Sanatorium - erotic video by Zero Tolerance - review by SKates

This movie was trying entirely too hard to be "artsy". This is a very tricky maneuver to pull off in any movie, especially pornography. My lesbian partner and I watched it together and not even the lesbian scenes turned either of us on, so I wouldn't recommend this unless you're really just in the mood to be confused.

It certainly has good intentions. A porn movie commenting on the porn industry is a neat idea. However, this movie just took it in the entirely wrong direction. First of all, in order to pull off a pseudo-intellectual film the acting really needs to be flawless. This was not at all the case. It didn't seem real during the sex scenes, and during the dramatic parts of the movie it was wooden. I don't have very high expectations for acting in porn films, but this was just terrible.

Another problem was the difficulty in following the plot. I've been known to enjoy plot lines with no clear progression of events in the past, but that wasn't the case here. It was just too...weird.

And as for the sex, well... Granted I am a lesbian, but heterosexual sex scenes do turn me on. Not with this movie. They felt very contrived, and as for the woman-on-woman scenes, even less. They were obviously done with the intention of pleasing a man. This whole film was not very woman-friendly. There were many fellatio scenes and hardly any cunnilingus.

On the upside, the cinematography was wonderful. Props to the camera people.

I highly recommend that director Gary Orona try again, perhaps with either a budget big enough to hire better actors or a more refined screening process. And if he tries again, he doesn't need to work so hard to prove himself "artsy". That was what ruined it for me.

Brilliant idea, terrible execution.