Shacking Up (1985) User Reviews (3)

Another "college girls reunite" porn opus from Joe Sarno

[lor_ · 29 March 2011]

The good news: SHACKING UP was shot by Joe Sarno on film. The really bad news: it's another pointless XXX all-sex clunker.

Previous "reviewer" on IMDb was perhaps intentionally misleading, mindlessly recommending this baby thanks to Tiffany Clark who "shines". Reality check: she has a bit part sucking & humping on screen for less than a minute, period, and Melanie Scott is similarly wasted in the same filler threesome.

Lead actress is in fact Rachel Ashley, whose massive rack was the best thing in the movie. Sarno lamely has Ashley in a white fur coat wandering around Central Park, voicing over the entire "plot" in narration. These exterior shots, shown like clockwork between 9, count 'em, 9 sex sequences, are lovely Manhattan in the autumn visuals, contrasting with the generic indoor porn that makes up the lion's share of the movie.

Rachel as Pam is one of four college girls, three of whom have kept in touch living in Manhattan. Here's the rundown: Jean (Gina Carrera) is a writer, Arden (Karen Summer) is in advertising while Pam our humble narrator started an import/export business specializing in antiques. This is all strictly voice-over -whenever we see the gals they are doing what comes naturally.

The soap operatic bed-hopping is hard to keep up with, though Pam's narration does give us a play-by-play. Fly in the ointment is the return of coed #4 Candice (Amber Lynn, who starred a few times for Sarno but never seems to get any dialog). Candice married a jock, Charles Windsor, but they divorced two years back. Arden caught Candice in bed with her husband Paul (George Payne) and has never forgiven her old sorority mate.

Plot sickens as Arden visits Charles (Paul Thomas) and balls him for dubious revenge. Later she taunts hubby Paul (not Thomas, but Payne -gotta keep these critters straight), who goes and has another tryst with Candice.

Jean and Pam have a lesbian scene, Pam's voice-over blaming it on the "bad influence" of Candice which has apparently driven all the gals over into Sarno's favorite state, nymphomania (I should say second favorite, but there's no possibility of incest in this film's lineup).

An anonymous guy (Sarno barely shows his face for half a second) shows up and makes Jean and Pam into a threesome. I deduced it was a dual role for an unknown actor who later pops up in the movie as Pam's business partner Derek.

Pam next hooks up with Paul (Payne again) in a very poorly acted, slapdash scene. Sarno's commitment to his craft tends to drift away in the later reels of these junkers, and this is a sign he's dozed off.

A group sex scene with Derek follows, featuring the cameos by Pam's accountant Cora Vincent (Tiffany Clark) and her secretary Lu Carson (Melissa Scott). Michael Knight arrives and Pam takes him to the bedroom for some one-on-one. We've already seen Knight in the teaser intro scene where he and guest artiste Jerry Butler (not assigned a role or character name at all) are humping Jean, who keeps her high heels on during sex, another Sarno-ism.

Unbelievably, the next bit of sex quota is filled by Arden and Candice suddenly letting bygones be bygones and engaging in some significant lesbian action. For contrast Eric, described as Pam's direct-mail manager, appears for a group sex scene with 3 blondes. At the finish Pam is fighting her impulses and gives in, heading to join in with the lesbians.

Not much meat on these bones, picked clean so frequently and fruitlessly by Joe in his Wilderness Years of the mid-'80s. It always struck me as disingenuous the way he and wife Peggy would pretend on their DVD commentary tracks to the classic softcore Sarno films that these XXX outings barely existed, but they have survived in all their non-glory to show how threadbare his thematic concerns really were.

Credits include "Joe Black", Joey Silvera's usual pseudonym, but Joey didn't show up for work on this one.

Tiffany Clark is one of my favorites.

[RedCrank · 7/10 · 29 June 1999]

And she shines in this movie. She has ample help from Amber Lynn (always good) and Rachel Ashley to make this skinflick well worth watching. Who do you suppose Jeff La Touche, credited as the Director, really is?

80s stars Lynn, Ashley, Carrera & Summer interlink

[flarearmed · 8/10 · 18 August 2014]

It may not be a true classic however any flick with 1980s porn legends Amber Lynn (Candice Fields), Rachel Ashley (Pam Graham) and Karen Summer (Arden Hall) is far from what has previously been reviewed as "pointless."

