"Tera Goes Gonzo" DVD Review (Teravision, 2008)

[Snowman]

Tera Goes Gonzo

Cast and Credits:

Tera Patrick presents in association with Teravision and Vivid Entertainment Group. Directed by Spyder Jonez. Featuring Tera Patrick, Daisy Marie, Stefani Morgan, Kelli Marie and Roxy Deville. Also with Nick Jacobs, Spyder Jonez, and Jack Lawrence. Special appearances by Ron Jeremy and Ed Powers. Date of production June 06.06-09.06. Street date 09.30.08. Running time,

Studio Synopsis: "Tera Patrick, the goddess of adult entertainment, has gone gonzo with the legendary pornographer, Ed Powers. Watch Tera go back to the basics and do all the nastiest sucking and fucking that made her the Queen of Porn."

Review:

July 26, 2009

Scene One -- Solo scene with Tera Patrick. Also features Ed Powers in a non-sexual appearance as the director.

The opening scene features Tera in solo action interacting with Gonzo and Pro-Am pioneer Ed Powers. Old timers will recall Ed Powers as the man responsible for producing literally hundreds of "Dirty Debutantes" videos, starting in the late 80's and continuing right up to the current decade. Here Ed sort of reprises his familiar character from one of his first series, Bus Stop Tales. Ed "finds" Tera on the street dressed as a sexy student. He offers her cash in exchange for modeling services. At first Tera is reluctant but Ed ups the price and she becomes a lot more cooperative. Ed takes her back to a studio where she strips and masturbates on a pool table under Ed's direction.

On paper, I was skeptical this scene would work. There was a time when I enjoyed Ed Powers' videos, but at some point, he became too arrogant and smarmy and I stopped watching. However, this scene was more enjoyable than I expected it to be. I actually enjoyed the breezy, cheesy banter between Ed and Tera. Perhaps my decade plus vacation from Ed has made him more palpable again. Tera wasn't too convincing as a first-timer or a student, but Ed plays along gamely as if she truly was a "Dirty Debutante" and it's fun to watch.

This scene switches between two views, "Ed cam" and a more professional camera that assumes a third party viewpoint. Unfortunately, the "Ed cam" is adorned with an annoying simulated camcorder viewscreen and suffers from poor image quality. I suspect the quality was purposely degraded to emphasize the amateur nature of Ed's gonzo videos, but the producers went overboard. Even a consumer grade camera in the bargain bin produces a better picture than what's presented here. Also, when Ed and Tera move indoors, it appears a major sound snafu occurred during filming and as a result the dialog was (badly) over-dubbed. (B-)

Scene Two -- GGG scene with Tera Patrick, Stefani Morgan and KelliMarie. Also features Ed Powers in a non-sexual appearance as the director.

In the introduction sequence Ron Jeremy notes that the upcoming girl/girl scene will be an "educational" one for viewers in the sense that it will show how Ed Powers directs a scene. As in the first scene, two cameras of different quality are used.

Ed begins by interviewing the girls in a very casual, chatty style on a sofa at the studio. The girls are dressed in lingerie, stockings and heels. At the conclusion, Ed employs "video magic" and the girls are instantly naked. Ed asks the girls to pretend it's their "first time", but the starlets jump right into the action like pros. The first thing Tera does is lick asshole and talk dirty. While it looks hot, this is pretty far fetched for a true newbie. So much for Ed's instructions. In fact, despite Ron's description of the scene, Powers is not seen or heard during the actual sex sequences. Eating at Y happens at the other end of the action. The girls continue to lick and suck each other. Next one of the girls fuck Tera's shaved snatch with a glass dildo from behind. At the same time Tera fucks her blond friend with a second glass dildo in the same fashion. Next Tera sits on the sofa and continues to get fucked with one leg up. Then one of the blonds gets dildoed in the upside down position, propped up against the sofa. There's some brief pussy licking and Tera gets fucked again. The scene ends with all the girls licking the dildo at the same time. This is an OK girl girl scene, but nothing really knocked my socks off. (C)

Scene Three -- BG scene with Spider Jonez and Daisy Marie.

For this scene, Ron is gone and Spider welcomes viewers to the disc. He is sitting outside on a patio on a large, circular sofa. Spider explains that nothing needs to make sense in gonzo, which is certainly an interesting and convenient approach for an adult director to take. Again the "magic" snap of the fingers is used and Daisy Marie appears in a bikini. Spider snaps those fingers again and she's naked except for her heels. He snaps them one last time and now he is naked. But since he's not in the best shape and his body is covered in distracting tattoos, perhaps he should have stopped at two.

Spider kisses Daisy as she jerks his cock but doesn't seem too passionate about it. Then she begins sucking his cock while on her knees. Spider gets hard pretty quick and after just about one minute of oral action, Daisy mounts him reverse cowgirl. I'm not sure what the rush was. Daisy's tan, slender body looks good here but viewers still have to tolerate Spider's appearance. After a few minutes Daisy spins around and Spider fucks her hard cowgirl style. He seems to want to choke her here, but due to the camera angles I'm not sure if this materializes or not. Daisy sucks his rod p2m and then climbs on-board again. Next Spider bones her doggy style. His cock stuffs her pussy nicely in this position. By now the sun has set and the patio is lit entirely by artificial lights. Spider pulls out and jizzs inside her mouth. Daisy cleans his cock and lets the cum dribble down her chest. An OK, but flawed scene. (C+)

Scene Four -- BG scene with Tera Patrick and unknown (POV) guy.

