Playback

Originally made in 1997 by director David Stanley, PLAYBACK is a rather eccentric drama focusing on a sexually adventurous couple (played by Stephanie Swift and Tyce Bune) The film's set-up and design are reminiscent of the work by the Dark Bros. (think NEW WAVE HOOKERS), Antonio Passolini (a la CAP'N MONGO'S PORNO PLAYHOUSE), and Jonathan Morgan (PORNOMATIC 2001), but for the most part, the hardcore is shot straight and undistracted by potentially misguided attempts at novelty.

I'm generally not a fan of pornos that try to be comedic (intentionally or not), and indeed, the humor initially displayed on "Channel 69" public access show (called "Big Al's Hot Clips") are less funny than the dullest parts of any "Wayne's Word" episodes. Nevertheless, the sex is hard and hot and thankfully outweigh the negative aspects of this flick. While Ms. Swift plays the lead, Coral Sands and Charlie are the babes most prominently featured on the nicely designed cover, yet their appearances here are limited to a single girl-girl scene.

Sydnee Steele has a terrific session with the now infamous Marc Wallice, with enough ass fucking to make me forgive the film's goofy premise. Now a Wicked girl, it's good to see her early work, where she is just as sexy and as horny here as in any of her recent films. Her Wicked sister, Stephanie Swift, looks too damn cute for words during her solo masturbation session which follows. She is aided and abetted by a golden dildo, before Katie Gold and Tyce Bune make it a hot trio, all of which unfortunately ends on a woefully weak cumshot to the face saved to some degree by some very light cum swapping.

The next scene takes place at Steph's private party which spotlights another threesome performed much better by Nici Sterling, Davia Ardell and Mark Davis. The dual action blowjob is the highlight of this segment, with arousing visuals of both girls kissing each other as they suck on his tool. Again, anal work is shown in nicely captured close-ups as well as full body shots right before Nici takes a mouthful of jizz with prolonged post-cum sucking.

Cover girls Coral Sands and Charlie get on a stairway to heaven when they make love on what must have been a hard and clammy tiled staircase. The gorgeous Ms. Sands gets toe fucked, then double penetrated by Charlie's toys, but the lack of deep kissing reduce the potential heat. Shortly thereafter, lucky Mr. Bune gets special treatment from Randy Rage and Teri Star while Steph watches through the lens of her video camera. Since Tyce isn't nearly the woodsman that Mark Davis is, he lets the girls do most of the work on him and on each other up until he manages to leak out a bigger load of splooge on their faces.

The underrated Liza Harper is teamed up with Michael J. Coxx and Van Damage in a double penetration and double facial scene which is excellent, despite the unsightliness of Mr. Damage. The movie ends with an outdoor, rooftop quickie between Miss Swift and studmen Cox and Brick Majors, whose shot of splooge lands squarely on her eyes. There is a bit of drama before the movie ends on a "to be continued..." note. Well, if part two is half as good as the first movie, then it's sure to be another winner.

The production of this DVD could use some improvement, with a problematic audio which somehow escaped quality control at Elegant Angel. As with some recent Sin City and Red Light District titles, the sound mix is off kilter, with voices being relegated to one channel and music fixed on the other. However, the video is very good, and surely one of the best transfers offered by Elegant Angel. The extras are purely run of the mill: trailers, internet info and a photo gallery (with some purposefully distorted images and many startlingly unsightly pictures added for no apparent reason than just to be "twisted," as described by the opening caption), but when the main feature is this good, you can forgive the lack of good bonus materials.

PLAYBACK is a movie which will get a lot of playback on my DVD machine. Strongly recommended.