For the second time recently I had to add a Vivid Video title to IMDb starring Tia Bella released back at the turn of this century, attesting to the limited shelf-life of the career of this beautiful contract star of yore. Directed by cameraman Ralph Parfait (shot on film) for his producer Paul Thomas, it seems like a major production gone awry.
One major drawback is casting Marc Wallice, a ubiquitous performer back in the '80s whose career ended abruptly due to his "spreading HIV" scandal a couple of years before this feature was released, making it his final porn film. He gives a terrible performance, creating zero sympathy for a central character the viewer needs to be interested in (at least slightly) for the story to play.
He's neglecting his ultra-beautiful wife Tia, hiring prostitutes to satisfy his lust, and suddenly becomes infatuated with a VHS superstar named Olivia Sands, very well personified by Jill Kelly (in her big-bust career phase). All-time great Adult director Ron Sullivan/Henri Pachard has a key supporting role as Marc's building super and buddy.
Marc's quest to meet Olivia in the flesh (you know why) takes the show into a sort of fantasy land, as besides starring in many a VHS epic, Olivia has a mansion with CCTV where she has a slave-like staff who assist her in bringing horny folks' sexual fantasies to life, mainly for a female clientele. I would have preferred Fantasy with a capital F, but Parfait delivers just XXX fantasies which are far less interesting or imaginative.
Adult Cinema's favorite dwarf actor of the period Napoleon gets an incorrect "Himself" credit in the end credit crawl, but he actually plays Olivia's butler, neither sinister or very interesting a role, again missing the mark. Plenty of role-playing eats up the running time, especially a goofy Angelica Sin as a Cat and Rich Handsome as a Dog, in costume and making appropriate noises that aren't quite ready for Broadway stardom.
Perhaps botched up in post-production, the film is very poorly edited and suffers from many continuity lapses, as the key subplot of Olivia's back story, relating to a bartender played (NonSex) by John Lee who seems to be carrying a torch for her has lots of returning to a strip club scene spread over many reels, pointlessly. The actual sex content of the movie, including a dull orgy scene in which the great Bobbi Bliss is lost in the shuffle, is strictly routine.
End credits list Brad Armstrong as "Man with Camera" (not Charles Bronson), but in the released version he has nothing but his dick on him as he humps Shane Tyler outdoors.
Misinformation (from the DVD packaging) tagged this as a 4-hour compilation under the title "2nd Coming", but IMDb has kindly corrected this error per my submission.
