Flasher

Marketed as "a big budget Paul Thomas film", "Flasher" is typical of the director PT's and Vivid Entertainment's hubris at the peak of the distributor's success a decade or so back. Producer/handyman Shylar Cobi boasts frequently in the BTS short subject about a cast "of 100" (in the good old days it would of course be a cast of thousands in Hollywood) and these irrelevant frills typify an empty movie.

We get a showcase for Vivid superstar Savanna Samson, accorded five sex scenes in a flashback story of her exhibitionist streak, kindly defined for us in a pre-credits Card giving the definition of Paraphilia. It's basically a rivalry between actresses mother (Cara Lott) and daughter (Samson), while the latter keeps showing off her body in public and qualifying more as nympho than flasher.

PT is skilled at the genre of Lifestyle Porn, but depicted here is an empty life style. As he often does, he satirizes show biz insider stuff, in this case a dumb TV series of the medical procedural ilk starring SS, and even gives us cameos as TV execs on the show for himself and his still photographer Ben Hoffman. Like the "hundred" other extras they get no acting credit on screen, only the XXX sex performers earn that.

I'm no SS fan and there's much too much of her in this picture, the problem with so many Vivid contract star vehicles. Cara Lott returning to the porn wars some 20-plus years after her VHS heyday is sexually impressive but I was taken aback by her "worn-out" look, decked out with a ridiculously shaggy short hairdo that almost mocks her trademark '80s tresses, and looking more like current Brit Porn fave Lou Lou than I would have expected. Lott's comeback failed to take, ending up doing those dreaded "granny" porn roles that should be beneath any actress's dignity (and tend to be amateur gonzo performers).

Inevitable punch line after watching this loser is IMDb's listing of enough Award nominations to compare with "West Side Story" and "Lawrence of Arabia", more proof of corruption rather than any quality.