Roger's Rating:

Tom Byron started Evolution knowing that the all-sex movies are covered. He's one of the very best in the business at this kind of smut. Tom has expressed time and again that he really has no interest in features, so EE needed someone to fill that slot. Apparently Guy Capo is that guy. I haven't ever heard of him before, but Tom sees something in him and I've heard a whole lot of buzz about this movie recently. Capo's “American Gunk” is more than your typical porn feature, with a more than a slight nod towards political protest. Given the situation with Extreme, this is bound to be a very timely movie. The title sequence is very tightly edited and an assault on the eyes and ears. It's interesting for certain, but is it a good sign when I already have a headache before the movie even begins? I love this kind of editing on one hand, but it's a very fine line between impressive and pretentious.

After that high concept start, the first sex scene is rather straight forward. I group of friends are enjoying some beer and smoke when they start playing spin the bottle. Frank Towers and Rick Masters quickly turn the game into a three on two fuck as they take on Demi Marks, Summer Nite and Vandalia. With hard-pounding music, quick cut editing and plenty of black and white footage, this is exactly the kind of sex scene that I don't like. It doesn't matter if it's Michael Ninn, Paul Thomas, Tom Zupko or Guy Capo, this stuff is great for editing geeks like me, but about as conducive to jerking off as a Code Pink rally. Demi is really the only girl in this scene that I would be interested in watching so I'm not about to cry over the lost erotic value. Instead I will enjoy the editing and wonder again if there is a group of porn consumers who prefer to stroke to smut like this.

The next scene has Ron Jeremy as a horny Elvis making moves on blonde vixen Vickie on the beach. Their eyes meet and it's true love at first sight. He takes her back to his room and Vickie starts sucking dick. After a short blowjob, he bends her over the toilet and fucks her from behind. The editing is less intrusive in this scene, so if you like the idea of Elvis banging a thick blonde and busting a nut all over her stomach, then this is sheer brilliance. Ron doesn't seem particularly up to the challenge and there isn't much heat here.

Next up is Felecia Fox. She is a studded bikini with fur trim as she dances for our pleasure. The lighting is very interesting in this scene. Interesting from a technical aspect though not what you're used to from a hot solo scene. She does a really good job of working her fingers into her pussy and getting everything nice and wet. There is some good action here, but the shadow and quick cuts kind of drain heat. (Felecia's interview on the bonus disc is actually more interesting, which is sad.)

Now comes the real interesting stuff. Capo cuts a scene between Ashley Blue and Tony Tedeschi. He explains that it has been pulled due to an environment of censorship created by the Federal Government. Capo's monologue about free speech is interesting. It's typically overwrought and has one interesting contradiction. “Pacifism in this arena is what will invite trouble, not fend it off.” Well hell, why not throw the scene in there and take it on then? Frankly if the best scene in the film is a rape between Ashley and Tony then I would have exercised my right to skip it anyway.

His dissatisfaction continues with a reality-TV parody. Frank Towers and Gen Padova act out a little scenario straight out of the Bachelor/Joe Millionaire/Blind Date arena. Gen keeps saying that she trusts the American public to set her up with a caring person. As soon as they meet Gen seems happy and Frank is clearly ready to jump on her. He gets rough and she puts up a pretty good fight for a while. Since Gen is so cute, it might be nice to enjoy the sex, but it's another black and white, hyper-cut industrial metal fest that reminds me why I like Tom Byron movies so much. The pop up text is funny, but this is only making the headache worse. It's the first time in a long time that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed a Gen scene. Perhaps this is supposed to be more cutting-edge parody, but even the rather nasty ending just comes off as silly.

For some reason we get a facial montage here from other movies. I'm not sure what the point of this is, but at least there is some hot action as Friday, Jewel De'Nyle and some other babes get blasted with goo. Guy pops back up for a little free flow anti-Government poetry that leads into a little pukin. Cherry Poppins blasts from her belly and then gets violently face-fucked. This wouldn't be erotic even without the thrash guitar, flea-on-meth editing and jackhammer to the cranium visuals. She ends up with make-up running down her face. I'm not sure what there is to enjoy here. It's like someone took a scene from Gag Factor and ran it through the “Pretentious Porn Editing” suite and came out with this crap.

There is a bit of text about the hypocrisy of golden shower obscenity laws before a Liza Harper solo scene. It looks like Liza has had a baby since the last time I saw her. It's a half way decent solo scene I guess, but if just having a girl piss before she wanks is the problem, then perhaps we are spared the boring shit anyway.

Olivia O'Lovely and John West hook up for the final scene. They go at it in front of a fake background that is kind of cool for about thirty seconds. After that, it's just an annoying backdrop taking away from the usually bone-enticing oral skills that Olivia brings to the table. When this sort of stuff is done in a couples flick, I roll my eyes and try to imagine that somewhere there is a woman who is able to get into porn because there are flames in the background. When I look at this, I wonder if there is some raincoater in the audience who has spent his last five buck on beer so he can't afford his ADD meds. I'm sure that Olivia and John really put together a nice scene and I'd love to see what it would have looked like without all the trimmings.

Well this was an interesting couple of hours. If this is indeed Guy Capo's first movie (and I see no reason to doubt it) then he shows a technical proficiency and a vision that is well beyond that of many porn vets. If we could judge this movie on these aspects alone, American Gunk would be pretty damn high on my list of must-see movies. The problem is that it also has to be sexually appealing. There are a only a couple of really cute girls in the movie and all of the scenes are obscured by the same sort of visual interference that has made other technical sound movies nearly worthless as good smut. From Michael Ninn to Thomas Zupko's early efforts, such editing tricks have made the sex secondary and that will always be a mistake in my book. It reminds me way too much of Extreme's “Acid Sex” in that every time I found something I wanted to see sexually, it was impossible to enjoy it. I also think that AG may suffer a bit from over-hype. There are times when it looks like Capo took unrelated scenes from the cutting room floor and found some way to string them together. The blowjob montage, Elvis, reality-TV, rape and solo scenes just don't blend well. American Gunk feels sort of like found-footage stew. It's also billed as this bad-ass protest movie and there is that one rant that's decent, but how exactly is this political protest? Are we raging against good porn? Rating this one was really hard because on the one hand it's a trip to watch. On the other, it's just not sexually appealing at all and isn't that point?

BONUS DISC: Like all EE DVDs, this one has a second disc for the extras. It's got a trailer which is pretty nice looking. The outtakes are very interesting and worth a laugh or two. For the photo gallery, you can choose an automatic slide show or control the shots yourself. There is some interesting interview stuff with Ron Jeremy and with Felecia Fox. The Felecia interview is actually more enlightening and thought provoking than most of the movie. Finally we get Guy's own little treat. He shows up his first movie. It's a scene he shot and sent out to porn companies. It's an impressive little thing that makes for a very fine bonus.

Copyright © Roger T. Pipe

Posted By Roger, www.excaliburfilms.com | 10/5/06 1:58 PM