I've seen several films directed by Paul Thomas, and I'd say he's one of the best directors out there for porn movies with a plot. His movies aren't always great; I've been disappointed several times. But for the most part, I've been pretty pleased with his work, and Fade to Black is no exception.

Fade to Black is a story-driven film with some interesting plot twists and good character development. The first half of the movie seems like a straightforward story about three amateur filmmakers who want to make it into mainstream porn. The wannabe director, his girlfriend the starlet, and his cameraman buddy travel to Los Angeles to meet up with a famous director at his porn studio. But pretty early on you see some signs that not everything is as it seems, and by the last third of the movie there are some real surprises as you find out what's really going on. In the first half hour I was convinced that the plot was predictable and that I knew exactly where it was going, but I have to admit that I was completely wrong.

The sex scenes are a bit tame, but some of them are pretty hot. As with the plot, they get better in the latter half of the movie. The first few scenes aren't very good, but this seems to be an intentional part of the plot development. While this idea works well for the plot, this isn't terribly desirable in a porn movie, as it reduces the number of scenes which you'd actually want to watch again in the future. Luckily the sex scenes get much better as the film goes on, and I quickly forgot about my disappointment with the first few.

The last few scenes are intertwined, with a lot going on at once. I usually find it distracting to try to follow more than one couple at a time, but the way the different parts are edited together here works very well.

This movie won 8 AVN awards, including best film.

Technical aspects

The video quality is OK, but not the greatest. It suffers from some graininess and blurriness at times. But it's a ten year old title, and video quality is often poor on these old releases.

The audio was fine. The dialog is all easy to understand, and the music is mixed well. The music never drowns out the dialog or the sex noises. The music is pretty good, and suits the film well.

Cast

Taylor Hayes, Joey Ray, Taylor St. Clair, Dale DaBone, Julie Meadows, Voodoo, Meriesa Arroyo, Tony Tedeschi, Adajja, Rikki Lixxx, Jason McCain, Mark Wood, and Eric Everhard. Paul Thomas has a non-sex role, which turns out to be the center of the story.

The acting is quite good, with great dialog delivery from everyone. I was particularly impressed by Taylor Hayes as Tulip and Paul Thomas as Trent Morgan.


Extras

There are the usual trailers, galleries of stills, and menus for scene selection. There are also some bonus scenes from other films.

Some of the sex scenes have alternate angles available, indicated by an on-screen icon (which can be disabled). Press the alternate angle button on your DVD remote to switch between them. Some may find these interesting, but I didn't find them all that exciting.

I would have liked to see some behind-the-scenes material or commentary track, but sadly this DVD lacks those features.

The beginning of the movie really is slow, and the first sex scene is pretty awful, so I was really wondering why it won so many awards. But after the first forty minutes or so, it becomes a really good movie. I can't give it 5 stars, as I feel that there really is too much time wasted at the beginning of the film on some pointless scenes, but overall the film works well.