While celebrating adult cinema's golden age we should never let nostalgia blind us to the fact that not everything was great...just as we shouldn't pretend that everything new is crap. Take for example Czech director Alan Vydra's 1981 work Extremes, a badly made piece of nonsense distinguished only by its truly great cast and terrific on-location photography.
Vydra had at least half a dozen credits under his belt as a director before Extremes so he should have had a fairly decent grip on the filmmaking process but that doesn't seem to be the case at all here. Outside of some fairly well-done shots during the films, admittedly hot, sex-scenes Extremes is a lazily directed and poorly edited work that either shows Vydra as an extremely uninterested filmmaker or a really poor one.
The barely-there plot of Extremes concerns swindling playboys Rob and George and their quest for the endless easy-buck and easy-lay. Mostly post-dubbed, it's anyone's guess as to what Extremes was really supposed to be about. It feels more like a film attempting to be assembled together rather than even a basic cohesive work. It's as though Vydra thought the mostly San Francisco (and briefly Hamburg) location photography and great cast could fool the audience into thinking there was a legitimate film playing out here but, like its main characters, Extremes is a con.
It's a motherfucker not recommending Extremes to classic porn lovers though because the cast is so unbelievably amazing. Just look at the great actors and superstuds we have here: Eric Edwards, Joey Silvera, John Leslie and David Morris! As if that wasn't enough the actresses are just as legendary with Serena, Kandi Barbour, Susan Nero, Jesie St. James and more appearing! The cast is truly incredible here and they all do the best they can with the incredibly lackluster material on hand.
While Extremes as a film is never really more than a particularly nasty wreck the sex is indeed mostly well-done so, at the very least, Vydra's film does succeed partially has just an arousing fuck-flick...all of the credit going to his iconic cast of course.
Highlights included the much-missed Kandi Barbour's masturbation sequence towards the beginning of the film, the jaw-dropping gorgeous Serena's double-bang with Edwards and Silvera and luscious Susan Nero's backseat swing with chauffeur Johnny Harden.
Jesie St. James gives it her all for the conclusion of Extremes but her work finally feels forced and not at all genuine, much like Vydra's film itself. Compare this to such classics that some of the cast appeared in around the same time like Insatiable and Neon Nights and you will see just how truly weak and by the numbers Extremes is...some old bullshit indeed.
For those interested in seeing Extremes, it is currently available with this Alpha Blue Susan Nero Collection.
Agent John Galt's Rating: 1 Seventies Porno Mustache: A Below-Average Picture
But I think we can all agree that the title cards were 100% awesome, always. ;)
ReplyDeleteCall me crazy, but you've made me want to see this. Actually, two shots make me want to see this: 1) John Leslie, and 2) Feathers.