America XXX

2.517 (17)
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Performers Director Studio Category Duration (approximate)
Kris Kramski Hustler  
Date Added:
03/17/2003
Production Year:
2001
Format:
DVD

Member Reviews (1) Write a Review

Reviewed by   04/03/10
Forget the music and interviews-worthless. The video is also. The scenes jump around more thsn a flea on a hotplate. They are disjointed and have no context. The color changes back and forth from black and white so often you think something has gone wrong. It has. The video. Some of the girls are quite pretty, but they mug for the camera and seemed to wish they were somewhere else.

Industry Reviews (2)

Reviewed by   06/29/03 Source: AdultDVDTalk

America XXX: A Tribute to Sex and Rock 'N Roll (2001) Studio
Hustler

Genre
Artistic Vignette

Director
Kris Kramski

Starring
Chloe (non-sex), Christal, Claudia, Sheila Scott, Monica Moore, Oana, Sophie, Zsophia, Erika, Gili Sky, Sophie, Lucky, Renato, Bedkid, Leonardo, Alex, Chris Mountain, Carlos

Running Time
1:13 (feature only)

DVD Format
Single Sided, Dual Layer (DVD-9)

Aspect Ratio
1.78:1 (letterboxed)

Special Features
Animated main menu; full-motion video chapter selection menu; French and English audio commentary tracks with Director Kris Kramski; "Long Live Rock and Roll" music video; 30-minutes of spare interview footage; unedited 28-minute Larry Flint interview; 11-minute casting video of female talent photos; 90-second casting video of male talent photos; 2-minute narrated pre-production location photo slideshow; 20-picture photo gallery; and trailers for Porno Vision, Young Sluts Inc. 7, and Barely Legal 27

Typical Watchers

Curious music fans or Kris Kramski followers

Typical Haters

Raincoaters, plot-driven porn seekers, and anyone who can't stand ignorant people's political views

Replay Value
None to Low

Themes
Eurobabes, artistic vignettes, rock music, blowjobs, costumes, anal, girl-girl, toys, facials

Condoms
None used

If You Liked This DVD, You Should Enjoy
Klimaxx or Porno Vision

Video Captures
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The First Word: America XXX is not all that it claims to be, but you have to give Kramski and Hustler credit for trying to produce a landmark adult movie, even though it falls well short of that.

What's It About?: This ambitious Hustler project, directed by one of the leading artistic adult directors, Frenchman Kris Kramski, is part political soapbox, part music video, and part hardcore porno. Using soundbites from interviews conducted by adult starlet Chloe and intercut with quotes from famous political figures such as Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and Henry David Thoreau, the political tone of this movie is unmistakable. The "rock 'n roll" aspect comes in the form of unknown rock bands with names like "Fireball Ministry" and "Supercocks" playing songs (that all sound a lot like Aerosmith to me) during the sex scenes and responding to interview questions in between. And the sex part is Kramski-style artistic vignettes starring, ironically enough, Hungarians and shot on location in Hungary.

There are seven sex scenes in this video, the first of which is a really short (2 1/2 minutes) music video-style clip set in an abandoned factory, titled "The Factory Slammer" Christal, a short haired blonde who's been greased up to convey an industrial look, gives head and gets DP'ed by three guys. The photography is in sepia (tinted black & white), has digitally introduced camera shake, and is very grainy. The edits are quick and the scene ends almost immediately with no money shot--Kramski explains in the commentary that this girl had really bad teeth and that she refused to keep her mouth closed, giving him limited footage to work with.

Scene two, "Exterminaton of a Nazi" has two girls, Claudia and Sheila Scott, dominating a young guy in a military uniform in a cave-like dungeon with a prominently-placed Nazi flag. There's quite a bit of good action here, including anal fingering, graphic cunnilingus, and clear anal doggy. However, that's tempered by the constant camera movement, time-shifting edits, and frequent black and white shots. The Nazi meets his end with a pop shot on the girls' hands, which is then smeared on his face. The blonde and brunette then kill him and set the flag afire.

Next, Monica Moore (sporting a blue wig) and Oana (in a red one) get fucked by a guy in women's makeup who's wearing a pink wig and an apron. Oh, and they're doing it in an industrial-looking boiler room that's been glossed up with cooking spray. It's a pretty average scene that ends with a good facial--unfortunately, though, Kramski ran out of color film when shooting the scene, so the facial is shown in sepia.

