First of April, The

Anybody who knows me will say that I love history. I'm a borderline history geek, to be perfectly honest. However, as interesting as history is to me, it is a rare occasion do I find entertainment from the past to be the equal of today's product. I thought "Citizen Kane" was a pretty decent movie, but I'd certainly not place it above "L.A Confidential". I suppose "I Love Lucy" is decent, but does it even come within a mile of being nearly as good as, say, "Seinfeld"?

Adult entertainment tends to be in the same boat. Older stuff might be interesting for the sake of nostalgia, but it usually is not as good as the more recent stuff. The plots might be better and the acting is occasionally better, but overall, it's not as strong a product. Not to say that the old stuff is bad, just that the newer stuff was able to use the older stuff to set up a foundation for the current product.

Now, why am I saying this? Because "The First of April" is a blast from the past. I don't pretend to know all of the actors or actresses in this title. Heck, I honestly don't know too many of them at all, so if this review is lacking in terms of names of the participants, that is why.

This was the first starring vehicle for April West who, while attractive in her time, does not hold up well over time. The look that was considered amazing for women in the 80's looks borderline silly today and it does affect the title. It's hard to get aroused when you see women who look almost laughable.

April's husband Mort is discussing how his wife is simply obsessed with him and wants sex all of the time--and we get a little scene to demonstrate that point as April gives her husband a nice little hummer. This scene is okay, but since I don't find April attractive, I can't deny that this scene is hurt by it. If you aren't just sitting in stunned amazement at the woman in the scene, then the scene is not going to work for you, no matter how good the overall performance is. She knows how to "sell" arousal and passion, but I have a hard time really caring because she doesn't do much for me.

The scene is also choppy as the editor and director wanted to get all of the positions in and keep the title under a certain length. This is one of the things that more recent releases have managed to avoid. It's rare when a more current title seems to have scenes that are edited too short and that is largely based upon seeing the errors in editing that are prevalent in older titles, such as this one.

The sex in the scene is just fine, mind you--the scene is just cut more than it really needs to be cut.

April then brings her husband breakfast in bed while one of Mort's ex-girlfriends calls him out of the blue. She even tells him that it's fine with her if he fools around with his ex. Mort then goes to work and a woman is waiting for him in an elevator wearing nothing but her lingerie. He rejects her repeatedly, but she doesn't really take no for an answer. Mort, of course, succumbs and they have a little fun in the elevator (after remembering that April wouldn't really mind).

Mort feels somewhat guilty and confesses his infidelity to April and she proceeds to, well, not really be upset about it.

Next, Mort is sitting next to a man named Jim who is from an escort agency and is April's "date". She doesn't really want to have sex with him, so he decides to strip for her so he can earn his money a little. This is just one of the more ridiculous scenes I've ever seen, but it's enough to get April hot and bothered enough to go to town with the guy. They have a decent little scene and Mort walks in just as his wife is cleaning Jim off using only her mouth. What a trooper she is.

April tells Mort that he didn't mean a thing to her, but Mort is jealous. He promises to be faithful to her and she seems somewhat dubious of his claim. He is still baffled that she wants him to meet other women, but he's too tired to do that.

He comes home and April is too tired to fix anything to eat. She is upset about something and he tells her to go to a spa for a day so that she can feel a little better.

April goes to a salon and, shockingly, the hairdresser is gay. I never thought that adult entertainment would go for the whole stereotyping. The manicurist then asks if she wants a massage and you will never guess where this leads to. We get a pretty fair lesbian scene--nothing bad, but nothing mind-blowing

April is then surprised to see Jenna coming home with a ton of packages from a shopping spree. She then says that she wants to take some meditation classes and Mort wants to kick the crap out of the hairdresser. He arrives and confronts the hairdresser. Mort slaps the hairdresser after he says that Jenna deserves better. The manicurist then sticks up for Mort. The hairdresser tells the manicurist that he's leaving and the "changed" Mort promptly gets servicing from the manicurist who proceeds to offer him a massage and in a shocking turn of events, the massage leads to sex! Yes, sex. Shocking, isn't it?

April comes in to the shop, says that she doesn't mind him nailing the manicurist, then announces that he has joined the country club and that she is going to go out and buy herself a jeep.

