Collector, The

With so many home runs on his resume as of late, I suppose it was only a matter of time before director Brad Armstrong failed to hit one out of the park. Which is not to say that his latest release, The Collector is a failure - it's just more of a ground-rule double.

Jessica Drake stars and narrates the movie as a young woman taken under the wing of a very wealthy man (played by Mike Horner) who is obsessed with collecting different things. He slowly, but surely, becomes obsessed with sexual desires, and each scene is the next step in Mike's sexual (although voyeuristic - since he never has sex himself) journey.

I really enjoyed the first sex scene - which is just a solo masturbation scene, but has a great set up. Jessica is showing Mike the latest in his collection of vanity mirrors and hair brushes, and she accidentally breaks the mirror - which is worth $17,000! Mike "punishes" her by making her lift up her skirt and then bend over for a spanking with the brush. This leads to Jessica taking the brush and masturbating with it...and it also proves to be Mike's first step into becoming obsessed with sex.

The rest of the film is as described above. Jessica introduces the action with a voice over and we see the next sexual fantasy that Mike wants performed in front of him. And while the sex is as hardcore as you'll find in any other Wicked release, the way each scene is shot and set up soon becomes rather monotonous. The scenes are all soft-lit and geared toward viewers who prefer the romantic aspect of porn as opposed to the "dirty and nasty" aspect. In other words, Armstrong is clearly aiming his movie toward the couples' crowd.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with a couples-oriented title...we expect as much from a studio like Wicked. The problem here is that the film is so focused toward female viewers, it doesn't leave much for the males in the audience, who are the primary consumers of porn. Imagine a Playboy video with hardcore instead of softcore action, and you may have some idea of what you'll get with The Collector.

There is one scene that kind of breaks the rules and provides the men in the audience with something wild to whack off to...and that's the next-to-last scene which finds Jessica outdoors in a threesome with Brad Armstrong (playing Mike's chauffeur) and Lezley Zen. Fans of Jessica will want to take note of this scene since she actually gets double penetrated in it - with Brad's cock in her pussy, while a strap-on wearing Lezley claims her ass.

As always, Wicked does a knockout job with the bonus features, offering a 42-minute behind the scenes segment; a look at photo shoots and the box cover shoot (in separate segments); an interview with Jessica; slide shows; trailers; and a bonus scene with Jessica and Steven St. Croix taken from the movie Sex Trials.

Don't get me wrong - The Collector is a well-made movie, it just doesn't have enough storyline or high-octane sexual action to match up with some of the other releases we've seen from Wicked Pictures this year. So unless you're a die-hard Jessica Drake fan, you probably don't need to add this to your collection - although it's still good enough for a rental.