Emperor by Vivid - review by Cupcake Girl

The reason I chose this movie was because I really loved Janine back in the day. When I was in college I worked at an adult video store and she was the "it" girl. Of course, this was back when she only did girl/girl movies and wasn't covered in tattoos, but I thought she was hot and had a lot of passion, and most importantly, I believed she was having a good time.

Emperor was made in 2004, and directed by Paul Thomas but it felt like I was watching a late '90s porn film. It had big sets, expensive locations, and big name stars (Janine, Rocco Siffredi, Manuel Ferrera), but these things don't make up for the fact that I was bored. Bored, confused, and generally not turned on.

The basic plot is this: Rocco is an aging film director that is looking to renew his spirit with new challenges. One of those challenges is to make an adult film instead of the mainstream films he's been producing this whole time. He thinks making porn films will complete his artistic vision. Along the way, we try and figure out where Rocco's reality ends and his fantasies begin. But in there lies the problem.

I just didn't care.

There are eight different scenes on the main feature disk. Disk 2 has outtakes, deleted scenes, extra sex scenes, a Janine gallery, and some other stuff that also didn't catch my interest. The first scene is between Rocco and Tawny Roberts. In other reviews I've read people have mentioned that this scene was super rough. Now, I don't watch a lot of rough sex porn, but I know rough when I see it. And this scene was quite tame.

The second scene is with Rocco and Janine. I'm not entirely sure why she looks like a Valley Girl straight out of 1984, but whatever. I gather from other articles written about this movie is that Janine and Rocco really hated each other, so their chemistry reflects this. There are moments where it looks passionate, but I'm pretty sure that's just their frustration with not liking each other. The weirdest part of this scene is Rocco ejaculating on Janine's 1980s leg warmers and shoes. Again, I don't get it.

On to scene three, I think this was the best one out of the eight. Janine is outside on a cold night with Manuel Ferrara. She's super into him and the chemistry between them seems less forced than with Rocco. I like how she was kind of a tease with Ferrara and how he looked like he just wanted her so bad. Their sex is still formulaic, but at least it's interesting. I'd re-watch that scene in the future.

The orgy scene was just so boring. And the last scene that started with Janine and Dasha in a girl/girl scene was cut short with the appearance of Rocco. That was a disappointment for sure. Janine has always had super hot scenes with other sexy women. I was hoping to see more of that. But by this point, I'd pretty much had enough.

The film is weird. It jumps around with flash backs and daydreams and just general weirdness. The acting is bad and the plot is hard to follow. If you're into well made porn that has a linear, well-developed plot, you'll want to avoid this for sure. I guess this is a good "couples" film, if the couple in question have never watched an adult film together (read: there's nothing too crazy or hardcore about it). The sex is totally boring, however Janine has flashes of good passion between her and Rocco or other actors in the film. Rocco just looks tired and old. I'd skip on purchasing Emperor.

It's still a super boring snoozefest packaged as porn. I tried watching it again, but just couldn't get through it. I'm probably going to pass this on to a friend to see what she thinks about it.