Almost Heaven by New Sensations - review by tim1724

This is a feature film, with plot, meant primarily for heterosexual couples. It's all heterosexual sex, with extended romantic kissing and touching at the start of each scene before the clothes start coming off. This is a great first porn movie, as it has good lead-ins to sex, rather than just jumping straight into hardcore fucking. The sex itself is mostly on the tame side, but it should keep most viewers interested.

The story revolves around Angie who has recently died and ended up in a waiting room of sorts. She has to choose one memory to take with her as she moves on to the afterlife, but she doesn't know what to choose. She's assigned a helper, Michael, who is supposed to help her make a decision. In the process of making her decision, she helps Michael see how much his assistant Sara means to him. (The chemistry between these two is great!) Eventually Angie makes up her mind and moves on, while Michael and Sara start their new relationship.

Cast
Kiara Diane as Angie
Allie Haze as Sara
Chris Johnson as Jake
Xander Corvus as Michael
Victoria White as Alice
Rocco Reed as Joe
Brooke Lee Adams as Carine
Danny Mountain as David

Non-sex roles
Sarah Jackson as Sandy
Charlie Ann as Mike's wife
Melissa Jacobs as Christine
Bruce Venture as young guy
Jessie Andrews as receptionist
Alan Stafford as Mike
Erik Everhard as Eric
Seth Gamble as Paul
David Arnold as old man
Chad Alva as Eugene
Anthony Rosano as John

The actors all do a great job with the dialog. Everyone's character comes across as quite believable. Given the amount of dialog in this film, it's great that all the performers are good actors, too.

Scene 1: Brooke Lee Adams & Danny Mountain

Some slightly awkward dialog here, but soon enough we get into the sex. Brooke Lee Adams is gorgeous, with beautiful natural breasts. Danny Mountain's pretty good looking, too. The chemistry here is somewhat lacking compared to other scenes, but it's not bad.

Scene 2: Allie Haze & Xander Corvus
Allie and Xander are great together. Allie is super cute, and she and Xander have some great chemistry together. They have some very enthusiastic sex in this scene, with extremely hot sex on and against the counter. The camera angles are great, whether they're on the floor or standing up, and this was by far my favorite scene.

Scene 3: Victoria White & Rocco Reed

Like the first scene, the chemistry is slightly lacking and the sex is somewhat generic, but it's not a bad scene. The performers aren't anything special, but I enjoyed watching Victoria give Rocco a nice, slow, sensual blow job.

Scene 4: Kiara Diane & Chris Johnson

This is similar to the previous scene, but with much better chemistry between the performers. As with the other scenes, there's lots of kissing and it feels like it takes ages for the clothes to come off, but the sex is worth the wait.

Extras in this film include a long behind-the-scenes feature, a photo gallery, trailers, and an option to watch clips featuring sex in particular positions.

In keeping with the overall quality of this release, the DVD menus are very well done and the box containing the DVD case was gorgeous.

I loved the title sequence on this film, which uses personal photos to give us glimpses into the character's life. (These photos apparently came from the director's own photo collection.) It really makes this feel more like a Hollywood production.

Speaking of production values, I was extremely impressed by every aspect of this film. Sets, costumes, and makeup are all very professional, and the technical aspects of the film were very impressive. The camera work and editing were among the best I've seen in porn, and the audio was competent as well, if not as outstanding as the visuals. Dialog was always easy to make out, and music was used very appropriately. There were a few places where creaking noises and such were noticeable (particularly rattling bed in the 3rd scene) but were never distracting.

Condoms are used in every scene, but they were unobtrusive. There was nothing awkward about it.

I thought Xander Corvus was really good in this. He's a much better actor than most men in porn, and his scene with Allie Haze was really hot. She was adorable throughout, and I would have liked to have seen more of her. I found her much more interesting than the female lead.

Eddie Powell is a great director. He needs to work a bit on the pacing of sex scenes, but overall he really seems to know what he's doing.



*Spoiler* At first I thought the ending was of the "wake up and find out it was all a dream" variety, but then seeing the Post-it note, I decided that the scene could also be interpreted as the memory she chose to keep, and that this memory, combined with seeing the crumpled Post-it in the afterlife may have caused Angie to want to help Sara.