Miles' Rating:

Starring: A fascinating porn reality check, this brutally honest documentary on porn's "king" strips away the legend of John Holmes to reveal a good-natured, likable liar and con man whose sunny personality covered a pathological obsession with hiding a wretched childhood, drugs and keeping friends at a distance. Just as intriguing are the characters who wandered through Holme's life, including longsuffering wife Sharon who is approprietly filmed in shadow the way she was in his life, his used and abused 15-year-old mistress "Dawn" and the cop who befriended Holmes when Big John was ratting out his porn pals as an informant for the vice squad. At its core, "Wadd" exposes the hypocrisy of John Holmes, and undermines the many winesses you hear praise Holmes was such a lovable guy. Well, lovable guys don't pimp their girfriends, steal luggage at airports, and then, caught in the depths of drug-addiction, set up "friends" to be robbed and others to be murdered. Later, after being diagnosed HIV-positive and unable to work in America, Holmes scrambled to Europe to make fuck films without telling his fellow performers of his HIV status. Some nice guy.

Solid. The filmmakers (who use the alias Alan Smithee) have gathered some porn legends to tell the story, from Sharon Mitchell (who's sympathetic) and John Leslie to Juliet Anderson (who's brutally frank) and Bunny Bleu. It's great to see them again. Unfortunately, they get too little screen time. While we learn everything we'll ever need to about his monster dick, we get just a small taste of what it was like to make these films with him.

Though there are lots of clips showing John's cock at work, including a scene from one of his on-screen gay encounters (he looks very uncomfortable), none of the scenes are meant to be erotic. The documentary takes a clinical approach.

The story of his hard childhood is told with old photos that humanize this enigmatic character. But the rest moments are in the third act when after is acquital for the Wonderland Murders he meets his second wife Laurie Holmes who's depicted as a calculating sex freak who kept his friends away even in his final honors.

There are too many scenes of people like Al Goldstein (who, I'll admit, gets the funniest lines) and Ron Jeremy blabbing on about Holmes' dick. The documentary needed more on-the-set acedotes.

Still, it's a must-have for anyone with even the slightest interest in porn's early days and the man who gave it a personality. A 9.

Posted By Miles, www.excaliburfilms.com | 10/12/06 1:58 PM