New Jersey Drive (1995)

New Jersey Drive: Directed by Nick Gomez. With Shar-Ron Corley, Gabriel Casseus, Saul Stein, Gwen McGee. Jason and Midget are two young, black teenagers living in Newark,New Jersey, the unofficial car theft capital of the world. Their favourite pastime is that of everybody in their neighbourhood: stealing cars and joyriding. The trouble starts when they steal a police car and the cops launch a violent offensive that involves beating and even shooting suspects.

“John Stagliano has become the Barry Goldwater of porn, adopting latteru0026#39;s famous motto, edited by me as u0026quot;Extremism…is no vice.u0026quot; Yes, following in the horrible footsteps of Max Hardcore (and under the influence of Rocco Siffredi, one of his leading men here) the Buttman has gone over to the dark side of Adult Entertainment, gonzo division.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThatu0026#39;s a shame, because there are many, if only fleeting, visual images and ideas (all of which Stagliano showers Trump-like self-praise on himself for creating, as he spends over 2 hours on a desultory u0026quot;bonusu0026quot; BTS feature) buried within a binge-craving endless 18-part u0026quot;seriesu0026quot;. Iu0026#39;ll be reviewing the four volumes separately, mainly because IMDb has sorted them that way, and with varying casts it makes sense from a database standpoint.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFirst major defect, among many which sink this project, is the omission of Brooklyn Lee, star of the original u0026quot;seasonu0026quot; of Voracious. Johnny Stag and his creative partner, the great Lea Lexis, spend considerable time sitting at his Movieola and belly-aching about the no-show of Ms. Lee, cast in this sequel to continue her role as the curious heroine who became a Rocco-dominated vampire but was miraculously returned to human form by the end of that far better (than this followup) saga.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTo hear Lea and John tell it, Brooklyn decided to retire from the porn wars, and didnu0026#39;t tell them -merely not showing up for work, so they were left on shooting day with one hour to do a major rewrite. So they blame her for the crappiness of what resulted -I canu0026#39;t endorse that blame-shifting ploy -they and particularly big John must take responsibility for messing up. Foolish me – I would have substituted another actress in Brooklynu0026#39;s role, as is often done (but not with fab results I admit) in Hollywood -look at the junker 3-part recent u0026quot;Atlas Shruggedu0026quot;, each part with an entirely different cast playing the famous Ayn Rand characters.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eInstead, the featureu0026#39;s story makes no sense at all, and given my knowledge of the back-story (Season One) I was confused and dismayed early on. For the first 3 segments presented in Volume One, we have some interesting set-pieces, notably in a fortune telleru0026#39;s lair, as key characters are introduced. Stoya, on loan from Digital Playground, is terrific as the pale-skinned palm reader introduced as an aerialist vampire hanging from a big hoop in the set John rented from kindred spirits at kink.com, it being the basement former shooting range of the landmark Armory building that now houses crappy video shoots for internet addicts of BDSM as well as swingersu0026#39; parties, all documented frequently on video.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe not-so-good-guys of the tale are scientists James Deen and Skin Diamond, who run a sperm bank (!), with Deen as a sort of Von Helsing character out to drive wooden stakes through what remains of San Franciscou0026#39;s dwindling vampire population.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEpisode II is the most outre of the 11-1/2-hour tale, featuring an extreme BDSM marathon with emphasis on the M, threesome of Lexis, Skin and a fellow named Deviant Kade. Kade gets lots of credit for location hunting and other crew functions in the Buttmanu0026#39;s BTS spiel, but his real contribution is out-doing such lesser lights as Slut Bottom Chris and other dubious performers who make a living exploiting their real-life fondness for self-abuse, ass play and humiliation. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo weu0026#39;re treated to an hour-long sequence of Skin and Lea delivering forced-sex on Kade, pegging him with out-sized dildos, suffocating him and forcing him to deep-throat extremes, cock u0026amp; balls torture and all manner of abuse, supposedly u0026quot;erotic entertainmentu0026quot;. It is merely the legacy of Max Hardcore run wild, the stuff that industry idiots hand out awards for, during an era when storytelling is dead. Dollops of narrative are handed out in niggardly fashion by Buttman in Season Two of Voracious, and most segments end with a groaner of a one-liner that even Schwarzenegger would have trouble uttering.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFinal nails in this projectu0026#39;s coffin (no puns please) are Buttmanu0026#39;s lighting and editing. Most of the show is under-lit for effect, ruining most sex scenes (brighter lighting where the action can be clearly discerned is saved for the nunsu0026#39; segments of Volumes 3 and 4) and rendering the whole thing amateurish. As far as editing, unlike masters of cinema who benefited from complete control (think Kubrick, Kieslowski, Bergman, Fassbinder, Angelopoulos, Akerman and especially Rivette), Stagliano insists on length over clarity, padding his finished product with endless and tedious filler, most notable later on when James Deen takes over and just wonu0026#39;t exit like Snagglepuss, Stage Left.”