New John Leslie flick with Rachel Starr (MP4 TRailer) ... Looks really good. Leslie always cuts killer trailers, which can make the actual video appear stronger than it is, but this could be a cut above his recent output (depending on what you thought about the Briana Love feature). I was taken by the Sindee Jennings and Lexi Belle scenes, and wonder if anyone else is as intrigued?
I have never seen a John Leslie movie, but I dig Rachel Starr, so this will be my first. I am curious about what I will think of the lighting. IIRC, I heard that he uses "natural lighting" so I wonder what that will look like. Based on the trailer, he really knows how to capture butts in tease segments. It should be interesting.
I haven't seen the movie but Sindee Jennings caught my eye a while ago. I've liked her in everything I've seen. Lexi Belle was also fantastic in the one scene I've seen of her.
Leslie used to drive me nuts with his inability to avoid overexposure. As such, he might well have set up a good scene or vignette, and the music might be quality, but it was a load of garbage because he, like so many others before him, proved that they did not know what to do with natural light. However, from Crack Her Jack 6 onwards, he seems to have seen the light, or at least how to film with it. The result is some wonderfully languid porn. He could be on a hot streak. I loved Brianna Love: Her Fine Sexy Self and this trailer looks very appealling.
I worked along side John on this and feel there is some great sex in it. Rachel does a great job through out the movie. I think the scene with Rachel, Mckenzie, Everhard and Holmes might be something everyone should check out. There is also a scene with three girls on one guy with Johnny Sins being the lucky guy. Another good scene, especially with Rachel sporting a strap for Lexi Belle. And if you like mini blow bangs I think Rachel did one of the best ones. I normally have trouble getting into them, but this one I felt was very good. Edited by - kevin moore on 1/30/2008 9:34:04 PM
Perhaps you'd prefer: '...used to drive me nuts with his extraordinary directorial gift for obscuring the foreground action by shooting against a background of natural light so that the overexposure hurts the eyes and hampers the watchability of many of his scenes.' I realise much of this is an aesthetic decision on his part, presumably to authenticate the voyueristic feel of his camerawork and scenarios, but in my eyes, it's a counterproductive effect in pornography and it's a failing. Or was, because it doesn't appear to be as much of a problem in his recent work.
Patience is a virtue, but who wants to be virtuous? 4283 Posts 4/00
Posted - Jan 31 2008 : 4:06PM
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eyeballs a bleeding Deactivated Again
181 Posts 9/07
Posted - Jan 31 2008 : 4:29PM
IMHO, John Leslie movies are the worst. You would think that for all of the "acting" that he did, he would have picked up some pointers, but no. I agree with the overexposure comments also. It seems like none of his dvds would be complete with the sun shining right through the skylight or window located right behind the performers. And my favorite Leslie technique is the one where there is someone standing in the doorway watching the scene. So, the scene will go something like this, 30 seconds of the person watching from the door, then 15 seconds of a far off shot of the sex, then 15 seconds close up, then back to the guy in the door, far off shot, close up, rinse and repeat. All with bad shooting angles. Then on top of that, we have to suffer through the blues number that he performs at the beginning of each disk. Now, I could be wrong about all of this stuff in his more recent works as I haven't watched any of his titles in years, but its the stuff that put me off his work.
Werd. I picked up one of his Gobble the Goops compilations a couple years back, and tossed it before even getting all the way through it once. I was terribly disappointed with his production values and his choices of onscreen female talent
John was one of the guys who I liked back in the day. Although I wasn't too fond of his "doorway" shots. They were cool at first but got old fast. I wouldn't write him off though. He was always worth a rental if I liked the girls.
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eyeballs a bleeding Deactivated Again
181 Posts 9/07
Posted - Jan 31 2008 : 7:22PM
Random, you might not write him off, but I sure did. The ironic (maybe not the right choice of word) thing was that he was such a good "actor", and it just didn't translate into being a good director. I tried watching some of his critcally acclaimed releases that everyone raved about, and just could not get through one of them. I read a Jerry Butler autobiography years ago, and he commented that Leslie seemed to feel that even though he was in the porn industry, it really was beneath him and he tried to prove his superiority to porn be collecting art, fine wines, etc.
