Roger's Rating:

Anytime you get a movie that wins 8 AVN awards including Best Film, you have certain expectations. Director Paul Thomas has given us some great features over the years. When he is on his game, Thomas can combine really well acted dialog scenes with better than average sex scenes to make a great adult film. Interestingly enough, this particular effort is a film about adult films. Taylor Hayes and Julie Meadows head a large and impressive cast as they make their way through a maze of would be porn directors, suitcase pimps and would be superstars.

We start on the set of a low end porn flick. Dale DeBone is in charge as his girlfriend, Taylor Hayes, prepares for her scene. Erik Everhard is a bit nervous about doing Taylor in front of her man, but they trudge on. Taylor starts out with a little solo show when Erik walks in. She immediately starts sucking on his cock until it?s hard. After the too short blowjob, he moves between her legs and starts fucking her pussy. (They are leaving clothes around Taylor?s middle these days.) Nice energy and good doggy action as Erik moves her around the couch and pumps her hard. She moves to the doorway and strokes his cock near her tits. He leaves his load right between those big tits.

A phone call from a porn big shot, sends them off to Los Angeles with dreams of big time stardom on their minds. Dale, Voodoo and Taylor arrive on set in time to get a major dose of attitude from Tony Tedeschi. He?s right in the middle of a scene where Adajja and Jason McCain fuck to please the goddess (Julie Meadows.) It?s pretty excruciating watching Julie sit by and play with her pussy while a rather average looking woman gets all the action, but I suppose some hot sex must be sacrificed for the sake of the story. Julie does give us some great toy play including some really hot looking anal while Jason and Adajja bang away to a frothy facial.

They finally meet the man they came to see, Paul Thomas. He is instantly drawn to Taylor and is clearly annoyed by Dale?s suitcase pimp act. Voodoo can smell the coffee brewing and takes off when Thomas leads Taylor to the set for a scene right then and there. She gets right into the role, working her lovely mouth on the dude behind the lunch counter. After deep throating him, Taylor takes cock from behind, looking great from every angle until he shoots his load across her back.

Thomas puts the couple up in a big house with porn starlet Taylor St. Claire. Cracks are already beginning to appear in the relationship between Taylor and Dale. He?s living on ego and can?t quite grasp how truly unimportant he really is to her career. He might be more upset, but both Taylors get naked and make all of his troubles disappear. Taylor Hayes gives a great looking blowjob while she straddles Taylor St. Claire?s face. With condom in place, Dale starts banging his girl from behind while his new friend holds her cheeks open and waits. When he switches to St. Claire, the anal begins and it?s pretty damn hot. After some standing doggy vag for Taylor H, he shoots all over Taylor S?s face. (Taylor H? Taylor S? Has Rog gone back to fourth grade?)

The conflict between Dale and Thomas escalates after they find out that Thomas was filming their fun with Taylor. There really are some tight dialog scenes here between Taylor and Dale and then between Dale and Thomas. The problem is that there are too many dialog scenes on top of each other before the next sex scene. In fact, then Voodoo hooks up with Taylor St. Claire, we actually cut away from him sucking her big tits to hear Thomas doing more dialog. The busty brunette quickly takes his cock out and start pro-sucking him like there?s no tomorrow. It?s really a shame to cut away from such good action for the dialog scenes. Even though they aren?t bad, they are a major annoyance because they take away from what should be the point of this whole movie, the sex. We come back to see some really good tit fucking and then to watch Taylor riding his cock with long, slow strokes. He takes her from behind, fucking her as hard as he can in the pussy. After doing the same to her big, round ass, Voodoo holds his cock over her face so she can jerk him off into her mouth.

The truth behind the big picture is being slowly revealed to Dale by Julie Meadows. She?s stripping down and clearly about to fuck him, so that naturally makes us all want to listen to what she has to say. Cutting away to more Thomas/Hayes dialog, we once again lose the heat just as it is being built up. Julie leaves on her red boots and matching panties as she starts sucking Dale?s dong. By now the cut away is to Taylor masturbating, but it?s still a terrible way to kill the flow of a hot scene. Julie takes it from behind in some very energetic standing doggy. Taylor has to watch the scene thanks to one of the well placed video cameras. Using her pain to get even more turned on, she is more than ready to play when Tony Tedeschi comes in to fuck her. Breathless, Taylor sucks his thick cock like she?s never tasted anything so wonderful. I like both of these scenes, but the intercutting manages to cool things down every time it gets good. I know why they did it in this case, but it still makes for two much cooler scenes that they should have been. Julie takes it in the ass and then gets a big load on her pretty face. No A for Taylor, but she does turn in a very hot scene and gets a splash of goo all over her big tits.

The story comes to a big, somewhat overwrought end that actually isn?t the end. It?s pretty easy to see why this movie was named Film of the Year by both AVN and XRCO. It?s got a solid story with a very good script. It also has sex that is well above the norm for modern features. Taylor Hayes really does a great job in the lead and Thomas was wise enough to give himself a lot of the male dialog. Since he can handle the non-sex scenes better than the meat vendors he has working the sex scenes, it helps Taylor?s scenes a great deal. There are some problems in this movie, due mostly to the lame practice of intercutting sex scenes. I know that the script calls for scenes to take place simultaneously, but every time we cut from one scene to another the sexual heat takes a serious hit. This annoying flaw aside, there is some good sex in this movie. Both Taylors, Hayes and St. Claire do a very nice job in their scenes. Julie Meadows does a really hot scene with DeBone. If you?re looking for a good feature, this is about as good as I?ve seen in the last few years.

Copyright © Roger T. Pipe

Posted By Roger, www.excaliburfilms.com | 10/5/06 1:58 PM

Miles' Rating:

Starring: Paul Thomas's latest award-winner is a dark journey into the mind of a porn kingpin who long ago lost the ability to differentiate between manipulating actors and the non-actors in his life. The plot has the producer, played by Thomas with icy authority, and his surrogates, write/director Tony Tedeschi and porn star Taylor St. Claire, toying with three amateur porn wannabes from Oklahoma--Dale Dabone, Voodoo and Taylor Hayes--who believe Thomas will help them achieve porn stardom. But Thomas has other plans.

Smoothly mixing film and video to show the difference between real life and life on screen, "Fade to Black" is more effective technically than it is as a story. What starts as a promising look at the unsexy side of porn (of warehouses, cold directors and even colder sex) becomes a bizarre tale of manipulation. It seems to be an allegory about a man suffocated by a lifetime porn, but never explores this angle at great length.

The power is in the performances. Dale Dabone is thoroughly believable as the hot-shot up-and-comer who grows increasingly confused by Thomas's games, while Taylor Hayes is exceptional as the naive bumpkin who believes she's born to fuck and little. During her audition with Joey Ray she demonstrates both a nervousness and sexual hunger. By the end of the film, during a fiery encounnter with Tedeschi, she is a full-blooded fuck-queen.

Taylor and Thomas give two of the best performances of their careers, and Taylor St. Claire brings a nice touch of mystery as the porn star who could be the power behind the man.

The plot introduces some terrific ideas that are never fully developed, while some sex scenes are not easily integrated into the plot. Some will find the ending satisfying; other will groan.

An 8. Solid work by all.

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