69th & Anal Street

I recall the controversy when Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" first was released: many of us were disappointed with the result. It has achieved Classic status over the decades and been re-tooled by Ridley, but it immediately created a new genre and endless imitations or at least movies inspired by the vision of the future. Skye Blue's completely forgotten (maybe due to its crappy title) "69th & Anal Street" is one of the better follow-ups.

She doesn't go in for any special effects, but her own design elements (doubling as director and art director) are intriguing. Mickey G. stars as a tough guy cop, replete with his own particular slouch hat, which would have become a talisman had this obscuro video launched a series.

He's haunted by a serial killer, very well-played by the innocent-looking young Julie Meadows. (An older version of Julie haunts me, as she's in those awful PSA's at the beginning of so many videos admonishing us not to pirate our porn via illegal downloading/sharing.)

I won't spoil the mystery or fun of watching this terrific film by giving too much detail, but it is rich in throwaway incident and tropes. A nod to Sharon Stone in "Basic Instinct" is thrown in the mix just in passing, and Skye's erstwhile amanuensis Summer Cummings has a cameo as a bartender.

Story is set in 2020, 18 years after the video was made. Skye wisely emphasizes sex over dialog scenes, but there's enough story material to keep things interesting. The pastel sets are all fascinating to look at, and even an exterior scene is imaginatively staged inside the studio, as T.J. Hart is accosted at her VW Beetle (yes, those iconic cars are postulated to still be prominent in 2020) and forced into a 3-way.

Even the character names are clever, such as Dru Berrymore (looking uncomfortably like current TV star on "Scandal" - Bellamy Young) named Hilary Holesbig, Meadows named Delusia and Mickey's sidekick Steve Hatcher as Officer Lackinskill. Skye writes herself into the action briefly as police Capt. Bustalotti.

There's one silly scene, played straight, where 2 robots of the future are left to hump each other - my favorite of the time Amber Michaels plays the Girl-Bot, and the boy wears a rather unnecessary rubber while humping her -just part of the era's safe-sex campaign.

No matter how silly the action gets, including the method of Meadows to turn men's minds into mush, the whole package is infinitely better in all respects than Stone's ill-advised "give me the paycheck, please" assignment in "Basic Instinct 2".

Many IMDb users, often in the restricted Adult section as well as some mainstreamers, vote or comment on films they've never seen, merely making fun of the titles. The website does not police against this trolling activity, but when one discovers a winner with a stupid title like this one, you can see the idiocy of dismissing or trying to size up a show without actually seeing (or listening to) it.