It's Moving And Touching, Even The DP And The A2M

Walking down Sixth Avenue after my workout I decided to support a local business still standing despite all the banks, Duane Reeds and other chain stores that are closing in. I went to the dirty video place.

There I saw what I suspect may be the adult industry's reaction to the amateur and pirated porn clips on those sites we all know we go to when we just need 30 seconds of action and aren't really interested in learning about the characters.

I may be late to this (I don't really go ti those sorts of stores much anymore), but I guess Wicked Pictures is going a little deeper in its plots and themes to fight the free porn racket. Here is the description from the box of one of their latest releases--Coming Home.

When Brian Parsons (Brad Armstrong), receives a letter calling him to duty in Iraq, his life in a sleepy little town is shaken when the unthinkable becomes reality. Girlfriend Sarah (Kirsten Price), is distraught when she hears the news. In an effort to soothe her, Brian enlists the help of his best friend Jimmy (Barrett Blade) to keep an eye on her while he’s away. Multi-award winning writer/director Brad Armstrong brings you this year’s most anticipated adult drama. An unforgettable 3-hour epic ripped from today’s headlines, COMING HOME is extraordinary moviemaking.

Wow! Even "coming" is spelled correctly! Truthfully, I'm not sure there is a market for a three-hour porn flick that uses the Iraq war as a jumping off point. After all, Hollywood's own efforts to probe the war has posted mixed results.

The packaging on Coming Home is very elaborate as our several other new Wicked Releases. It looks like the Oscar and Emmy screener kits I used to get in a previous life. This could not have been cheap.

These are tough times for the adult industry. They have always been the first to jump on a new technology and exploit it for financial gain. Before anyone knew if beta and VHS were for real, the porn biz was going full force into it. They showed you can make money on the Internet.

But now there is so much amateur stuff out there and a lot of ripped off stuff as well the industry is going through the same bad cycle as their mainstream competitors. Perhaps Wicked thinks now is the time to return to the big plot-driven Dirk Diggler flicks of yesteryear. I'm not so sure. Unfortunately, I'm guessing that very few consumers of this stuff have the patience or inclination to watch something that's as heavy on story as it is on sex. They once put up with a plot to get to what they wanted, but now they can get all that without having to see Ron Jeramy show off his acting chops.

BTW, I was just browsing and came away empty handed. I did pass on my observations to one of those mainstream media reporters so we'll see if some ink gets spilled on this. If nothing else, he can call the distributor and say he's interested in doing a story and they'll send him a free copy. Hmmm, wait a minute.