3
out of 5.00 -
Film:
3
Extras:
3
Video:
3
Audio:
3
-
5/1/2002
For every high quality big budget film that Vivid releases (such as
Fade to Black) there seems to be at least a dozen inferior little videos banking solely on the star power of one contract girl to pull them through. Such is the case with this 1999 produced Toni English feature starring Taylor Hayes. Even Vivid seemed to be a bit skittish about releasing this one, letting it sit on the shelf for more than two years before finally releasing it on video late last year. Maybe they figured Taylor and Dasha's popularity would be enough to help recoup some of their investment.
Taylor Hayes plays a young woman with a checkered past looking to go legit. In fact, she's engaged to Mr. Marcus and their wedding is only a few days away. Marcus knows his fiancée is no angel (which is apparent in their opening scene) but he hopes she can show her best side to his ultra-conservative parents. With the mounting pressures of a wedding and the added stress of pleasing her future in-laws, there's no worse time for Taylor's skeletons to come out of the closet.
Bobby Vitale plays a sleazy pimp from Taylor's past. After getting it on with a couple of his girls (Dasha and Chandler) he notices Taylor's wedding announcement in the newspaper. He chooses this inopportune time to check up on one of his former girls in an attempt to get her working for him again. Taylor begrudgingly agrees to meet him in a bar after he threatens to show up at her wedding. He blackmails her further until she finally accompanies him to his apartment where he shows her a video from her past, telling her he'll release the tape if he doesn't come back to work for her.
In my opinion, something's amiss when the best scene in a movie is between two girls. But when those two girls are Taylor Hayes and Keri Windsor it's a bit more understandable. In this video from Taylor's past, Keri takes the driver seat early on, flicking her Gene Simmons-like tongue in and out of Taylor's pussy. While Keri's going down on her, Taylor sticks a couple of fingers up her ass and eventually pulls them out for a quick taste. When the two switch roles, Taylor nearly fists Keri while tonguing her clit. Apparently Keri isn't producing enough juice for Taylor, so she holds her pussy open and spits into it. The scene goes on for quite a while longer with Keri getting assaulted with a pink dildo and Taylor taking a strap-on pounding, but these sequences don't quite live up to the first few minutes where the girls put on a great show without the use of toys or prosthetics. The camera work and editing could have been much better, but Taylor and Keri make up for it through their genuine enthusiasm.
Fortunately for Taylor, she doesn't give into Bobby's sleazy ploy and basically tells him to fuck off. Meanwhile she needs to stage a contingency plan to get him off her back for good. After calling one of her for former "colleagues" (Chennin Blanc) she discovers that one of Bobby's rival pimps and her former love interest (Eric Price) is in town. She goes over to Eric's pricey digs with Chennin to catch up on old times and ask him for a favor. While Eric and Taylor cement their deal in Eric's bedroom, Chennin gets busy with Eric's friend (Cheyne Collins) in the living room. There's some nice parallel cutting here as both scenes play out simultaneously in two different locations. When it's all said and done Eric sends a couple of guys over to Bobby's to inform him that Taylor works for Eric in a classic intimidation house call scene lifted straight from any B movie. With that out of the way Taylor can now get on with her life and lay her past to rest once and for all.
I realize this isn't a new production, but I was still rather surprised by the poor quality of this DVD transfer. First of all the video looks like it was transferred from a dirty video tape with plenty of grain and pixelation swimming about. It's not much worse than most video to DVD resurrections, but it's somewhat disappointing to see such dismal quality from an A-list studio like Vivid. If VCA can turn out flawless transfers of their older titles, why can't Vivid? The less than stellar visual quality complements the rather mediocre soundtrack which seems to feature more than it's fair share of ADR patchwork. The only good thing about the phony multiple angles available during the feature is the fact that you can turn off that annoying icon that appears on screen. Though in classic Vivid fashion, they attempt to compensate for these deficiencies by overwhelming the viewer with a dump truck load of bonus scenes. Assuming Taylor Hayes fans will be the biggest consumer demographic, they've added three full length bonus scenes including one of her encounters with Rocco from
Taylor Loves Rocco. There's also several other full scenes from other Vivid productions in addition to the feature specific photo gallery and fetish menu.
If I wasn't so enamored with Taylor Hayes (and her three scenes plus bonuses)
Double Cross would have faired much worse. This certainly isn't Taylor's best work, but the sheer quantity of scenes makes it a decent choice for those looking to binge themselves on the eye candy she embodies. As for the movie? It's clearly second rate material made worse by vacant direction and some of the most questionable editing I've seen in a Vivid release. I can see why they let this one ferment for a while, but unfortunately it didn't get any better with time.
By:
Dr. Mabuse