The Stepmother 15

Some really poor continuity as well as badly directed scenes mar James Avalon's 15th edition of the popular Sweet sinner series. It's a shame, given solid potential here in Allison Leigh's script.

The central theme deals with ill-matched couples, and a laudable attempt to deal with the yearning and wanderlust that affects individuals who can't adapt to ordinary lives, let alone monogamy.

Title roler Alexis Fawx and her stepson Xander Corvus fall into this category. Film opens with Xander's girlfriend Megan Rain dropping him summarily, unhappy with his flighty behavior. He convinces her to make love to him one more time for old times' sake, but after they've finished she curtly throws him out of her apartment for good.

He's en route to a family get together, which takes place at porn's favorite shooting site, the "Immoral Proposal" mansion, which director Avalon uses well as a backdrop for some dramatic action.

However the production apparently forgot to hire a continuity person, as two adjacent scenes completely contradict each other. Corvus meets Fawx for the very first time (she married his daddy two years earlier but he's never been introduced before) when each of them drive up to the mansion at the same time and he helps her with her suitcase. Yet in the very next scene inside the house Corvus enters and London & Fawx introduce him to his stepmom supposedly for the first time. It's not a case of Xander and Alexis pretending they didn't meet outside and exchange pleasantries -it's just a very obvious goof left in the final print.

Per the structure of this series, Xander will bed down with stepmom for porn fans' beloved faux incest in the final reels. Before that we see London make love to his wife, who orgasmically enjoys it but is oddly cold to him afterward. We also see Xander's young sister Adria Rae hump her fiance Charles Dera in the obligatory extraneous sex scene of a Sweet Sinner release (four scenes mandatory per DVD).

So the interesting part of the show is Xander and Alexis telling shaggy dog stories of their gadabout exploits and adventures (generally sexual in nature). They turn out to be kindred spirits, unwilling to be tied down, and anxious to have new experiences.

Movie ends with a voiceover as they're supposedly driving down the highway, having been curtly been thrown out of the mansion by papa London who caught them in the act of having sex, headed for Mexico where Xander once had a wild time. Sis Adria who was conveniently there at the top of the mansion's iconic spiral staircase witnessing this blowup by daddy commented to her betrothed Dera sardonically: "I hope I find out I'm adopted". 'Nuff said.