Ashlyn Rising

Vivid Entertainment

Genre: Feature

Director: Layne Parker

Cast: Ashlyn Gere, Rocco Siffredi, Colt Steele, Anna Malle, Hank Armstrong,
Nina Hartley, Tera Heart, Mark Davis, Sean Michaels, Alex Sanders(although I
couldn't find him here)

Length: 80.5 minutes

Date of Production: 2/7/97 (credits), 8/2/00 (box)

Extra's: There were trailers on both sides of dvd, unrelated scenes on both sides
(although there are two Ashlyn scenes this time), biographies of women from
other movies, CREDITS (incomplete though), and spam.

Condoms: Yes

Audio/Video Quality: Ashlyn Rising was presented in the same 1.33:1 ratio full frame color it was shot in by director Layne Parker for Vivid about 10 years ago (don't believe the credits or box cover on this one). My original assessment stands when I said: "The audio had a lot of bad dubbing and was often
hollow. The music was generally poor, and usually too loud. The video was
dark, grainy at times, had some source material dropout's, and video noise.
The first scene had a major blue tint-I thought it might have been a prequel
to Blue Matrix since it was so blue looking."

Body of Review: Fans of stars from years back have found the DVD format to be one way to keep the object of their desires alive as older titles seem to make their way to DVD pretty frequently these days. One title that I remember reviewing in the earlier days of the format was Ashlyn Rising. This is one of those titles that isn't going to win any awards that don't come with a price tag and I stand by my original sentiments: "The movie follows the education of Ashlyn after she leaves
her boyfriend, played by Rocco. She goes to a clinic run by Nina-perfectly
cast by the way-and learns to appreciate her body more. The premise is sound
but the execution is majorly flawed. There are about 5 sex scenes here and a few are pretty good but the rest are
mostly forgettable. The movie was apparently designed to be a showcase for
Ashlyn but she really isn't up to it here." Well, as harsh as that sounded, it was unfortunately accurate and here's a minimalist breakdown of the scenes by cast and actions:

Scene One: Ashlyn and Colt go at it while Rocco watches. He joins them on
the bed after awhile but the blue tint of the scene detracts from the heat.
Consider this one tame.

Scene Two: Anna and Hank screw with Nina and Ashlyn watching. After a short
while, Nina joins in and this helps make for a good scene. The threesome
enjoy what they do and the chemistry was evident. Anna has a unique look
that departs from the cookie-cutter sameness so many performers have and a
sexual energy that's hard to match. Combined with Nina-a hotty for years-and
you can't lose.

Scene Three: We start out with Nina putting a videotape into the VCR for
Ashley to get a feel for lesbian sex. The tape plays for awhile and the
uncredited females seemed to have a good time. One of them had great looking
eyes. In any case, this leads Nina and Ashley to have a nice scene together
on the bed.

Scene Four: Tera and Mark(?) have a fair scene. Her implants looked nasty.
While he is credited as Mark, he sure looked different to me. I've seen him
dozens and dozens of times and I guess it was the light or low grade
technical qualities that made him look different. (it didn't appear to be
Alex-the only guy credited that didn't seem top have a scene here).

Scene Five: Ashlyn and Sean get it on now that her inhibitions have been
lowered. On a technical level, it was the hottest scene here but it wasn't
my favorite. She just didn't have a look that appealed to me here.

Summary: Ashlyn Rising had some decent sex in it and a fair amount of Ashlyn Gere but I think this one is worth a rating of Skip It these days since Vivid and other companies are offering so much more for your hard earned cash. I was easier on it back when I said: "This is another low budget feature from Vivid. The technical
matters get in the way of a good time and the camera work seemed sort of
lame (and that's being nice). This was one case where Vivid's extra's were
better than most of the feature's scenes. The acting wasn't too bad although the plot was threadbare. The sex wasn't
usually very good but it had some good moments. I have to wonder if this one
was cut since all the credited cast aren't present. If so, I don't know why
since it isn't even an hour and a half long. The current online price of this one is between $4.95 and $19. Unless you
are a complete fan of one of these ladies, I think your money would be
better spent elsewhere. Perhaps as a rental if you have nothing better to
do... Note to Vivid: It's sad when the extras are better than the feature movie.
This is one of those cases. Luckily, I bought this one on sale for about $5 at Adult DVD Empire
AND I'm a big Nina fan. Otherwise, I'd be upset with you. There was just so
much wrong with this one that any advice would be moot. Sorry!" Time has a way of making our perspectives change and this was one solely for big fans of the cast that have everything else.

This Don Houston "retro-review" was written long ago before the so-called Professor of Porn had much experience writing reviews. Since that time, he has found Vivid Entertainment to have a lot of good releases and seen more porn than almost anyone reviewing on the internet. Keep in mind that his comments accurately reflected his fresh viewpoint of the time he first saw the movie.