Out of Control (2004)

From the completely misleading synopsis on the DVD liner to the pointless title and other mislabeling, "Out of Contrrol" is a navel-gazing exercise about porno filmmaking that fails on all but the sexual level. As with so many story line films that give a bad impression to that format, it seems to implicitly argue in favor of wall-to-wall sex, much to my disappointment.

Credits for director on screen go both to "Bo Edwards" and Paul Thomas, and obviously this is among many of PT's quickies that rightly deserve a pseudonym. Sure, he pops up briefly in cameo as a film producer, but his heart ain't in it.

Vivid pulls a couple of annoying switches. First, Mercedez is the actress upon whom the video is marketed, based on her 2 sex scenes, but the leading character is played by a different Vivid contract girl Kira Kener instead, who while nude briefly has no sex scenes. Even in narrative Adult features, only the sex matters apparently.

Secondly, this in-need-of-a script wonder plays like a Behind the Scenes program rather than a feature film. We eavesdrop on the porno set overseen by Randy Spears, but he's the archetypal "filmmaker without a cause", so popular in Hollywood films of the late '60s. Kira is paying him hefty alimony as ex-husband (and she's of course a big star), funded by her current sugar daddy spouse Frank Bukkwyd in a silent non-sex cameo.

Mercedez, alongside beautiful, pre-breast surgery Katie Morgan, is merely a porn actress who we see performing for Spears's camera, with Morgan given a much more prominent role than Mercedez if anyone cared. A near-identical Mercedez type Mason Storm is also featured and comes off more alluring than the real Ms. M, easy to compare in the same show (but separate scenes).

Action revolves around Spears and his frequent flashbacks of happier times, mostly set at an atmospheric regional theater building, where the sex is performed on a stage, and voyeurs or other performers inhabit the balcony. Clearly PT enjoyed the dynamics of this interesting setting and its unusual compositions more than working on his characters and their dialog.

Among the flashback sex performers are a dynamic S&M team of Cameron James and Alesha Bizart given two lesbian scenes that are the best part of the movie. Oddly enough, in the BTS short subject about the shooting they do not appear, but instead in their place is the lesbian team of Shawnie and Maliyah, both of whom were edited out of the finished video. I guess that's what DVD Bonus sections are for -to show us what we missed.

By the final freeze-frame of Randy looking bewildered, I never got interested in his character, a self-centered lout who showed no ability at conceiving or directing a valid porn feature, not helped by Spears' sullen, opaque performance. Kira is the most useful character, and I see no reason why a couple of rewrites (if there was anything in place to rewrite) couldn't have given her sex scenes and made this into "Kira Is Out of Control", thereby truth in advertising for a change.