Bad

BAD is a strange and puzzling film from the dirty little mind of John Leslie. I will admit that the main reason I bought this disc was because raven-haired beauty Lauren Hall has a pretty hot threesome with TT Boy and Randy Spears. Since this drop-dead gorgeous actress only made a handful of videos during her woefully short stint in porn, almost any title where she makes an appearance is worth getting, and BAD is no exception. Unfortunately, and despite the appearance of Ashlyn Gere who is somewhat in this movie, BAD isn't that good at all, and stands as the most disappointing of Lauren Hall's "trilogy" of features she has done for VCA.

Her ménage a trois is actually just a single scene stretched out over the entire length of the movie, so although Lauren only appears once during the movie, her presence is definitely felt throughout. Dressed up in a black fetish outfit, with her jet black hair pulled back in a pony tail so nothing obscures her beautiful face (other than a guy's cock), Lauren has her hands and mouth and pussy full with TT Boy and Randy Spears sharing her luscious body. In the background, a bound (but unfortunately, not gagged) Jamie Gillis watches his wife getting it on, while he shouts enough nonsense and obscenities to make a bum on a sidewalk blush. Some viewers might want to make use of the "mute" button on their TV during this tryst, as it may detract from enjoying Lauren's superb cock-sucking and cock-riding skills. But the voyeuristic nature of the proceedings does add to the sex (of course, if I was married to Lauren Hall, I sincerely doubt I would share her with others...especially with a guy like TT Boy). Although this is not my favorite Lauren Hall scene (her encounter with Peter North in THE LAST RESORT is an absolute scorcher and one of her best), I can't resist re-watching it for how great she looks and how well she performs.

Still, in between all of Lauren's fragmented scenes is an uneven tale about Joey Silvera playing Dr. Deeeeeep (that's "Deeeeeep" with at least six to nine e's and not the standard five; I suppose the character is a rift of Steve Martin's Dr. Hfuhruhurr role in THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS, but it's hard to tell) who gets his rocks off patients for sexual pleasure. Iesha (who looks more like the offspring of Tori Welles or Keisha than Lauren and Jamie) is supposedly the main character in this video, but the story is so haphazardly constructed, that one is better off simply speed-searching past the dialogue and then pressing "play" as soon as some chick gets naked. An actress who seems to have disappeared from the porn radar after doing this feature, Iesha has a couple of good scenes in BAD, but is an overall passive performer, letting Madison do almost all of the work during their fair-to-average lesbian encounter. Unsurprisingly, she falls when Madison and Peter North get together for some couch therapy, Madison gasps, whimpers and thrashes about with such ferocity, that you would think she could wake up the dead, but Iesha doesn't even stir.

Iesha does have a nicely executed scene with Ashlyn, who wasn't really into lesbian scenes that early in her career although she does great work with Selena Steele in THE LAST RESORT and with Deidre Holland in CHAMELEONS. Ashlyn kisses Iesha rather awkwardly, but it's still fun to watch them go at it. However, the obnoxious Marc Wallice has to get into the act, with Ms. Gere quickly demonstrating that she is more at home with a cock than with another woman. Iesha then goes into her catatonic routine when Ashlyn rides on top of Marc's dick for a quick reverse-cowgirl fuck and he spills his load all over her creamy thighs. Mr. Wallice then has a forgettable sex session with Rayne, who made brief appearances in Lauren Hall's other vehicles, THE TEASE and THE LAST RESORT (all three movies use the same setting, directing style and camera work, but the two actresses never get intimately acquainted with each other in any of the those features).

Iesha finally gets a full scene at the end of the movie, and let me be perfectly honest, it really wasn't worth the wait. Tom gets to do the dubious honors of porking Iesha, but with the exception of a minute or two do dick licking, their scene is nothing special. I am not sure why Director John Leslie felt the need to spotlight this up and comer in this video, but I'm sure there was some hidden method to his madness. Nevertheless, it weren't for Lauren Hall, I would not have bothered with watching this video again (after I saw the original videotape version several years ago), let alone taking the time to review it now.

The chapter selection feature is absolutely convenient for jumping directly into the beginning of Ms. Hall's scenes, and is reason enough alone to discard any videocassette copy you may have of this title. The video and sound quality is excellent, but not as sharp as most VCA Videos made during that era (like HATE TO SEE YOU GO or THE TEASE). The extras are limited to a photo gallery and the option to jump directly to a particular actress' scene; again, the "Other Titles" section is woefully out of date with what has been available for a long, long time now on their current catalog.

BAD isn't that bad...but it isn't that good, either.

When picking a title for this movie, I wonder if director John Leslie had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, because Bad is well, umm...kind of bad. Oh, it's not a total disaster...how can you go wrong when you have Ashlyn Gere and Lauren Hall both in a movie...but both those actresses only participate in one scene, and they also happen to be the only two scenes in the movie worth watching.

The plot is a bit hard to follow and at times the film doesn't seem to know if it wants to be a comedy or a drama. However, the basic premise is as follows...Jamie Gillis and Lauren Hall play the parents of Iesha who is going off to a psychiatric hospital for some much needed care. Once Iesha takes off, Jamie and Lauren jump for joy...and we soon find out why (at least as far as Lauren is concerned). Let's just say that Jamie is one of those guys who gets off by watching his wife take on a couple of men. While Jamie is tied up at the end of the hall, Lauren is having a threesome with porn studs Randy Spears and T.T. Boy. While this isn't the best scene I have watched the lovely Lauren in, it is quite possibly the best scene in this movie (Ashlyn's scene later in the film is hot as well) and she looks stunning in a studded bra and black knee-high boots. This is also a scene we don't see completed until later in the movie, and we continuously flash back and forth between the action at the psychiatric hospital and Lauren's three-way with the guys. So even though Lauren only has one scene, it seems longer, since we see her throughout most of the film.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, we find that Joey Silvera (who plays Dr. Deeeeeeeeep) is his patients and apparently taking advantage of them. He Iesha, but we never see if anything happens between the two of them. Iesha does leave his office, though, and heads straight for a lesbian encounter with Madison. When the girls are done with each other, Iesha falls on the bed and Madison decides to ride Peter's North's tool reverse doggie style while Iesha is still in the room.

Later, Iesha goes to meet Ashlyn, who is one of the group leaders at the hospital. The two women also engage in some lesbian action, until the infamous Marc Wallice shows up to join in and get Ashlyn to ride him reverse doggie in a large chair. While it's hard not to watch Marc in action these days without thinking of all the trouble and pain he's caused since these movies were filmed, I have to admit this is one of the better scenes I have seen Ms. Gere perform in, and it was a fun one to watch. The only downside is that Marc's cumshot is on the side of Ashlyn's leg...but it still proves to be one of the highlights of the movie.

The rest of the film is spent with Tom Byron running around with a video camera trying to get the goods on both Marc Wallice's character and Joey Silvera's character as well. After Ashlyn's scene is finished, though, the movie pretty much loses all sense of direction, and even the sex scenes seem to lose any style, as all three of the final sex segments end in cumshots on the ass of the respective women. It's almost as if John Leslie gave up and said, let's just get this thing over with and in the can.

The video and audio are top-notch on this DVD, however, and perhaps the best reason for picking up a copy--particularly if you are looking to replace your old VHS version. Unfortunately, I can't really recommend Bad, but if you like the cast here, I can recommend two other John Leslie endevours with virtually the same cast members (as well as the same locations): The Last Resort and The Tease. Both of those movies were great examples of truly fun classic titles to watch. Bad on the other hand is just plain...well...sometimes a title of the movie fits perfectly with the film.