Reviewers Recommend Hot Wives 8, The - review by Captain Jack Director: Mike Quasar Starring: Van Wylde, Jay Smooth, Codey Steele, Ella Reese, Charlotte Sins, Freya Parker, Melissa Stratton. Read review
With a mighty "Yee-Haw!", Adam and Eve productions has announced the release of Raw Hide, the newest triple X feature from director Nicholas Steel. Steel's newest opus is an old west fuck-fest starring Carmen Luvana, Evan Stone, Jessica Drake, Steven St. Croix, Laurie Wallace, Ava Vincent, and Dru Berrymore.
Adam and Eve is famous for virtually creating the modern-day adult mail order industry in 1974 as the first mail-order condom distributor. By 1996, the company had led the way for the rest of the online industry by creating adameve.com, which became one of the first, and possibly the largest, adult retailer on the web.
Set against a scenic outdoor backdrop, and packed with anal, girl-girl, solo, and sizzling sex scenes in a barn, by a creek, and in a buggy drawn by a horse, Raw Hide takes in the Old West from a lusty point of view. The three-disc special edition DVD will come bound in a leather case and loaded down with special features, including: two bonus sex scenes, a photo gallery, a Carmen Luvana interview, directors commentary, bloopers, exclusive soundtrack and hours of bonus footage. This limited edition box set will retail for $49.95.
With Raw Hide, Adam and Eve has AVN.com raving that the entire production "comes off like a real Hollywood movie with hardcore sex in it." If it's as good as they say, it's a welcome return to glory for the X-rated Western.
The Western genre and the adult film have long had a connection as old as film itself. Many historians have noted that narrative filmmaking began with The Great Train Robbery in the early 1900's, and the sex film is alleged to have been born sometime around 1894. The two commingled from the start -- as evidenced by a quote by grind-house king Dave Friedman: "After Mr. Edison made those tinytypes gallop, it wasn't but two days later that some enterprising guy had his girlfriend take her clothes off, and that's how exploitation began."
Friedman himself was the one behind the first melding of the two genres I've ever been able to find evidence of, when he and director Bob Crese premiered the 1968 softcore sex horse-opera Hot Spur in Midwest drive-ins. The two were at it again with Brand Of Shame a mere six months later. Within a year, Ed Forsyth joined the filthy rodeo of smut with a nasty little cracker called The Ramrodder, and before you knew it, hardcore porn was creeping up over the horizon, just itching to take the Western on as its own. Here's some highlights of how the two have been stirred together over the years.
A Dirty Western (1975) aka "Seven Years Too Long."
The hardcore porn Western that started them all. Directed by David Fleetwood (a nom de plume for Joseph F. Robertson, producer of two popular sci-fi cheapies The Slime People and The Crawling Hand) and featuring the lovely Barbara Bourbon, who only did three porn films in her career. This is a hideous and unpleasant film full of rape, sodomy, and outright evil sadism perpetrated upon a trio of young sisters by three escaped convicts, one of which yells, "after seven years of fucking assholes, I wanna fuck me a woman!" Due to the brutal nature of the sex, this film has not been recognized as the classic porn film that it is -- deserving of status along with other early adult films such as Deep Throat and Behind The Green Door.
The Winter of 1849 (Something Weird Video) 1976
Somewhat of a copycat film rustling along on the heels of A Dirty Western. Rik (Cherry Truckers) Taziner directed this occasionally despicable and scummy western parade of sex, with the rape of a young Andrea True by an eyepatch-adorned sleazebag that you can practically smell coming off your TV set.
Sweet Savage (Caballero) 1978
This was one of the few (only?) films where a well-known, aging mainstream actor made the drop down to a hardcore film. It was the star of 1955's Battle Cry, Aldo Ray, and the gruff and gravelly-voiced actor was trying to keep his head above water and pay his medical bills after contracting throat cancer. Director Ann Perry took him on in a starring non-sex role, and he strutted around like a paunchy version of John Wayne. His other co-stars in this obvious homage to The Ramrodders were Carol Connors, Bethanna, and Jack Birch. It's an ambitious production that one critic called "surely the best porn-western ever made," despite being constantly at odds with its low budget. I say it's a successful melding of grit and pleasant non-threatening sex, as well as being pathetically saddled with some awfully corny moments and some thick wooden acting.
