Girls Only: Ashlyn Gere

Vivid

Genre: Compilation, Lesbian

Director: varied, none credited

Cast: Ashlyn Gere, Asia Carrera, Nina Hartley, Bionca, Alex Jordan, Alexis DeVell, Debi Diamond, Krysti Lynn, Melissa Monet, Racquel Darrian, Shayla LaVeaux, Tammi Ann, Veronica Sage

Length: 114 minutes

Date of Production: 4/15/02 (compilation)

Extra's: 6 unrelated bonus scenes, 4 trailers, behind the scenes feature for Thrills, generic photogallery, commercials, double sided dvd cover

Audio/Video Quality: Okay, get ready for a shocker, the picture was often very clear given the age of the source material. In fact, some of the scenes are ten or so years old and look better than many just released by Vivid! There were also scenes that looked faded and grainy but that's to be expected. The audio was about average for a Vivid compilation.

Body of Review: Ashlyn Gere was one of those porn performers that started making movies when she was in her 30's, over ten years ago. Many of her performances were considered cutting edge hot at the time and she was one of VCA's first media darlings before moving on to a variety of companies. These days, she seems to be stuck making movies for some of the lamer companies like Extreme Associates or forced to accept non sex roles and is frequently on the strip club circuit dancing up a storm. I've never thought of her as one of the best looking women but back in her heyday, she could blaze up the small screen just fine.

This compilation of her lesbian scenes for Vivid includes 11 scenes with her participating in almost all of them. They were primarily taken from the early to mid 90's and were mostly fun to watch. Having watched a few of her most recent scenes for lower quality companies, I can tell you that this is how she's best remembered-looking reasonably fit and energetic rather than thrown in as a curio. Fans will know that she also made a lot of S&M/B&D movies for bizarre which were not too badly made. Those less familiar with her looks can look at any of the pictures on the dvd cover to see what she looked like in her porno prime. Not bad.

Summary: Okay, consumers who like older performers in lesbian scenes will probably like this one a lot, for all it's limitations. There were some toys used but mostly it had licking and rubbing with fingers. I was happy that Vivid was able to provide some really clear looking scenes given their recent compilation efforts and hope this trend continues. That said, fans of Ashlyn's who'd like some of her best scenes from Vivid movies to compliment their VCA collection of scenes will probably find a lot to like here. I'm suggesting it as a strong rental for such folks or even a purchase depending on your budget. For the record, I still prefer extras that are tailored to the individual release but some of the bonus scenes, unrelated though they were, were very well done.