Rocket Girls (1993)

Sci-fi porn films have an intrinsic advantage over other porn in that they are automatically more interesting than just another (among hundreds of thousands) generic depiction of explicit sex. Yes, like that old gag about reading Playboy because of the interviews, the sci-fi content is interesting, as opposed to same old in & out action for the umpteenth time.

Stuart Canterbury is an Old School porn director who thankfully insists on storytelling rather than defaulting to wall-to-wall sex. But this time out his narrative is dull, script stolid and SPFX weak to poor, causing "Rocket Girls" to crash and burn.

The acting is strictly soap-opera level, undoubtedly on purpose but wearing all the same. P.J. Sparxx stars as a famous astronaut, introduced at a fanciful cocktail party where the friction between her and subservient husband Mike Horner is palpable. He complains that she keeps going out on missions in Outer Space for a year or more at a time, neglecting him, a plot line that is ludicrous when we learn she's out saving the world, not unlike that current sci-fi TV series "Salvation" and the lead character (male) Darius Tanz.

I liked the gender role reversal here, but Canterbury doesn't go very far with it: once in Space dear P.J. is subjected to sexual harassment, big time, from ship's captain Randy West. While she's out trying to fix the Ozone Layer and save Earth from imminent destruction, Horner is at home in his lavish home (worthy of a Frank Lloyd Wright) dallying with his mistress Victoria Paris. Mike feels terrible about cheating, as does Paris, but that doesn't stop them.

On the Space Ship the crew goes crazy, not in the violent way we so greatly enjoyed weekly on that vintage TV series of the '60s "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" but sexually instead. Film devolves into a series of sex scenes involving the crew members, including a dumb one where a busty pair (Tracy Winn and Summer Knight) suddenly materialize as if via a Star Trek transporter to have lesbian sex and then a threesome with a lucky crew member.

Final minute or so has P.J. suddenly breaking out of her sexual trance to turn a few knobs and save the world in a horribly rushed and stupid climax. That plus a melancholy shot of Paris and Mike clutching each other back on Earth is lousy.

As are the special effects, such as a sloppy Blue Screen effort to portray sex in weightlessness. Stronger FX and a reasonable screenplay might have made "Rocket Girls" a winner.