THE FEATURE

Stephanie Swift plays Cindy, a small-town country girl who dreams of becoming a rock-n-roll star in the big city. Makin' It is one of those porn films that pays a lot of attention to plot and character. It also tries to have that 8 Mile attitude, complete with bad-girl music throughout. It's fun to watch this porn flick try to be edgy.

Scene 1

The first scene finds Cindy makin' it on top of a car outdoors. I like outdoor scenes, and this one has a nice, innocent quality. We start with a fairly non-energetic blow and move on to a clothed cowgirl, still on the trunk. Then, the action turns to missionary, and pop. All in all, a pretty static scene, with no real energy, but it's all right. Grade: B-

Scene 2

Cindy leaves home and ends up in a low-rent apartment building, in which she can hear lots of action going on in the next room. She puts her ear to the wall to listen, and the camera lets us know what's going on over there. Surprise! It's a threesome, starring the film's director, Brad Armstrong, as well as two lovely brunettes. They give a spirited blow, then we get a cowgirl with simultaneous face-sitting. There's a lot of Armstrong's trademark "One girl pulls dick out of other girl's vagina and blows it." That's always arousing. There's also a good reverse-cowgirl here. Also, some good double-dipping. Grade: B-

Scene 3

Cindy makes her start at a grungy club for "open-mic" night. After some hilarious lip-synching from another performer, Cindy freezes up onstage. She decides to become a waitress at the club. Meanwhile, we get a scene in the manager's office between the manager and the bad lip-syncher. The scene starts immediately with cunnilingus on the desk, and moves to a blowjob. Then, doggy style, missionary anal, pop. Grade: C+

Scene 4

We move back to the ladies' dressing room, and suddenly the room explodes into a lesbian orgy! There are five women involved (including the suddenly bisexual Cindy), and they all seem to get into it, but truthfully, the gargantuan fake mammaries and muscled forearms of one of the women—not to mention the one who looks like Joan Rivers—really turned me off. Still, there's enough female flesh and energy here to be entertaining. Grade: B-

Scene 5

Quite a lot of exposition occurs before we get to the next scene, which takes place back at Cindy's apartment. Cindy gets it on with the bartender (Randy Spears), and the scene includes the usual hetero positions. Then, it turns out Randy's an asshole. Grade: C

Scene 6

This scene takes place outside the club at night, between Randy and one of the singers. It's just a blowjob. Degrading and not arousing. Grade: D

Scene 7

Lots more exposition, including a montage of Cindy performing her music with a cityscape background, which leads to her finally mustering the courage to take the stage at the bar. Unless I'm mistaken, that's really her singing. And the whole bar gets misty-eyed while she realizes her dream. Awww. Finally, we get a nice, romantic scene between Cindy and the one man who knew she could do it, good old Joel Lawrence. They exchange oral pleasantries, and then move to reverse-cowgirl and missionary and here, take my semen into your mouth. Grade: B

AUDIO/VISUAL PRESENTATION

The DVD gives you a passable full-frame presentation. Detail is okay, but in general, there's a softness and a smearing of colors. The Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation is above average for this kind of film, although it's sometimes just gimmicky. Moans are anchored at the front while ambient sounds bounce from speaker to speaker. You also get a Dolby 2.0 track.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Chief among the special features is a Commentary with Brad Armstrong and Stephanie Swift. Most of the conversation outside the sex scenes focuses on how Swift and others performed their own music. Armstrong is always an entertaining listen, and he and Swift have a good rapport. She even calls it her "favorite movie ever."

Next is the 35-minute All Access: The Making of Making It featurette, which walks us through the filming of the movie's major scenes. Also, it talks about the intended similarities between this film and Swift's early film Crossroads.

The 6-minute The Music of Makin' It shows Swift laying down her music in her recording session.

The 6-minute The Girls of Makin' It shows us behind the scene footage of the film's stars posing for photographs.

You get a Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery, a 2-minute Interview with Aria, and the usual vast assortment of Wicked promotional materials.