Showdown (Caballero) 1985
This modern-day western by director Henri Pachard chronicled the adventures of an out-of-the-way dude ranch/whorehouse and starred Nina Hartley, Jamie Gillis, Sharon Mitchell, Herschel Savage, and Shanna McCullough. Of particular interest was the chance of seeing the classic triple-X cast on horseback, a fun girl-on-girl bout of mud wrestling, and Jamie Gillis trying to fuck a confused female partner in a hammock. Sharon Mitchell is wonderful as a southern belle cowgirl who talks a whole lotta shit.
Saddletramp (Vidco) 1988
This juicy Jack Remy Western starring Hyapatia Lee and Nina Hartley is more renowned for it's oddball lactation scene than any sort of interesting or accurate Old West story line, but I thought I'd mention it anyhow.
Western Nights (Wicked Entertainment) 1994
This couples movie starring Kylie Ireland, Jordan Lee, Asia Carrera and Tera Heart was the third part in Wicked's Nights series, and was well-received by fans with its old-timey soundtrack and set pieces taking place in a blacksmith shop and a stagecoach, among other entertaining locations.
Also add to the list Bud Lee's Quick & the Hard with Chloe, Johnni Black, Shanna McCullough, Cheyenne Silver and Anita Cannibal.
I haven't had much of a chance to look at Rawhide , but I have taken a very brief look at it and listened to the soundtrack CD that comes with it. The soundtrack is excellent and I'm sure that if it was played to the average person on the street they'd think it was from a mainstream movie.
The movie looks beautifully shot, but the thing that really stuck out to me is the packaging. This is the best looking DVD set I might have ever seen, and if Adam & Eve doesn't get a nomination for it something's seriously wrong! It's the size of a VHS box with a slide off plastic cover. The double DVD and CD case looks like a leather pouch (complete with leather tassles on the front) that folds open to reveal the discs. This is one of the few DVDs that when I looked at the package alone I was struck with the feeling that I was holding a 5 star DVD.
Astroknight, thanks for your initial feedback. Your comments are very encouraging, and I'm really looking forward to reading your review of Rawhide.
I love mainstream westerns, and I love porn. The idea of a western with explicit sex, but still done at mainstream Hollywood production standards sounds very exciting. That Carmen Luvana was cast as leading lady certainly doesn't hurt either.
As a big fan of mainstream Westerns and of Carmen Luvana, I was considering picking this up sight-unseen, but I'm not finding it. Has it in fact been released yet? Or did you just get an advance reviewer's copy, Astro?
(Edited to add): Nevermind, found it. It's just not at my usual retailers yet... I wonder if I have the willpower to wait a few days?
So I actually have been able to hold off on buying this, because I have some kickbacks burning a hole in my pocket. But none of the stores where I can use them have it: Not ADE, Xrentdvd, fivestar, any of my usual destinations. Why the heck not? It's not as if it would have "questionable" content, I assume.
Porno movies, sexy videos, xxx. Adult DVD Talk at your service. 6409 Posts 11/99
Posted - Sep 16 2003 : 9:09AM
Obi - I think it's just an issue of so many new releases, it gets hard to keep up with adding them to a database (I have the same problem stores do and I don't add as much data as they do.) If you want to buy a title somewhere drop them an email. Most of the stores we work with are very good about adding requested titles.
Still on tap for starting Rawhide this weekend. I have a couple I want to finish first, but with all there is on Rawhide it's probably going to be early to mid-nedt week by the time I finish it up. There will be a few other Adam & Eve reviews coming up until then!
I don't know if this is of any interest to anyone, but ADE responded to my email with a kind of half-form, half-real sounding letter that basically said thanks for asking, we'll have it as soon as it's out, which should be by the end of the month.
Seems weird to me that some stores have it and some don't. But what the hey, it's just a couple of weeks.
Well, thanks to a bit of a family emergency this weekend I didn't get to start Rawhide . I'm going to try to get it started tonight, but since Monday is one of those busy nights there's no promises. Since this one's going to take a few nights to get through I'll post a few short takes on it as I make my way through it here, similar to what I did for the soundtrack and pacakging earlier in the thread.
Okay, I'm just passed the first sex scene so here goes with some first impressions...
Cinematically it's beautiful. The locations and gorgeous (although the fences look very 20th century), the camera work is excellent, and the editing is very good.
Story-wise I think Rawhide is going to be very good. There's some nice acting here, and Carmen Luvana doesn't seem to struggle with the language like the last movie I saw her try to do dialogue in. It didn't get right to the sex, and instead set up a couple of the main characters. If it keeps up like this it should easily be a 5 star movie for acting and plot.