The storyline is thin, possibly plucked from the sky by John Sarno during his frantic schedule as an adult film director/actor from the 60's onwards. But this is a porno, what's left to expect? Sure it remains slightly suspect how all the characters lives interlink in one high octane orgy, but you just happily dig it as you lust over the flesh of Ashley, Lynn, Summer and Carrera. Yes they're that good, regarded heavily as the actresses of their time. Nothing fake, nothing shaven; even the guys display themselves as regular jocks with hairy chests and normally sized sexual organs. Nothing eye wateringly unbelievable in this title, thankfully.

There are some weak scenes, namely the initial entries which are filmed with dark backdrops and, in one instance, a small bed cast in red velvet. So ridiculous for a porno that even Charles Windsor (Paul Thomas), the ex-husband of the sexually insatiable Candice Fields, comments that it needs to be bigger for his next encounter with Arden Hall. Still, never mind, Summer's magnificent physic, big 80's hair and black six inch stiletto heels (yes I am a big fan of this 'Sarno-ism') pay some consolation here.

Temperatures start to rise upon the arrival of Candice Fields who makes an immediate beeline for George Payne's character, Paul. Candice is a marriage wrecker, portrayed as having a massive sexual appetite, something that stems back to college when the girls were 'sorority sisters.' Sarno got it bang on here, casting Amber Lynn as Fields. Lynn, an 80s porn goddess with heavily permed peroxide hair, oozes eroticism throughout. Paul, her former conquest, is in for a treat as Candice strips down to her stockings, garter belt and patent leather heels (yes, here we go again). The rest is inevitable as Fields gets what she came for in a scene where the beginning and conclusion is sandwiched between an intimate lesbian encounter between the buxom Pam Graham and blonde bombshell, Arden Hall.

Although I'd argue that Amber Lynn's character is the title's focal point, it is Rachel Ashley that takes centre spot during the filming. Playing Pam, she narrates throughout, and is regularly seen fully clothed, strolling across Manhattan. However as it's skin you're after, forward to Ashley's appearance with Payne. In a scene that is nothing more than a filler, one where Pam's high sexual craving combined with a dubious sympathy for Paul, sees the pair bed bound. It is the part where Ashley removes her black slip to entice Payne that you really get to appreciate her fantastic frame and ample rack. Kudos.

John Sarno obviously couldn't fight the temptation to stay away from the camera and appears as Pam's date when she is mid cunnilingus with Arden. Arden, naked bar her white heels (ha ha), appears a little uncomfortable as Sarno strips off and then eventually departs the scene rather than adding herself to an otherwise inevitable 'menage et trios.' Hall, however, is no prude to group sex and appears again in the film's rather delicious finale. Along with Lu Carson (Melanie Scott) and reunited with the previously maligned Candice, the trio use the rather hairy body of Eric; a co-worker of Pam's, as a support for his erection. Undoubtedly playing in the best role of the film, he is little match for these rampaging nymphets and is a simple play thing in the title's top scene. There is no sensual foreplay or unveiling of silk lingerie here as the finale starts at full pace with the man-eating Candice in reverse cowgirl. How Eric keeps up is a mystery however he is soon left spent when the three blondes combine with magnificent gusto. Sarno says it all here. Three sexually attractive and professionally successful women with the upper hand. It is energetic, erotic and provoking. In his only role, Eric is cast as an 'anyone' and is probably cast out the door soon after by the trio. Purpose served. Next man please.

The steamy action is preceded by an alluring encounter between Candice and Arden (their 'let bygones be bygones' moment that ends in double orgasm) and a rather strange affair where the payroll of Pam's antique's firm appear at what can only be described as a sex party held back at Graham's apartment. It is here that Tiffany Clark and Melanie Scott appear briefly and one where Pam answers the door to her male colleague in lace pink underwear and stockings. He reacts ridiculously unsuspecting despite Pam's racy attire and the full-blown threesome that is going on before him. Cue another Ashley sex scene.

'Shacking up' isn't a title with any real depth or intrigue, but that's hardly any surprise. It's a big 80's hair, stilettos in bed, friends, colleagues and partners swapping romper starring some of the era's true greats. If that's what you're after then I'll give it a big thumbs up.