Chemistry Vol. 3

Acclaimed sexual advice writer Tristan Taormino returns once again to direct the third volume in Vivid's Chemistry series, a reality gonzo title where three female and three male adult performers spend a pair of days together to talk about and perform sex with each other.

What makes the Chemistry series different than anything else out there right now is that there are no rules as far as what happens. Performer are free to engage sexually with anyone they want, and they also take time to openly discuss their feelings about sex and working in the porn industry.

This time around, the females consist of Hillary Scott, Roxy DeVille and Jada Fire; while the male cast is comprised of porn veteran Steven St. Croix, along with Derrick Pierce and Christian (aka Christian XXX).

As with the two previous volumes of this series, the sexual couplings - while fun - are not nearly as interesting as what we find out about the individual performers. We discover that Roxy isn't as "goth" as fans would suspect (not at all, actually), and has a dream about providing voices for cartoon characters. Steven, we learn, has a little thing where he tries to figure out the mindset of the girl he's working with in order to know what to do and say to turn her on during a scene. And then there's Derrick, who likes rough sex when he can participate in it, but takes things a little too far (and promptly apologizes) in action with Jada Fire.

Chemistry Vol. 3 covers two discs of material, for a running time just short of three and a half hours, so there's plenty of time for both conversation and sex. There are nine sex scenes in the movie, with five on the first DVD and four more on the second disc.

The first action we get to see is between Roxy and Derrick in a bedroom. As is the case with almost all of the scenes, one of the other cast members (and sometimes Tristan) operates a "Perv Cam," from which we see another angle of the fun. The biggest problem with the "Perv Cam" is that most of the footage from it is darker and grainier than the footage we see from the main camera. For that reason, most of the sex in Chemistry Vol. 3 fluxuates from good footage to not-so-good footage during each scene.

Although we get nine sex scenes in the movie, a few turn out to be disappointing, since they contain no visible pop-shots or not very impressive ones. Scene Two, which is a threesome between Hillary, Jada and Christian contains no pop-shot; while Roxy stops the action in Scene Four, which is a threesome between her, Jada and Derrick. The wildest scene in the movie, Scene Eight, in which Hillary, Roxy, Christian and Derrick get into a foursome is a mixed bag, since it ends with a nice cumshot for Roxy (an oral one from Christian), but a not so impressive one for Hillary (she wants to jerk Derrick's load up into her mouth, but most of it goes back down onto his body).

The best sex scene in the title is a one-on-one between Roxy and Steven, if you can excuse the fact that Roxy manages to giggle throughout most of the action. But what's good here is that there's genuine chemistry between the two performers and they really seem to enjoy working with each other. The same can't be said about all the scenes (i.e. the one between Jada and Derrick) in Chemistry Vol. 3.

The movie has been shot with HD cameras and is presented on standard DVD anamorphically. It looks pretty good, although the "Perv Cam" footage can be distracting at times. Audio is presented in 2.0 Dolby, and is free from any noticeable glitches or issues.

All of the bonus material is on Disc 2 of this set, starting with a whopping 114-minutes of deleted footage, which includes extra roundtable discussion footage, bonus confessions, more "Perv Cam" footage, and a preview of the upcoming Chemistry Vol. 4. Also included in the bonus material is a handful of different slide shows, as well as four Vivid trailers.

I'm not sure that the replay value is high for Chemistry Vol. 3, but I like this concept a lot, and enjoy seeing a series where adult performers feel free to speak their minds (or at least speak it as much as they feel comfortable with). It's safe to say that if you've been a fan of the previous volumes, you'll want to take a look at this one.