Well, the older titles usually have plot over the newer titles, but this title had no real coherent plot. I don't have a clue in the world what the point of this title was---the plot was lost on me. So, the movie was decent--nothing great. How about the extras?

Well, since Wave is a subsidiary of Vivid (far as I can guess, Wave is Vivid's "oldies" line), as you can guess, the title has decent extras. There are previews of six titles (the exact same six as in "Aroused", so I don't think rehashing the titles is warranted). We are also given 16 bonus scenes, all of which are pretty good in their own right. Add in a nifty promo for the Vivid website and the usual "Meet the Girls" segment and you have a pretty respectable piece of bonus material here.

So, is this title great? No, it's not great. It's good, but it's not great. However, if you are a fan of April West, then this title will be invaluable to you. My lack of love for the older stuff in adult entertainment hurts this disc's score with me--though I will clearly admit that there is nothing technically wrong with this title whatsoever. I just wish that the plot made a bit more sense.

April 1st is traditionally "April Fools Day", when people pull cruel pranks on others...and that's what I felt had been done to me after expecting a movie like The First Of April to turn me on. I'm a fan of the classics, especially ones from the 80's and early 90's, since that's when I first got a look at porn. However, I was not familiar with the actress April West, so when I saw this title out on DVD from Vivid Wave, I wanted to take a look to see who this pornstar was and what she could do on film.

The one person I was familiar with in this title was actor Jerry Butler, and here he stars as a husband with a new wife (played by April) who not only doesn't mind if her hubby fools around...but she actually encourages it! Now, I don't know about you, but where I come from we have a name for women who act like this: perfect! But Jerry seems to be a little concerned about this attitude and makes the foolish mistake of telling his wife "Honey, I don't want anyone else but you!"

The movie opens on Jerry's birthday, and after having some less than spectacular sex (at least from the viewer's standpoint) with his wife, it's off to work where, naturally, he is tempted by the fruit of another. Lynn LeMay is decked out in white lingerie and waiting to give Jerry a truly fantastic present in the elevator. Jerry fights her off for a few minutes, before finally giving in to his lust. This was easily my favorite scene in the movie, but for some reason or another the soundtrack music here sounds like it would be better suited for Raiders of the Lost Ark...I kept expecting for terrorists to break into the elevator and for Bruce Willis to show up to save the day. I don't know if this was the original soundtrack or another case of Vivid replacing the old soundtrack with a new one, but it is so out of place here it actually had me laughing a bit during the action.

Now that he's cheated on his wife right after telling her that he would never want anyone else, Jerry makes stupid mistake number two and immediately goes home to tell his wife about it. To make up for his cheating, Jerry makes mistake number three and hires a male escort for his wife. So now we have this scene with a big and burly construction worker-type doing Jerry's wife while Jerry sits outside and listens to it all happen. April states at first that she just cannot cheat on her husband, but once the guy starts dancing around (in another laughable scene...although the women out there might enjoy it) and shedding his clothes, April naturally changes her mind.

The result of all this fooling around is a failing marriage for the characters played by Jerry and April. At this point in the movie, the plot takes a ridiculous left turn and introduces us to a gay hairdresser and his ditzy blonde assistant (played by Stephanie Rage) to whom April goes to for advice and a little lesbo action with Stephanie. Later in the film, Jerry will go there too and get a few minutes with Stephanie himself. Neither scene is very appealing, and I would have rather seen Jerry and April explore their fantasies together rather than have them continue to screw around on each other.

The video and audio on this DVD aren't very good, with the audio being the worse of the two. Often it is hard to hear what the actors are saying, especially in several brief outdoor sequences. The plus side to this disc is that there is plenty of bonus footage to keep you happy after the movie is over. In addition to six previews, there is a whopping 16 bonus scenes to enjoy, most of which contain much more enjoyable sexual action than what takes place in the film.

I still don't know much about April West or how big of a fan following she has (or had), but there was nothing in The First of April that made me want to see her in action again. This is not a horrible classic title (there are certainly much more cheesier ones that this already on the DVD market), but it's nothing you would want to add to your permanent collection either, unless of course, April West is one of your favorites.