Hard @ Work

There comes a time in every career when it is seriously time to hang them up. Michael Jordan is learning this the hard way, though Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn had slightly more sense. And whom among us couldn't have hoped that Kevin Costner would have just left it alone, retire as a hero after Field of Dreams, or that Mariah Carey or Michael Jackson had given it a rest at their peak? Hanging on to it just a bit too long can go beyond memories of a legend, almost to tarnishing past glory. In the adult world, this becomes rather more plainly obvious as bits of bodies succumb to the perpetual will of gravity. Some, like Cassidey or Bunny Luv or Raylene had the sense to get out whilst the getting was good and they could use their bodies in less obvious ways. Hard @ Work, though, rather showcases this kind of past the sell by date mentality, with several stars hanging on too long, producing a work of utter mediocrity not normally up to their standards.

Tony Tedeschi, admittedly never one of my favorite actors, starts off with a thoroughly ordinary set with Temptress and some other busty blonde. It's so dark at first that I thought it was a sapphic tryst, with not enough light coming until the cock shot began that I knew it was a man. Virtually all of the shots are far too close, with almost no establishers and no time to appreciate the bodies attempting to go to work before us. Tony does get his tongue all over the blonde's pink and brown, though it admittedly seems a time zone away where Temptress is sucking his bone. So I guess the blonde gets fucked for a bit, pretty much all in one position, while Temptress' tongue does some work. Tony blows a load in her mouth after a while, and I'm rather shocked and relieved that it's finally over. Sub-par all the way around.

And then the rest: Melanie Stone and Candy Apples have some conversation before Candy disappears down a hallway to watch a bit of a video and masturbate. On the tape, some blonde is getting it from two guys in a tame bit of action. Candy continues to go at herself, though it's rather poorly shot... Real Female Masturbation, it isn't. More vertigo inducing than anything else.

Then there's this other blonde in here, and I honestly thought she was a crossdresser or something (no offense meant, but they dressed her rather horribly and I had the volume down at that point). So she does a guy in one scene and Candy in another. The really frustrating part is that the lesbian scene with some potential is ruined through unimaginative directing. It's lick - lick - fuck the whole way, with some frankly unimpressive toy work taking the place of the cock. And then it just ends...

Nina Hartley and Melanie Stone co-star in the last scene with Kyle Stone and Jonathan Morgan. It's easily the best of the lot, but that isn't saying much. Nina was much better some years ago, and Melanie seems to have lost much of the fire that marked the earlier years of her career. Standard fucking all the way, with Nina taking a mouth shot and Melanie getting her ass painted. Two hugs for Jonathan and they fade to the credits.

Sometimes I feel cheated by porn... when there's a great box cover, hot women, and absolutely terrible action. All studios are guilty of this sooner or later... it's just part of the business. Not everything is going to be Decadence or Jenna Ink. But this one doesn't even give the alluring box cover to the fan, nor does it really have the name recognition. I may not have cared for it (in any way), but that doesn't mean someone else won't find a bright spot. Most puzzling to me, though, especially with the extremely light extras, is how the folks at CDI Digital expect this to sell. Naked people doing predictable things in the dark do not make for a good porno. Ingenuity and a genuine attempt to appeal to the mass market; well, that would help.