"My Addiction" is a girl-girl vignette that starts out with two nude blonde girls (Sophie and Zsophia) kissing at the door to the abandoned factory. From there, the two do a little naked go-go dancing in their boots and birthday suits. Then there's some good, artistic girl-girl licking and fingering of shaved pussies, although as common with this genre, there's no female orgasms; the scene just sort of ends. However, it was nice to see the girls teasing the camera with some coquettish eye contact.

Given all of the excitement over the "Bumfuck" controversy, the next scene, "The Bunker and The Bums" raises an eyebrow. Shot in an abandoned military bunker, it starts out with a nude blonde (Erika) masturbating in this gigantic sewer pipe-like tunnel while a ragged-looking man sits next to her, eating out of a dog food can. Well, actually, the homeless figure is a professional extra and the dog food is actually beans, but it does make an interesting juxtaposition. As other "bums" gather, Erika blows one of them before she fucks him. In addition to the two-position vag, there's anal reverse cow, and the climax features a cascading flow of cum into her eye.

The only solo girl scene in America XXX is a yawner by an anorexic-looking brunette named Gili Sky. Titled "The Sword" for obvious reasons, this segment has some swordplay followed by masturbation with a black vibrator. It's totally unerotic in my opinion, as Gili just goes through the motions. Seeing as how porn is viewed as a modeling profession in Eastern Europe, she might as well be demonstrating the operation of a car or a toaster instead of a sex toy.

The last scene in this very short 73-minute film is "After the War," again set in that abandoned factory. Again there are two blondes (Erika and Sophie) who start off with some good oral pleasuring, but then who engage in some bored, mechanical fucking with two guy. The movie ends with a hard to see double facial, but that shortcoming is made up by some nice post cumshot sucking.

Between the sex are sandwiched interviews with Hustler founder Larry Flint and also the bands who's music is featured in America XXX. Chloe asks some poorly worded questions on a variety of topics, including the death penalty, AIDS, drugs, underage sex, free speech, and violence, to which she gets mostly poorly thought out responses. In all, what is supposed to be a tribute to America, sex, and rock music falls short of being any of that.

What I liked: A good idea: It was an ambitious project for Hustler to undertake; it's just too bad that the execution leaves a lot to be desired. It's obvious that Kramski is an intelligent director, and it's too bad that his vision couldn't be realized the way he wanted it. This is the adult industry, though, so I guess it's just a pipe dream to ever see a project that manages to step outside the box and also be able to withstand serious critique.

A solid DVD effort: While America XXX isn't going to win any awards for its DVD presentation, it is the best disc I've seen come out of Larry Flint Publishing. As I'll go into a little further down in the review, there's a lot of bonus material included, and I'm glad that LFP was willing to spend the extra bucks to include the supplementals.

What I didn't like: Hungary XXX: You may be surprised to learn that this feature was shot in Budapest using local, almost completely unknown talent. While Kramski may be right that there are more beautiful women in Hungary than in the States who will do porn, I don't know how you can justify calling what is essentially a European feature, America XXX. The locations look like they were shot in Eastern Europe and the performers are definitely not Yanks. Now, maybe that's a good thing: imagine a true American tribute--a bunch of bleached blonde strippers with fake tits performing in cheesy replicas of Americana. Still, considering the title, subtitle, and especially the boxcover, it's a real letdown.

Rambling idiots: It was a recipe for disaster when they decided to interview the bands on social and political issues, especially after they served them beer. Most of the comments are downright incoherent, unpatriotic, or ignorant. Even the rare insightful responses are ruined when the person continues to talk, digging themselves into a hole. I suppose that if they edited down the interviews to effective, "60 Minutes"-style soundbites, then it would have been a lot shorter video. Considering the movie is short enough as it is (and also seeing how much footage Kramski didn't use), I suppose that it was the best they could do under the circumstances. Still, if you're the least bit informed, you hope they aren't registered to vote!

