Raw Desire (Teagan Presley)

Club Jenna/Vivid Entertainment/Sky World Direct

Genre: Vignette

Director: Laurent Sky/Richard Hamilton

Cast: Dillan Lauren, Marco Duato, Boo D. Licious, Talon, Felix Vicious, Charlie Laine, Ramona, George Uhl, Wein Lewis, Teagan Presley, Nick Manning
Non-sex roles: Randy Spears, Lexington Steele, Brittney Skye, Jennifer Luv, Zoe, Johnny Mark, Paco, Micky, Puncho, Duckie

Voiceovers by: George Kaplan, Tina Tyler

Length: 97 minutes

Date of Production: 9/1/2004 (box); 5/15/2004 to 7/30/2004 (credits)

Extra's: My favorite extra was a 30 minute long set of Director's Comments by Laurent Sky. He describes what he was shooting for and some of his existential ideas behind the movie with some nice visuals to back him up. After that, the 14.5 minute Behind the Scenes feature that focused on Teagan Presley & Nick Manning and Boo D. Licious with Talon (rather than everyone in the cast, narrowing it down to only two of the scenes was risky since fans of the other performers might get pissed off). I thought it was a very open discussion by these characters of porn, including bits where they admitted problems with the scene. The other extras were the short photogallery and the double sided DVD cover, but the first two mentioned were the only ones worth mentioning.

Condoms: None

Audio/Video Quality: Raw Desire was presented in the same 1.33:1 ratio full frame color it was shot in by director Laurent Sky (AKA: Richard Hamilton) for Sky World Productions as distributed by Club Jenna and Vivid Entertainment. If you've seen any of the stylish Taboo series, you'll know exactly what to expect from this one as it employed the same stylish lighting, visual effects, and weird backgrounds as that series did. This was billed as his first feature although it wasn't a feature, it wasn't his first production (aside from work he's made under aliases, he's directed for Ninn Worx under this name too), and really didn't show anything particularly new. This isn't to say it was a bad movie or poorly made but it hardly lived up to the hype such as the cover quote from the beautiful Jenna Jameson that carried on with: "I've seen the future of porn…and its name is Laurent Sky…" or the blurb on AVN's website suggesting it had "sensational special effects, humor, and the hardest sex scenes allowed by law" (the back cover said the "strangest sex allowed by law: is someone a fricking lawyer here or what?!?). Anyways, the effects were different, the lighting varied, and the amount of shadows and grain fairly low here. I did see some compression artifacts and some slow motion action so fans of that kind of thing will appreciate it all the more. The stereo audio track included a lot of droning music after the (C) rap introduction that sounded just like any other lame beat box tune with the vocals getting the second string here.

Body of Review: Those of you that are looking for something new and different in porn have long put up with marketing hype designed to separate you from your hard earned (or not so hard earned) money. Let's face it; almost all porn is the same on some level or another with little variation until you start splitting hairs (as I have been known to do in my reviews). A scene will start with some tease footage, oral, straight, and perhaps anal sex before a pop shot in 99%+ of all porn scenes so unless a company wants to get bold and risk alienating a lot of consumers, it sticks with the formula. One movie I picked up on the basis that it was going to depart from the norm was Raw Desire, a movie released by the Vivid/Club Jenna association for Sky World Productions. This was billed as Laurent Sky's 1st movie on his own and it had some decent material to enjoy although it was hardly cutting edge or outside the so-called "norm" of porn (adding in little cameo bits by other porn stars doesn't exactly set my pants on fire if you catch my drift). Here's a breakdown of the scenes by cast and action, noting that no condoms were used in the scenes:

Scene One: Dillan Lauren, a very lean brunette as shown on the front DVD cover (wearing a white fetish outfit with the word "sex" in black letters holding a chain saw in the third panel), was up first with Marco Duato after she cut all the furniture up. Those that have seen her in action before will appreciate that she was just as good here, blowing him with her trademark energy and deep throating him nicely before he dick slapped her around. After getting him good and hard, the couple went straight to anal sex from the oral, a generally bold move on their part. She aggressively pushed back as he slammed his cock inside her, yelling for more with each stroke. It ended when he jerked off on one of the chairs she cut in half with her licking it clean. This was a good way to start the show, if not her best scene to date.

Scene Two: Boo D. Licious, looking far leaner than I ever recall seeing her, sported a large mane of dark brown hair with some red highlights in a white bikini as she had her scene with Talon inside a red room with clocks all over the walls. I preferred her with her former curves but she hasn't been overly active with men of late so I was happy to get what I could out of her this time. She sucked a mean cock here and rode him better than I recall seeing her since her gonzo days a while back. The couple had a lot of energy if less chemistry than I wanted them to have and they got really sweaty here. It ended with his pop shot on a couple of small clocks that she licked up; a trick most of you probably won't care for.

Scene Three: Felix Vicious and Charlie Laine, a couple of hot gals dressed up in neon clothing and wigs (like in the background of the third panel on the front DVD cover), were up next in a lesbian scene in a darkened room with a green laser show in the background. The emphasis was on licking, rubbing and fingering (at first) but they soon went to using a strap on dildo. I'll be upfront with you and tell you that the gals didn't appear to be as into the action as they should've been (the term "gay for pay" comes to mind) but the dirty talk and attractive look they had made up for some of it.

Scene Four: Ramona, another skinny brunette, was up next in a warehouse scene that dispensed with the artistic tease footage and went straight to the oral with foreign porn studs George Uhl and Wein Lewis. This scene was shot overseas (Prague; unlike the others), and employed a strobe light in the background to simulate the more artistic lighting of the domestically shot scenes on the rest of the DVD. Her oral skills were as good as I've seen her do in the past but suffered from the same mechanical nature I've long disapproved of in foreign gals. The guys eventually took turns screwing her pussy and ass, giving her a DP (double penetration) before the pop shots to her face. If you like mechanically driven sex, this scene will appeal to you more than it did to me.

Scene Five: Teagan Presley, one of the most popular gals in porn these days, was up next with Nick Manning in a white room with black lettering all over the floor and walls. His leather pants looked kind of gay but her black PVC boots were hot in this scene that Nick claimed was "smoking". It was shot on 7/25/2004 ("the day after her birthday" and she was not feeling well per Nick since she had partied all night before) but I found it interesting to watch since a lot of her work from this period in time (before her contract at Digital Playground) was so spotty in quality. The oral was fair and the straight sex was kind of weak since he did most of the work but her fans will probably enjoy it nonetheless since this was made before she got her current implants. It ended with a pop shot to the furniture that she licked a little bit but hardly as much as she should have after claiming how much she "loved cum".

Summary: Raw Desire was not the avant garde movie it was claiming to be but it had enough solid sex scenes in it to merit a rating of Rent It. I can almost guarantee it will receive tremendous amounts of critical press from the "professionals" and win lots of awards although not based on merit in my opinion. Mr. Sky has made many scenes like these and those of us who might like to jerk off to the sex would've appreciated something more consistently passionate rather than a series of vignettes all driven by gimmicks and flash with no substance. This movie did not, as the director desired, "raise the bar" or provide anything "totally different, totally edgy and extremely stylized" so much as retread past works. Perhaps in his later releases for the company, he will achieve those aspects but I have my doubts (even if a couple of scenes were well done in some ways). With an attractive cast, sometimes interesting technical values and visuals, and good extras, I'll suggest you give it a look but don't go for the hype or you'll be sorry.

For far greater choices in porn, check out: 2004's Top Porn List and 2003's Top Porn List.