Well, that's the thing. I don't know the guy. I don't read much porn gossip. Only thing I ever knew about John Leslie until now was that he was a porn director who had a particular style that he liked (most do). I don't care if he collects art or wine or shrunken heads or whatever else he does. If I watch his stuff and I like it, he could moonlight as a dishwasher at Wendy's for all I care. I wasn't that fond of his natural light technique either. But that's st least as good as the guys who can't seem to get the fucking color right and everything in the video comes out looking orange or blue. Guys who shoot in rooms with strong colors and the colors end up giving everything a sickening color cast. At least with natural light, skin tends to look like skin. Some videos. I can't tell if I'm looking at a girl's ass or a basketball in extreme closeup. John's stuff was never perfect (most porners aren't perfect or anywhere near it) but he's far from the worst. Edited by - randomprecision on 1/31/2008 10:51:58 PM
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tritone Deactivated User
1009 Posts 4/03
Posted - Jan 31 2008 : 10:58PM
I haven't watched any of Leslie's recent flicks. But back in the early 90s and late 80s he released some seriously volcanic stuff under VCA and Evil Angel. No fancy tricks either -- just good crisp video and expertly staged fuck scenes: The Tease, Hate to See You Go, Catwoman, Chameleons, Vouyer #1-#3, Dog Walker, Fresh Meat, Slick Honey ... and the list goes on.
I think at this point I know him as well as anybody. I've spent countless hours working along side him. I can state for fact that your description above is highly inaccurate and sounds more like someone who just doesn't like John on a personal level. He has spent his whole adult life in this business because he loves it.
My only critical comment about Leslie, who I rank among the Top 5 porn directors ever, is that what was innovative in 1992 is not the same today: the old school giveth, and the old school taketh away ... Given his taste in music, art, wine and women, I'd say he was a classicist, a Renaissance Man ... and his work is going to be immediately recognized as a "John Leslie" ... you like that or you don't. I'll admit I've fallen off of his work since the good old days of The Voyeur and Fresh Meat, and those fucking amazing features he did, but his sense of style and his knack for shooting really difficult angles into the flesh-grinding isn't matched by many. His early use of multiple "stocks," slow-motion, flashbacks, dreamlike narrative, smoky organ combo jazz on the soundtrack, imaginative blocking of really overused locations to make them "Leslie-ized,"and a commitment to focusing on a certain kind of sexual animal(ism) in his females is a template for all the really, really good gonzo guys working right now ... even if they are critical of his current stuff. (Oedipal process ...) As someone who works as a mainstream film critic, I have to say there aren't many pornographers that you can write about whose work can be considered on an aesthetic level beyond "it's just a fuck movie." Leslie is one of them. Even in his gonzo work, his videos contain the traces of the old-school '70s/'80s feature-porn he came up through ... Mainly, I'm drawn to his bent for surrealism, gangster memes and shooting in smoky barroom sets.
Edited by - skronker on 2/1/2008 12:34:58 AM
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eyeballs a bleeding Deactivated Again
181 Posts 9/07
Posted - Feb 1 2008 : 1:31AM
Kevin, I never met the man, so I wouldn't know. I was just relaying what I had read. Skronker, most of your description is right on. The only issue I have is when all of those things are thrown into a porno movie, it takes away from the sex. And that's what we watch porn for; the sex, not the aristry, technical merit, elaborate camera angles etc. If I really want to see that type of stuff, I'll rent something by Spielberg. But when I rent a porn, I want to see sex. The nastier the better.
Shake for me girl... I wanna be your backdoorman ! 2776 Posts 10/07
Posted - Feb 1 2008 : 9:49AM
^ From everything I've read about Jerry Butler I would take all his comments as mostly bullshit. "Censorship is the first step towards dictatorship !" Honest Ed
Posted - Jan 30 2008 : 1:11AM
