DVD Review: “Joanna’s Angels 2: Alt Throttle”

With Mr. Marcus as President, shots of New York in the snow, two classic Rancid songs on the soundtrack, and Joanna Angel doing all the things she does best (mainly being disarming), "Joanna's Angels 2: Alt Throttle" can only prolong the Joanna bubble for her fans ... and confound those who still don't get it. Read our review after the gap. - G. Ponante

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Joanna's Angels 2: Alt Throttle

Studio: VCA
Director: Joanna Angel
Cast: Angel, Kylee Kross, Sabrina Sparx, Pinkie Lee, Pixie Pearl, Dana DeArmond, Charlotte Stokely, Tommy Pistol, Mr. Marcus, James Deen

Review by Gram Ponante

Many people can't get past the phenomenon of Joanna Angel and, by extension, the alt scene, whatever that is, in order to watch and enjoy what Angel herself calls " a silly movie."

People looking for flaws need search no further than the title sequence, in which the name of the movie is misspelled. Dropped lines, creeping shadows all over the set, and a sense that the movie is being performed for a roomful of sympathetic friends is pervasive. But that's not the point: Angel and company are performing to bigger and bigger roomfuls of sympathetic friends who are happy to watch Angel do her thing as a mixtape of the people and stuff she finds cool.

"JA2" concerns the kidnapping of the President's daughter (Dana DeArmond, a millennial pinup if one was ever invented) by Charlotte Stokely, Angel's jealous blonde rival who wants to blackmail the President into destroying all things Alt. Complicating matters are James Deen's breakup with Angel for her tattoos and alt-y ways ("I hope you have fun with your normal girlfriend!" she cries) and Tommy Pistol's betrayal at the hands of Pixie Pearl, prompting a low-speed car-stunt sequence.

"JA2" is a screwball comedy ideally, but sometimes the lines—and there are a lot of them—get tossed away by the cast. This would matter more if Angel didn't put together a fine crew of standbys and temporary residents of her Williamsburg loft, including sassy firecrackers Sabrina Sparx and Kylee Kross. DeArmond, who played Traci Lords in Eon McKai's "Neu Wave Hookers", is just a little bit breathtaking when she is de-programmed of Stokely's agenda by being made to come by Pistol and Sparx.

People who keep track of this sort of thing will note that, hot on the heels of Angel's first interracial scene with Marcus on the set of "House of Ass", she called him back to join in an interracial double-penetration of her vital areas with James Deen. "He's a sweetie," Angel said of Marcus.

In porn, as in life, a sense that people are having a great time goes a long way to getting you on their side. This feeling is palpable in "Joanna's Angels 2". I don't know of any other production boasting "mainstream" crossover appeal that could manage to land not one but two songs that might otherwise net thousands of dollars in licensing for a Cameron Crowe movie or similar, but Angel did it. Who do you have to blow for a deal like that?

It is also fun to watch Angel and her friends just being goofy. It gives hope to goofy people everywhere.

· Hustler (vcapix.com)
· Burning Angel (burningangel.com)
· "Joanna Angel's Invent-a-lunch" (gramponante.com)
· Order: "Joanna's Angels 2" (Adult DVD Empire)

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Previously: Porn Valley Dispatch Archive