Tempted

I imagine half a dozen rewrites might have made "Tempted" a tolerable feature film, but as is this Vivid release is a no-show. It's utterly pointless.

Phil M. Noir, dropping his pretentious/stupid pseudonym for another ("Austin Ellison") wrote and directed, so must take most of the blame. Story begins in a promising rom-com mode, centering on husband/wife architects team of Steven St. Croix and Tina Tyler. They have a most unusual opening sex scene: each masturbating in the bathroom, with dirty talk and individual orgasms, barely touching each other.

Single client is a very hammy E. Z. Ryder who's paying them to design his fast-food restaurant. Comic relief is somewhat effective, but later on the movie tries for a more serious tone and fails.

Instigator is contract star Lene, who epitomizes the fake look of femme beauty that typified Vivid girls. She pops up as a sort of femme fatale, but with such a paper-thin, vapid character (poorly acted to boot) to quickly sink the film.

She's been hired as the team's temp secretary, and we see her former lover, a rock star played by Mark Davis, coming after her after she's walked out on him. Predictably Lene turns into a housebreaker, with Tyler leaving her husband after a threesome with her has an aftereffect of turning her and St. Croix against each other.

Overall, with some awkwardly staged scenes and arbitrary continuity, the movie keeps falling apart, and ultimately seems like just an excuse for five XXX scenes (as has since become the case for so many 21st Century narrative porn videos).

Finale is merely a tacked-on lesbian scene for Lene with the great Asia Carrera. Asia's husband at the time, Bud Lee, served as producer.

Stealing the show briefly is a young Rebecca Bardoux as a private eye who has tracked down Lene for Davis. She looks mah-velous in her sex scene with Mark.