In scene four, thankfully Ron returns to introduce the scene. He describes the important of the tease sequence to porn scenes and likens it to a lap dance that "delivers the goods."

As hinted at by Ron, the scene begins with a tease sequence featuring Tera. Tera is in an outdoor swimming pool. She's wearing a cute wrap around bikini, but unfortunately the aqua marine color of the suit was too close to the pool itself to really pop out. Tera performs a strip-tease of sorts and some instrumental sax jazz is hear in the background along with lots of loud traffic sounds that sort of ruin the mood. Tera "finds" a POV style cock and begins to suck it. Tera looks pretty amazing here -- her hair is wet but her make-up is untouched and her face looks great. She talks directly to the camera which adds to the intimacy. A handjob brings the guy to climax and a small amount of cum dribbles out of his cock. Tera sucks it clean and goes for swim. Good POV BJ scene but somewhat disappointing finish. (B)

Scene Five -- BG scene with Roxy Deville & Nick Jacobs

Male talent Evan Stone introduces scene five. He tells us that the "thing that makes porno exciting is the action -- the action of people moving, things happening, flesh moving."

Roxy Deville is the featured starlet here. She's wearing a black fishnet top, purple bra, black micro skirt, black stockings and heels. She's paired with Nick Jacobs and the couple doesn't waste time getting down to business. They scene takes place in a sunny day room. Jacobs removes his pants and Roxy falls to her knees so that she give him a blowjob. She displays a lot of energy here and takes his cock deep in her mouth. Lots of handjob action as as well. Visually, this scene is brightly lit with the typical shot on video look. Some sensitive new age music plays is cued as Roxy peels off her top in slow motion. Now she's fucking Nick reverse cowgirl on a large wooden chair. Roxy bounces pretty well on the cock so there's a lot of "action" of the type Stone described. Roxy jumps off and sucks the guy's cock p2m. Then she gets shagged again from behind. There are some close-ups and good "gonzo" angles here, but the sequence is short. The scene cuts to Roxy trying to ride Nick's dick cowgirl as he lies on the ground but she seems to have trouble and there are several distracting edits. This brings up the money shot. Rock finishes him off with her mouth and Nick shoots his wad on her face and tongue. Roxy cleans the dick and sucks her fingers as the goo dribbles from her chin. Decent performance from Roxy here, but the sequences are too short and casting an anal friendly starlet might have spiced things up more. (C+)

Scene Six -- BG scene with Tera Patrick and Jack Lawrence.

The doorbell rings and Tera answers it. She's wearing a hot pink bikini with clear stripper heels and looks fabulous. Jack Lawrence is at the door dressed as a realistic policeman. He recognizes her at once and inquires if she is shooting a porn scene today and has the proper film permits. Tera invites him in and admits she is shooting Tera Goes Gonzo. She says she is turned on my men in uniform and makes a move on Jack.

Jack removes his uniform and the couple engages in foreplay on a water-bed. Jack eats at the Y and talks dirty to the camera. Next Tera gets on her knees on the floor and sucks Jack's cock. The BJ sequence is short and not particularly memorable. Tera asks to be fucked and Jack is happy to comply. He fucks her politely in the missionary position. Jack is standing and Tera is lying on the bed with her snatch near the edge. Tera talks to the camera at times but Jack is mostly silent. Next Tera rides Jack's cock cowgirl style and gets a pretty good rhythm going. The view from the backside isn't all that flattering as her ass appears a bit on the chunky side. Tera appears to enjoy herself and looks better when she leans forward. Tera's pussy pounding here is one of the longest sequences on the disc. When Jack is ready to cum, Tera dismounts and quickly positions herself on the floor for the pop shot. Jack shoots a small amount on her mouth and sprays the rest on her chest. He tells her not to worry about the permit anymore. A serviceable scene but Tera and Jack didn't really seem to create the fireworks I had hoped for. I also would have liked it more if Tera offered up her backdoor in this return to "gonzo." (C+)

Additional Comments:

The DVD contains a few extras, including extended interview sequences with Ron Jeremy and Evan Stone. Each talk about their definition of gonzo, but cover additional ground as well. Also, a generous thirty minute plus behind the scenes featurette is included.

Production quality of this disc is only fair. At times the video quality was subpar, especially when "Ed Cam" was being shown. In spots it was far too grainy. In addition, the "Ed Cam" special effects detracted from the scene. There's no reason why the real video camera view screen could not used. It would be more realistic and visually more appealing. Since "Ed Cam" is alternated with a superior camera, it makes the shortcomings all the more apparent. Audio problems plagued many of the scenes, especially recording levels that were far too low. Lastly, I was unable to display a time code on this DVD on my set top players.

Final Thoughts:

Tera Goes Gonzo is an odd mishmash of eclectic scenes. Interestingly, given the title, only the first scene with Ed Powers approaches true gonzo. Nor does the content on this disc resemble the explicit, cookie cutter "wall to wall" sex discs that are often passed off as "gonzo" today. While Tera Goes Gonzo does take Tera in a different direction than the big budget features she usually stars in, fans who were hoping for a return to Anabolic type content will be disappointed. Perhaps you really can't go home again. However, the disc is still worthwhile for Tera fans as she appears in four of the six scenes.

Overall Disc Rating: C+

-- Snowman

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Thanks to Teravision for providing a screener of this disc!

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[HypoLuxa-HermesPan]

I'll pass... Tera has become almost as exciting as watching paint dry!