Second Look: Five Underrated Gems
Everybody loves a blockbuster, but some of the best movies are the ones that nobody really heard about – the surprises, the sleepers, the quirky ones that slipped by, that you didn’t hear about till somebody brought you back and made you look. You can have your Fashionistases and your Pirateses – we like the titles that don’t ask quite so loudly for attention. The rewards are so much more rewarding. If you’re wondering whether you might have missed anything good in the world of porn, here are some of our favorite underappreciated titles.
1. Whack Job
Studio: wicked-pictures
Whack Job is that rarest of birds – a truly intentionally funny porn comedy. With sultry brunette Roxy Deville playing a part that called for a bouncy teen blonde and nailing it, Tommy Gunn and Tony DiSergio as a pair of hilariously incompetent hitmen, a great script by none other than Stormy Daniels, and sex scenes that mostly drive the plot, Whack Job is solid gold. Roxy pulled down a well-deserved Best Actress nomination for it, but otherwise this one sailed under the radar – a shame, because it really excelled in its class.
Buy: whack-job
2. Love For The First Time
Studio: wicked-pictures
Not quite a parody, definitely not an original, Love for the First Time was made before Will Ryder made the world safe for ripping off pop culture, which means it wasn’t able to just come out and call itself Not The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which is what it is. Starring the immensely likable (and sadly now retired) Randy Spears playing opposite the equally charming Carmen Hart, this could have been a typically mainstream middle-of-the-road ho-hummer, but the delightful ability of both leads to step outside their careers as recognizable porn stars and play a pair of innocent naifs looking for love instead of just sex raises it above its station. its source material is, of course, orders of magnitude better, but that’s the way the world is.
3. Rogue Adventures The Big-Ass She-Male Adventure
Studio: evil-angel
It might be a little disingneuous to say that this title in particular was underrated, since it did cause quite a stir. It wasn’t especially underrated or unremarkable at the time, but as the years have passed and the genre has blossomed into something with a wider appeal than just the appeal to lovers of freaks and novelties, the original Rogue Adventures has slipped farther and farther into the twilight. It might be hard to remember, but twenty years ago, this was a monumental achievement in porn – a major studio and a major porn personality endorsing and promoting what was a fringe fetish at the time, making it safe for straight men, bringing it to the light. There are better transsexual movies, but there aren’t many more important ones than Rogue Adventures 1.
Buy: rogue-adventures-the-big-ass-she-male-adventure
4. Compulsion
Studio: wicked-pictures
Not a single nomination or award attended the release of Compulsion, another Wicked effort featuring the impeccably charming team of Randy Spears and Carmen Hart. The two are talented separately, but together, they’re as charismatic a couple as porn has ever produced (Wicked put them together in no fewer than nine of Hart’s 38 titles). David Stanley’s script isn’t too ambitious for its place, but it’s successful, partly because several of porn’s best comedic talents, including Hart, Spears, Evan Stone, and Barrett Blade, make it work – if you aren’t already smiling at the thought of a man cruising a mountain lion attack survivor support group, i don’t know why you’re even looking for comedy in your porn. there are sight gags, physical comedy, and plenty of heart.
Buy: compulsion
5. My TS Teacher
Studio: transsensual
The first great thing about My TS Teacher, which is also true of an increasing number of movies from Transsensual, is that the content looks almost as good as the boxcover makes you think it will, which will delight fans of TS titles; the genre has, in the past, failed to deliver the glamour it promises, but it looks like that time is disappearing in the rearview mirror. The second is more subtle – Transsensual is building a world in which trans people are not remarkable or singled out for their genders. They’re just sexy people, with no special attention paid, in the world they live in, to their plumbing. In other words, when a guy starts making out with a trans woman and her underwear comes off, he doesn’t get a look of horror on his face and freak out because there’s a dick where he didn’t expect to see one. Bravo.
Buy: my-ts-teacher
