Double Feature could well be the There's Something About Mary of porn. Like Mary's combination of teen gross-out comedy and romantic comedy, writer Martin Brimmer and director Jonathan Morgan have managed to make a funny -- truly funny -- sex video without short-changing the sex. The opening has a couple of previews of coming attractions: Revenge of the Gangbang Zombies, a porn version of Night of the Living Dead (compete with the high-contrast black and white photography that distinguished George Romero's 1968 film), and Death Rides a Rubber Horse, a noir-flavored mystery with Randy Spears as a hard-boiled detective looking for the serial killer of blow-up dolls. Imagine Serenity strangling a blow-up doll and turning into camera and saying, "I won't share you with another woman, Hank."On second thought, you don't have to imagine it. The first half of the double feature is Attack of the Bimbos from Outer Space, an alien invasion story with Jewel De'Nyle, Kary Evers and Shanna McCullough as, well, bimbos from outer space who want to enslave the people of earth, starting with farm boys Mickey G. and Ian Daniels, whose farm is ground zero. Serenity plays one of those buxom female scientists familiar from '50s sci-fi flicks (think Joan Weldon in Them!) working with (and on top of) fellow scientist Randy Spears to defeat their nefarious plan. Part two is Man Made Beast, a Frankenstein-like concoction with Serenity as a crazed scientist and Spears as the monster, in a powder-blue tuxedo. After the obligatory Frankenstein repertoire (the meeting with the innocent girl, the chase by the outraged townsfolk) the monster winds up... well, let's just say it's a clever twist on the ending of Lindsay Anderson's 1973 masterwork O Lucy Man! The nose-thumbing anything-goes attitude of Double Feature! becomes apparent in the first three minutes of Bimbos where there's a close-up of Anthony Crane in a bra top and a lower-third title that reads: WARNING! Because the actress, Shanna McCullough, who plays the part of Vulva, showed up late, a stage hand was used to fill in. PLEASE DO NOT START TO JACK OFF YET. Running gags like McCullough holding up scenes to finish a cigarette and incongruous reappearances by the Gangbang Zombies from the movie advertised in the previews match up with throwaway gags culled from years misspent watching trashy dopey Roger Corman and AIP quickies. There are even a few originals, like a tracking shot past the Space Bimbos' parked flying saucer: As the camera tracks around the ship, a MADE IN JAPAN label comes into view. Technically masterful, with letter-boxed black-and-white changing to full-frame color for the sex scenes. The sex-scene count is muddled, because a couple of the sex scenes are sufficiently intertwined with the plot to end in punch lines instead of pop shots. This will probably disappoint the raincoaters. Tough. Pre-nom roll call: Serenity, Best Actress -- Video; Randy Spears, Best Actor -- Video; Jonathan Morgan, Director, Video; Anthony Crane, Best Non-Sex Performance; Martin Brimmer, Screenplay; Best Sex Comedy. |