HIV agenda: One thing I really, really disagree with is the message that several people, including Larry Flint and Kramski, send that HIV is not responsible for AIDS. It may be good for conspiracy theorists that it's a plot by the government and pharmaceutical companies to make money on lifelong drug therapy, but there's overwhelming scientific data from around the world that HIV causes AIDS--not malnutrition, drug use, or some other cause. It's a dangerous and irresponsible message to send, especially through pornography since it implies that there is no risk. Tell that to Tricia Devereaux and all of the others who have been infected in the business. Tell that to the millions who have HIV and have developed AIDS. I don't see anyone who espouses this "theory" lining up to be injected with HIV to prove the medical establishment wrong. They might as well have put white supremacist content or bomb-making instructions--it's that offensive to me.

DVD Extras: Like I said, Hustler did an excellent job with the extras. The most interesting of the supplements is the full-length audio commentary with director Kris Kramski, presented in separate English and French (his native language) tracks. I found it pretty interesting to hear the background of the project, as well as production details and explanations of what he was trying to convey in the film. There's also a mainstream-quality music video of the song "Long Live Rock and Roll" by Bomber. It's a fairly straightforward video without any sex, just the band singing on a soundstage. Bomber's lead singer, who sounds like a hardcore version of Joan Jett, has probably the most intelligent observations in her interview footage in the movie.

Speaking of interviews, if there wasn't enough of the interviews in America XXX, the DVD includes another 30-minutes of spare interview footage. The highlights of the reel include Chloe sitting on the toilet talking about how all of the interviewees were drinking during the interviews. She also turns in a few seconds of explicit sex by givign the bassist from the band Stargunn a matter-of-fact hummer during the interview session. And in case you still want to see more talking heads, there's the whole 28-minute long unedited interview with Larry Flint.

Kris Kramski narrates some interesting production material: an 11-minute long video of Polaroid casting photos of the girls that he scouted for the movie, which include the prices for various sex acts (As you can see in this photo, the girl is willing to do a DP on camera for $650). Less interesting is the 90-second video of male casting shots, although Kramski makes a good observation of the posing style of the guys -- I think it's because they moonlight in gay productions too. Kramski also comments on about 2-minutes of digital pre-production photos of the locations in Budapest. Finally, there's three preview trailers and a 20-picture photo gallery. All in all, it's a very nice extras package.

A/V Quality: The video quality is pretty good, although the gamma level on the picture was strangely dark on my computer but quite a bit better on my home theater setup. Normally, I would chalk that up to a calibration issue with my monitor or something, but if you look at the vidcaps to the left, you'll notice that some are significantly brighter than others. It's also hard to judge the video fairly because Kramski deliberately tweaked the visuals in post production. The best way to describe the end result is that it looks more like a music video than an adult film. The music plays a major role in this production, so you can count on the rock music being played loudly during the sex scenes, completely replacing the need for a production soundtrack. I know that may bother some of you who would rather hear what's going on; my take is that the visuals are edited in such a way that it really doesn't matter that you can't hear the actual sex.

The Last Word: Taking everything into account, Kramski and Hustler had a grand vision when they started this project. It's too bad, though, that the end result doesn't hit the mark. The sex is far too distant, the photography is too experimental, and the political message is distorted by the flakes they used for soundbites. I was really saddened to hear the "HIV doesn't cause AIDS" message that is complete bullshit. I also feel a little misled since it's not really a tribute to either sex or rock 'n roll, and it's not even American sex at that. It is one of Hustler's best DVDs in terms of extras and polish, but this is not one of Kramski's best films.

- Saki (saki@sakivision.com)

Saki Review #131 Other Saki Reviews of Hustler DVDs
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Reviewed by   05/20/03 Source: AdultDVDTalk

Running Time: 73 min.

Production Date: 3 / 6 / 2001

Director: Kris Kramski

Cast: Christal, Claudia, Lucky, Renato, BedKid, Claudia, Sheila Scott, Leonardo, Monica Moore, Oana, Alex, Sophie, Zsophia, Erika, Chris Mountain, and Gili Sky, and Chloe, Johnny Toxic, the bands who do the music in the movie, Gyula Kiss, Istvan Szomorkai, Gyorgy Szep, Jozsetne Szon, and Larry Flint in non-sex roles

Initial Expectations: Kris Kramski has really impressed me with his other movies, so Im looking forward to this one as well.