The Vault

Adam & Eve

Genre: Feature

Director: Nicholas Steele

Cast: Sondra Hall, John West, Jordan Haze, Mario Rossi, Joey Ray, Jess V., Steven St. Croix, Holly Hollywood, Randy Spears, Brooke Hunter

Length: 106.5 minutes

Date of Production: 1/21/03

Extra's: 20 minute long Behind the Scenes, 13 minutes of footage "Contest Winners" (2 guys who won a contest in 2002, got to see the movie being filmed), 2 bonus scenes (one from Unforgettable, another from Flesh Games), photogallery, trailers

Audio/Video Quality: The picture was presented in 1.78:1 ratio widescreen color. It looked a bit dark and the flashback scenes made use of a bothersome red tint. Some of the focus was soft and I did see a few compression artifacts. Much of the time, I had trouble deciding if the picture problems were an intentional effort to be artistic or just Steele working on the learning curve of the new High Definition equipment Adam & Eve is working with. The sound was a bit varied as well with some scenes well balanced (vocals and music) and others not so well. It was presented in stereo English and I did notice some separation between the channels.

Body of Review: When people talk about Adam & Eve, they generally know the company focuses it's efforts on making adult movies for couples and people new to porn. This is actually a very under-served niche and thought of as a gateway to the harder porn that so many raincoaters think of as being "real" porn. Personally, if I ever get so limited in my view as to what constitutes "real" porn, I think I'll take a break for a few years and get my head on straight-porn is a lot of things to a lot of people and artificial limitations based on focused definitions make little sense. That said, today's review is on a little movie called The Vault.

The movie centered ever so slightly on a couple of burglars who wanted to break into a large bank vault and get a valuable necklace that's been sitting in it for 50 years. The movie really had very little plot and the bad acting by most of the cast convinces me that this was a good thing-watching bad acting is contrary to what I'm looking for in an adult flick. There were 6 scenes of couples oriented sex that used condoms and dealt with oral and straight sex only. Some of them were good enough that even a jaded old porn hound like myself saw fit to like them. The bad news was that the movie alternated between trying to be all things to all people-it threw in a bit of comedy (with Randy Spears), seriousness (the long dead bank robber, John), and the drama of the present (Steven and Jordan). If it had stuck with one focus, I think it might've been better. Here's a breakdown of the scenes by cast:

Scene One: Sondra, dressed in femme fatale style (but not for long), and John, had a scene in the safe deposit box section of a bank. Oral and straight sex only with a condom but pretty good. The music really added to the scene this time, it wasn't overbearingly loud as in past movies, and the two seemed to have fun.

Scene Two: Jordan, an attractive blonde with a curvy, if enhanced, body, took on both Mario and Joey inside an empty building. The music was louder here and more intrusive but she did handle them quite well. Oral and straight (with condom), ending in them unloading on her chest. I didn't really sense much chemistry but it wasn't bad to watch.

Scene Three: Jesse, a curvy brunette with a nice looking ass, did Steven in an industrial setting. I sensed some playful chemistry here between the two. The oral was the best part of the scene (for both of them).

Scene Four: Holly, a cutie by porn standards, and Randy, had a scene in an office. She reminded me of a young Jill Kelly before the famed star got implants. Part of the scene was mechanical but when they warmed up, it almost seemed like they had fun. Not bad.

Scene Five: Brooke, a gal with nice jiggly breasts, and John, had a scene on a stairwell. Except for the red tint of the picture, I liked this one a fair amount. Like the other scenes, I wish this one had been longer but the types of sex (oral and regular boning) were plenty to get me ready for action.

Scene Six: Jordan, looking even better this time, did Steven in the vault. This scene also had a playfulness that was appealing to me. Sure, the sex was somewhat limited but the foreplay was solid and there was no lack of chemistry. Well done.

Summary: The Vault is not going to be considered a classic anytime soon but it had a few shining moments of pleasureful activity. I think it merits a rating of Rent It based on the attractive gals, the original setting, and general heat compared to the limitations of the technical qualities, the sex, and lack of real plot (with the weak acting, a plot based porno is not exactly the best time to experiment). If you're new to porn, you could do worse though.