18 & Lost
#1) 18 And Lost In Cleveland (2002)
#2) 18 And Lost In New York City (2001)
#3) 18 And Lost In San Francisco (2/27& 28/02)
#4) 18 And Lost In Denver (2/8 & 9/03

Midnight Mayhem/Erotic Angel

Genre: compilation

Director: Billy Moon

Cast: #1)Brittany Skye, Steve Hatcher, Zana, Lee Stone, Bobbi Eden, Faith Adams, Jana Cova, Natasha Dolling, Cain; #2) Dominique, Lee Stone, Calle Cox, "Nameless Girl" (AKA: Flick Shagwell), Kyle Stone, Cheryl, Allysin Chaynes(non-sex), Mark Vega, Brett Rockman, Tyler Wood; #3) Kristina Black, Pat Myne, Aria, Mickey G., Jubilee, JR, Taylor Rain, Robbie James, Paris, Brett Rockman; #4) Zana, Billy Glide, Layla Jade, Kyle Stone, Monica Mayhem, Cheyne Collins, Sondra Hall, Wendy Divine, Eric Masterson

Length: 313 minutes (total running time)

Date of Production: 2/21/03 (compilation only), 2001, 2002 (the movies themselves)

Extra's: short photogallery

Audio/Video Quality: The picture was presented in 1.33:1 ratio full frame color, the current industry standard at this time. The picture on each movie had a very soft focus and a lot of grain with a whole bunch of color bleeding and other problems like artifacts. It was better than Pom Pom Pussy but not by that much. The audio was presented in monaural English. It was hollow and the levels weren't set properly, often enough, the vocals were difficult to hear.

Review: Having watched a lot of porn recently, I've come to the realization that not all compilations are created equal. Aside from the multitude of genres that we don't, at least as individuals, appreciate, there are a lot of titles that "sound" good on paper but end up looking like crap. Whereas the cover of the movie was once the main, and often sole, selling point of a movie, nowadays the title plays a big role too. A great many buyers, distributors and consumers rely on the title of movies to get a feel for the contents. Many such people, not having learned their lesson over the years (in the past, companies would often spend a whole lot on the packaging and far too little on the contents in order to sucker the public), figure the title is somehow sacrosanct. Boy, do I have a bridge to sell them.

This all said, I checked out a few DVD's from a distributor called Midnight Mayhem this week. The subject of this review is one of them, 18 & Lost, which was the better of the two. The DVD is a compilation of four movies in the Erotic Angel series, which takes a look at a scenario of younger women who are lost in a large city (Cleveland, New York City, San Francisco, and Denver). Each scene was set in the corresponding city with one of the gals attempting to warm up or sleep for the night, and one of the porn studs works out a deal for accommodations. If this sounds exploitative in nature, welcome to porn.

The scenes had a variety of levels of heat, Wendy's scene with real-life significant other Eric was pretty good, as were Monica's scene and Layla's little skit, but then you had the M.I.A action like Allysin's missing scene (was it edited out or was the short tease sequence she was in all we get?). But backing up a bit for a moment, I think it reasonable to look at the overall premise of the show. First of all, the title comes into question. I don't think any of the cast members were even close to being 18 years old. Unlike some critics, I'm not fixated on women that are 18 years old (or younger) looking, but most of these seemed closer to their mid 20's. In terms of porn age, that's a big difference. The implants, stretch marks, tattoos, piercings and other signs of aging weren't favorable in most cases to such a label as "18". As far as the term "lost" goes, while some of the women were obviously lost in real life, none of them were convincing in terms of their acting (and some scenes abandoned the concept altogether).

Secondly, why worry about a particular city when it's pretty obvious that the only variation is a few stock shots that had nothing to do with the movie? It's one thing when the cast actually travels to another city but why pretend (I think the Adam & Eve series with Alexandra Silk is the only true travelogue series in the USA) about it? It has no bearing on the quality of the sex and that's the bottom line, yes?

On the sex scenes themselves, the emphasis was on oral and vaginal sex. Simply put, there wasn't any anal jamboree going on here (fine by me) and there weren't a lot of condoms used as with many other companies these days. The quality of those scenes varied in intensity but even the best scenes were marred by the technical qualities. Fans may want to see some of the earlier scenes by some of the gals but even then, I wouldn't go out of my way for them.

Lastly, the concept itself is supposed to appeal to our sense of the women being helpless and at the mercy of the men. After all, they are lost, out of money, and have no one to turn to for help so they are in a bad bargaining position (again, in terms of the scenarios) to refuse sexual favors to obtain the basics needed for survival. Somewhere deep, down inside me I have issues with that idea and I'm sure that many others will to. If you need to overpower a woman to get sex or otherwise need to manipulate her (outside of a few social drinks), you're probably the moral equivalent of a slug and I'm sure porn is a better solution for your sex life than the real thing anyway. It just left me cold (and even then, a number of the situations here had no such situation, cheating those slugs out of the type of sex they want).

Summary: This isn't the worst show I've seen in my life (or set of shows). I like some of the performers and think that you get a lot of action for your money. The quality of that action may be in question but the overall package may appeal to guys looking for a bargain (the DVD is very cheap at Adult DVD Empire). If you can deal with all the issues raised above, it may be worth a Rent It or better, just keep your eyes open when doing so. It was better than Pom Pom Pussy in most ways but a lot of people prefer good fuck for the buck these days.