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Midnight Blue Collection: Porn Stars of the 90s (2009)
As I’ve said before, I absolutely have fallen in love with the Midnight Blue Collection from the folks at Blue Underground. They are some of the most interesting DVD’s I’ve seen and serve as a great historical perspective on the adult film industry and it’s performers. Personally though, I’ve always been a fan of the golden age of adult films. The industry itself was much better in my opinion when movies were being shot on film. Not only that but I find the performers much more interesting during that era too, which made me wonder prior to seeing it how much I would like this edition of the Midnight Blue Collection. See, Midnight Blue to me was always about sleazy New York City with it’s porn theaters and burlesque houses but that all changed in the late 80s early 90s. The Disneyfication of Times Square was happening and all of the grindhouse theaters there had closed due to this. Then on top of that when the video era began in the adult film industry all of the film production was happening in California. You will notice in this edition as well as their prior “Porn Stars of the 80s” edition that most of the interviews are being done by Al Goldstein in California. It’s a sad state of what happened to the industry in my opinion but with that being said I was surprised at how good this edition of the Midnight Blue Collection was as well.
“Porn Stars of the 90s” features the biggest and best of the industry once again (with one notable omission, which I’ll talk about later) including Teri Weigel, Viper, Christy Canyon, Jeanna Fine, Ashlyn Gere, Veronica Vera, Holly Ryder, Sharon Kane, Nikki Dial, Tom Byron, Randy West, as well as others. You still have the hilarious skits, advertisements and sexual Tom Foolery that one comes to expect from Midnight Blue. The interviews are hilarious once again and it features Al Goldstein asking everything and anything to the performers.
The “trivia track” in this one is golden featuring some of the saddest, funniest, and most interesting facts about these people that you can imagine. Because of my age, these are the first batch of porn stars that I remember vividly from my younger days. It was pretty cool to see them being interviewed even if I’m not really into all of their stuff (like I am with the stars in the prior installments) I can appreciate the work they put into their films. Also this volume features one of the most interesting interviews I’ve ever seen conducted with Al Goldstein being a part of it. Goldstein interviews Viper, a female porn star who is tattooed, pierced and had a look at was way ahead of her time. But it’s hilarious to watch Goldstein squirm around in his chair as he’s clearly uncomfortable around her. But she answers the call, does the interview like a trooper despite basically being insulted several times during the interview. It’s gold and it’s one of the reasons why this is worth picking up.
Just like all the other volumes you have the excellent “trivia track” on here with all kinds of interesting tidbits about the actors, Screw Magazine, Al Goldstein and more. There is also more special features here including Ron Jeremy’s Guide to Cunnilingus, Annie Sprinkle making titty cupcakes, yes titty cupcakes, and one of the most scathing examples of Al Goldstein’s “Fuck You” segment ever as he dedicates this one to the biggest porn star of the 90s, Jenna Jameson (who is the big omission as far as big porn stars go like I said earlier in the review).
Overall “Porn Stars of the 90s” holds up pretty well as an interesting look into the world of 90s pornography. Plus, it’s really strange to see if you’ve watched these in order from first to last. Mainly because the industry and the Midnight Blue show had changed so much from the beginning to this point. It’s highly entertaining and it’s a valuable piece of history in the adult film industry. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Rating - ***
-Ed Demko
