Erotic Stories: Lovers and Cheaters

James Avalon's first entry in this video feature series has its moments but like much of his work there are many defects and low points. Recently immersing myself in his films from the '90s to date I'm impressed with the director's talent and just as often surprised by his lapses.

The vignette structure is now enshrined as default mode for contemporary porn, with the death of the feature film and the rise of internet content streaming. Avalon's batting average over the span of five segments is too low to count this one a success.

Format has Mackenzie Mack as the narrator, sitting in a bathtub surrounded by romantic flowers and candles to intro the stories and perform strictly soft-core herself. It is reminiscent of dozens of soft-X cable TV series and fairly boring.

Worst vignette is "Blind Date" starring Neveah Ashton as Liz, reading a letter from her husband, and sitting in the same bathtub as the narrator -Avalon re-uses this set dressed up differently four times during the feature -quite disconcerting if economical. Her fantasy is a threesome featuring both a Black and a White guy, both having big dicks (Billy Banks and Talon). It's not an intrinsically poor story but executed badly - Avalon uses filters and other visual gimmicks to suggest "nighttime" for atmosphere, but the sex action is barely visible -the footage looking so dark and low in contrast. Voice-over artists are used for the dialog delivery in this MOS segment

Finale "The Visitor" is the best, as Julian and his legendary dick save the day as the visiting best friend who definitely perks up the morning of bored housewife played by lovely Aria. Trevor Zen is the unwitting husband, and the vignette's pacing, light touch and sexy performances make it a winner.

Other short stories include the opener "2 for 1", featuring Dani Wodward in a sexual situation comedy that is ludicrous on the surface but erotically successful. She blindfolds hubby Kurt Lockwood and ties him to a chair as kinky foreplay, but actually an excuse to dally XXX style with her lover Barrett Blade in the other room. The humor comes from her rushing back & forth between the two men, a rather interesting variation on traditional slapstick "musical beds" bedroom farce. A big drawback to my enjoying this one is the use of a ripoff version of Horace Silver's jazz classic "Song for My Father" on the soundtrack -way beyond the "inspiration" used by Steely Dan in "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" based on the same Silver original.

"Call Me" revolves naturally around phone sex, with the casting of Sabrina Snow, Monica Sweetheart and big-dicked Lee Stone paying off. The threesome in this one end up in, you guessed it, that same romantic bathtub used throughout the video.

"Strangers in the House" plays like a dirty joke, as housewife Jasmine Lynn day dreams while chatting with girl friend Caroline Pierce, and imagines the two muscular gardeners outside her window coming in and servicing her, complete with a d.p.

Third edition in this series, directed by Stuart Canterbury and starring Lisa Ann and Julia Ann, is far superior to Avalon's kick-off here.