Kayden Unbound

Dr. Chauntelle does not use a rating system. Five stars is a default setting only.

Nothing is absolute (but isn't that an "absolute" statement?). Everything comes in shades of grey, running along a spectrum. This includes BDSM and kink-type adult content.

We've already touched on the relatively intense and authentic end of the spectrum with content from Severe Society Films - The Adventures of Evil Dia and Jimmy Gets A Foot Job! Reviews of both these films are here.

We have also delved into relatively mid-intensity BDSM and kink (with some BBW nichey-ness thrown in for good measure) with content from Padded Kink - Padded Submissives 1 and A Night at Kinky General. Reviews of both these films are here.

Today, let's round out the range with some more "mainstream" BDSM and kink from Adam & Eve Pictures - Kayden Unbound (2010).

According to the box: "Gorgeous, glamorous Kayden Kross goes from dominant to submissive . . . and loves every second of it! Watch as she submits to her master's every whim to become his personal toy. See her bound and tethered, roped and restrained, and pummeled to her heart's content."
Woooosh!!

Kayden Unbound is very elaborate - high production value, glamorous performers, and very elaborate settings.

The films' scenes are pretty varied: a boy-girl with Kayden acting the (mostly) voyeur, a very stylized girl-girl, a boy-girl that starts out with a leashed Kayden being led around a pool on her hands and knees, a boy-girl alongside another boy-girl that starts with Kayden tethered in some crib/cage thing, and then Kayden in a body-fishnet-stocking then getting railed by Derrick Pierce.

Each one of these scenes is hott and beautiful, but they're more "BDSM type" than they are "BDSM reality." Kinky and titillating; however, if you were to take away the few strategically placed props, you'd be left with what Kayden Unbound ultimately really is - high end, well-done mainstream adult content.

So if you're just starting out or you like the look of leather cuffs on super hott chics more than you like the cuffs themselves, Kayden Unbound is for you.

Be honest with yourself when you're thinking about BDSM, kink, and any other sort of adult content and/or sex practice - there are endless options available. The key is to own both where you are and where you want to go.

A feature from Adam & Eve, which means it's time for plenty of blondes to be on display. I know I shouldn't fault them for this, but it's getting to be the same routine over and over for them. Someone has a Hef-like fixation. This time it is Kayden Kross yet again, who certainly is a very strong performer, but sometimes seems to get lost in these half-plotted semi-features. Kayden Unbound is a nice attempt to create yet another vehicle for yet another contract star, but just too much of it feels like talent and production going through the motions.

An initial complaint: if you're going to have individual chapter selection, do so with the names of the talent rather than "Scene 1" or the like. Those tiny little preview videos barely tell us enough of which scene is which, especially when they're all blondes.

No, I don't really understand what's going on with this one, other than it's one of those attempts to make some slight submission work be mainstream in the kind of way that can be very difficult to pull off. It also means this I the kind of flick which tries to be serious. I'd rather a bit less seriousness in most of my films, whether it's a comedy for a feature or the talent relaxed enough to have fun with each other in an all sex feature. And the opening credits to this film seem downright vile. From the walking a woman like a dog concept (which I hate so very, very much ? even if it's role play, it's still objectification) to some rather serious looking violence. And the idea here is that she was once married normally and then found herself on this sexual domination and submission journey. Is the notion here to appeal to a mainstream crowd that will think that they're that close to this kind of move if they aren't careful? Again, I don't get it, and Kayden just doesn't deliver lines convincingly enough to make it feel real. She goes back home while out running errands as she is commanded to find what I assume is her boyfriend getting head from Rebecca Blue. No pace to this opening at all, either, to the point where I am to my old standby: playing Yahtzee on my computer while reviewing. Hell, I have to use Chance already? Then boom, we go right to reverse cowgirl. I guess only guys get foreplay performed on them (though some of my buddies would see that, openly and honestly, as correct). It's one of those reverse cowgirl scenes, too, where the guy does most of the thrusting, eliminating a lot of the girl's ability to actually perform, and also where most of the camera work is just zoomed in on the crotch. Serious lack of imagination with all of the crotch-centered shots in porn now. Shots that include more of the body I have to think would prove both more popular and more of a showcase for the talent rather than the mechanical act of one thing going in another. Yahtzee! Oh, wait, no, that's a 2, not a 3. Kayden eventually starts massaging her breasts while Rebecca has more things done to her. Then she starts masturbating, but the camera is on the floor while she's in a chair, so it's just legs, pussy and a head above it that we can see. Idiocy, that. But for some reason Kayden gets the facial in the end.

And that's kind of how this film goes. David Lord uses some production and editing tricks to try to capture a vaguely deranged mindset for Kayden, but it doesn't work as well as Michael Ninn used to get it to work a decade or so ago. And most of the rest of the scenes work this way: take Kayden, add at least one other blonde, take away passion, film.

Ultimately, despite some choices that seem decidedly anti-women in plot line, this is a very safe production, one that won't push too many limits, whether that be for inhibitions or production imagination. Which probably means this will be a popular film, but if it is something like Kayden Unbound that is held up as an example of our industry, then I'm more than a bit worried.