guess you can just take solace in the fact that they sell well and stare at your bank account. For me, that would be "review" enough.

For reviewers who do this in their spare time (nearly all of them), time and sometimes money can be an issue. I'll gladly buy everything I like, but I may not buy it for months or more after its release date. And then I have to find the time to sit, watch and review it, making the process even longer. By that time, the company and director have moved on and completed countless other projects, not really getting the chance to benefit from my feedback. So sending reviewers screeners of your latest also helps their suggestions to be more timely.

As for ADT reviewing PXP and RLD almost exclusively, I'm not seeing it. But if it were true, those two companies do put out a TON of releases monthly between the two of them and the majority of it is kick-ass, so one should only expect those numbers and the quality factor to come into play. You should expect to see more from the companies who are "on top," so to speak. I'm willing to bet a few years ago, it was some other company or companies.

As for the confrontational and combative, M.B., no one cares that you don't read reviews. Everyone here agrees that what you claim does go on. But continually posting it here gives the impression that you believe these practice runs rampant at ADT and as the reviewers have said, that's not true at all. Keep your beliefs and buy/rent with your own methods, but don't subject us to your reasons why if you're not trying to point your finger at us as a whole as the culprits.

Edited by - Crucifixio_Jones on 3/24/2004 3:42:38 PM

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I will admit I get and watch screeners first and foremost, but they all go in a rotation I have set and get no special treatment as far as ratings. I know what I like and I know what I don't, regardless if it's free or not.

I started my site not receiving screeners, then some of the companies were kind enough to send them my way, but my views on those company's product who send screeners now but didn't then, haven't changed at all; for example Red Light. Rog posted he doesn't often see average porn any more, well I'll agree 100% with that because the porn I watch is on the same page with his; RLD, ZT, PXP and ect.

Going on what Jules said, I'll admit I don't watch any other movies at the moment other than screeners.
I do own at least 11 or 12 JJ DVDs and I have reviewed like 7 Jules movies (the other 6 were rented and I still own some I have't reviewed yet). Now with that said, will watching a NON-Screener DVD make me like JJ and his work less? No, I have bough his DVDs for a reason, I love the man's work.

Outside of all that I respect M.B's position and won't try to defend myself because what I do is defiantly something I do out of joy, regardless what he or anyone says about it. Do I feel insulted? No. Because I have been asked the question "why are your ratings always between a 7 and a 8?", and the simple answer is "I just don't watch average porno" and "I watch porno that suites my tastes closely".

I do want to say I agree with Crucifixio here, I can't see any reason to give a shiity movie a good rating if you would only receive shitty movies....

As I sit here an think though, I think everyone is a bit down on M.B. for his thoughts and feelings, which I'll stand here and say he has every right to feel the way he does. I mean I don't recall him telling anyone NOT to check out the review or even slandering the reviewers or board...

I hope this thread turns out OK though...

Edited by - PL on 3/24/2004 4:06:15 PM

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Here's the extra consideration a screener gets:

I watch it before I watch stuff that I've bought for myself.

I watch it through without fast forwarding even if I don't like it and would rather be doing something else.

I spend an hour or two writing a review.

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My Moonschimes review impersonation :

Scene One: some chick, some guy. Thumbs down.

What the fuck? The girl is not perfect. This guy doesn't fuck like I want him to. All this shit looks and sounds fake. They try to screw and I hate it. I can't get a hard-on. Boring. You call this acting? The only thing I like about this scene is that it's finally over.

My, my...that was informative!

Did someone say something about eating up bandwidth and giving nothing but grief back?

Edited by - Crucifixio_Jones on 3/24/2004 6:23:16 PM

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Give him his due. He did write one and submit it.

Every reviewer writes in his own style and it may not be yours.

I actually quit writing reviews because I found that what I wrote was turning out almost purely negative, and I didn't feel that it was fair to the movie or to those that read them. I could/would rate a movie as a 2.5 or 3.0, but when I read what I wrote it sounded like it should have been a 1.0 or less. I got too negative in my writing, so I quit.

Readers will read them, judge them, compare them with other reviews and make their decisions. I don't feel it's up to us to slam them if we don't agree with them. It's their opinions after all, and that's what a reviewer should be responsible for presenting - their opinions on that particular movie.

My two cents.

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He didn't say ADT reviewers, but some review sites.

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I have no objections to buying stuff, fuck, I had no ideas that screeners were given out, or used, until I was told by someone on the "inside."

I've purchased every Extreme Associates titles I've reviewed, based on reviews by rog and diesel, and decided to write a review myself, since Tom Byron is a brilliant director, and at the time, there were hardly any reviews for Extreme DVDs. Plus I read reviews because I had no idea if Tommy was a good director, or even who he was at the time.

I also feel that every Joey Silvera title I've reviewed, I've been harder on them, screeners or no, because I only expect the best.

I'm comfortably poor, and cannot afford to go out and buy every title I'd like to. I'd love to view every she-male title from Avalon and other studios, let alone review them, but can't.

Such is life.

- - - B -I -G -m -i -k -e , over & out! - - -

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4.5-- 83
4.0-- 117
3.5-- 99
3.0-- 25
2.5-- 10
2.0-- 2
1.5-- 2

It was interesting to do!!

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For what it's worth, there has been one studio that I occasionally get screeners from. They asked if I wanted every title they put out, and I immediately declined - I would be overwhelmed, and simply wouldn't be able to watch anything else. Plus, they have some directors whose content I have some real issues with, and I wouldn't be able to do decent reviews of those titles.

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"It seems that in the last year or so, alot of people who use to review my movies dont do so anymore, and it seems to be because they were not provided a screener. Reviews HERE always seemed to be real "consumer" reviews, but it seems now that every company is getting wise to ADT they are flooding the readers with free screener copies (the ones that submit reviews anyway). It seems everyone is reviewing RLD, PXP etc.(almost exclusively). I know i've been emailed by alot of readers wanting screeners".

I think you're the one that should be re-reading the post, not me.

Edited by - M.B. on 3/24/2004 9:21:14 PM

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[sarcasm]Wow! Congrats M.B.! You proved a point which was the one point that the reviewers who chimed in all seemed to agree on, that the only special treatment most of us give screeners is that they get reviewed first! I hope you don't break your arm patting yourself on the back. We'd hate to lose you to the hospital just when you were going to try to prove the point that gravity exists, that water gets hard when frozen, or that damn there's a lot of black people in Africa![/sarcasm]

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Additionally, Plat X and Red Light District get a lot of reviews because they're widely liked companies . AdultDVDTalk has a review affiliation with nearly a dozen studios, including Evil Angel. Some titles just happen to collect more dust then others.

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And yeah, his style, too.

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