House Of Lies

Vivid

Genre: Feature

Director: David Stanley

Cast: Venus, Cheyne Collins, April Flowers, Raylene, Wendy Divine, Alexis King
Non-sex by Julian Ott, Dale DaBone

Length: 70.5 minutes

Date of Production: 11/7/01 (box), 2/7/02 (credits)

Extra's: forced spam (you couldn't fast forward or skip the commercials), 11 minutes of Behind the Scenes (where Raylene had discussed leaving the business for her newfound love-a guy I met when she was dancing in Houston) by Dave Stotts, 5 unrelated bonus scenes, short biography of Raylene, trailers, 2 photogalleries, double sided dvd cover, positions room, Jenna Jameson condom commercial

Audio/Video Quality: The picture was presented in 1.33:1 ratio full frame color. The lighting was messed up in several cases and the grain throughout the show was bad. The colors weren't much better and the whole thing looked tossed together with large volumes of video noise. The audio was okay but mixed poorly.

Condoms: Yes

Body of Review: Vivid is one of the most successful porn companies, having built itself up over two decades. While it is currently known more for it's vast number of compilation releases on dvd, they still make a fairly decent number of features. Some of the time they appear rushed and other times they look pretty good (winning lots of awards). Often enough, this depends upon the cast, the director, and all the other host of factors that go into the making of a porno. In the case of House Of Lies, it became apparent pretty quickly that the movie was shelved for a reason. I suspect it was going to be made as a better vehicle for Raylene but she left Vivid around the time it was made. As she seems poised to make a comeback, the movie is being released with the standard extras but the source material looks weak. The movie is a sketchy little number about Cheyne going to prison when accused by Raylene for doing something he didn't do. He gets out and she hooks up with him-handing him a check for a lot of money to make up for it. Cheyne, swell guy that he was, then used his freedom to help another in distress. If that sounds goofy, it's because it was. Here's a breakdown of the scenes by cast:

Scene One: Venus, a dark haired gal with a lean body, and Cheyne, had a scene in bed. It wasn't very long and had oral with straight only.

Scene Two: April, back when she sported dark hair, and Cheyne, had a scene on his bed. While the picture was grainy here, it was better than most of the other scenes. Oral and straight only with some energy. Not bad.

Scene Three: Raylene, the female lead of the show, and April, had a scene in the garden house. It was okay to watch but fairly short and limited.

Scene Four: Raylene, in a flashback sequence, and Cheyne, did it on a couch. The photography wasn't flattering to her stomach, to say the least. The scene included anal after the oral. Not bad.

Scene Five: Wendy, an attractive gal with multi-colored hair, and Alexis, had a scene in front of some loser-looking guys. Again, the camera work left much to be desired but even a fan of Wendy such as myself will recognize it wasn't her finest moment. Alexis just looked bad.

Summary: I like the cast (except for Alexis) so that's not a problem but the direction, the writing, and the short nature of the sex scenes was troublesome. Vivid certainly makes some good couples oriented feature porn but this one isn't in that category. I suggest this one as a Skip It unless you're a big fan of Raylene. Even Vivid makes mistakes, yes?