The sex took a little longer than I expected to get to, and even did so with a coupling other than what I expected right away, namely a team-up between Steven St. Croix and Brooke Balentyne with some decent anal. I'm having some strong feelings that my comments on the first scene are going to be very common for the entire movie, so here's what I think I'm going to be saying for the first scene:
This scene leaves me with mixed feelings. On one hand, there’s some nice energy and chemistry and Brooke takes it in the ass with the same ease as some people open a newspaper. The scene isn’t quite romantic, but there’s definitely a feel about it that feels right for the characters and the feeling of the movie. It also keeps a fairly mainstream movie feel about it, which I think is a big draw for Rawhide . On the other hand, the artistic lighting for the scene often left it a bit on the dark side where you couldn’t see some of the action, and I think there was at least one position where you never even saw the penetration. I can definitely appreciate the attempt to merge mainstream movies and porn, but I think this scene went a little too far towards the mainstream end of things.
Okay, I'm a little further into the movie now (and will hopefully finish it tonight). Storywise it's nicely done. The acting is good and so are the characters. There's at least as much plot as there is sex, and at times I think there might be more non-sexual scenes than sexual scenes. Sexually, I'm a bit disappointed, and most of that is due to the style. It's beautifully shot, but feels like a softcore core movie with a few close-ups to make it hardcore. I love to see both the penetration and the girls' reaction to being penetrated, and it's something that's very rarely shown. I can definitely say from what I've seen of Rawhide that it's a very impressive movie, but so far it's kept so tame that it's not that hot sexually. Heck, even Taylor Rain and Brooke Balentyne getting cornholed didn't quite get up to the "hot" level.
Which begs the question... do you think there was a lot of cornholing going on back then? Besides the livestock, I mean.
Just kidding! Can't wait to read your review on this one. It's great to see that much effort put into porn. I'm fine with the 'softer' sex, in fact it will be a nice change of pace, but those hideous cowboy boots have got to go.
Well, I have to say I'm terribly disappointed so far. I'm through the first hour, and I'm feeling like this movie is a zero on the script level.
There has been no plot development at all after four sex scenes. In the introduction, we find out that Carmen Luvana has inherited a ranch and might sell it. That's the one-minute premise. So... Steven St. Croix tells Brooke Ballentine that Carmen might sell the ranch. OK, then they have sex. Apropos of nothing, Evan Stone does Taylor Rain in the woods. Brooke Ballentine complains to Joey Ray that Carmen might sell the ranch. They have sex. Then Carmen tells Kaylani Lei she doesn't know what to do with the ranch. They have sex.
In between there are a couple of non-sex dialogue scenes. In one, St. Croix informs Stone that Carmen might sell the ranch. They discuss. In another, St. Croix informs some of the other ranch hands that he wants to prevent Carmen from selling the ranch. Jesus Christ on a crutch. I get it.
None of the sex so far has had any plot value whatsoever. The dialogue is unbelievably bad. Sample: After Ballentine and Ray talk about St. Croix's objection to Carmen POSSIBLY SELLING THE RANCH, Ray asks if Ballentine isn't St. Croix's girl.
Brooke Ballentine: "I'm no one's girl." Joey Ray: "No one? Hm. You think you could be my girl tonight?" BB: "I reckon." JR: "You reckon?" BB: "Yeah." JR: "You sure?" BB: "Yup." JR: "This is damned good stew." BB: "Yup." (begin sex).
It's actually worse than that sounds, because it takes so long to deliver those lines. This is porn at its absolute worst. And all the dialogue is cut badly, with misplaced beats and long, awkward pauses. There are long sequences of people riding horses, presumably just to show that they rented horses and got people to ride them, not to advance the plot in any way.
On the plus side, it is quite pretty-looking, and the music is impressively not-terrible (not worth putting on a CD in the package, though). In my honest opinion, every single Wicked feature I rented this year had a far better script.
I hate to be so bitchy, but this really isn't doing it for me. Maybe the rest of the movie will somehow turn me around, but it'll be a while before I get to it. I'll retract or amend if that is the case.
One other thing worth mentioning: A lot of the outdoor photography is really nice, but many scenes in this movie are shot at dusk or after dark, and the lighting is often insufficient. I mean, there's mood lighting, and then there's "What the hell are we looking at?"
That's a shame Obi, you would think that a little more effort be put into the plot. It sounds very similar to his Whispering Hearts, which centered around the sale of a horse. Evan Stone didn't really wanna sell the horse, but then again he did. In the meantime, the ranch hands had sex.
A woman called up about buying the horse, and then Joel Lawrence and Kylie Ireland had sex. When the woman came out to buy the horse, she and Evan had sex. It was a real nail-biter.
