Captive

Poorly shot entirely in the studio (identified as Deering Studios in Chatsworth, for porn historians), "Captive" has Sin City director Michael Raven not merely on an off day but handing in a worthless video that certainly tarnishes his reputation as a big cheese back at the turn of this century.

Starring the underwhelming blonde Zoe, this flashback tale concerns how she went to Tokyo on tour as a dancer (read: stripper) and became involved with white slavers, led by night club owner Eric Price. Beyond that hardly anything of even momentary interest occurs, as Raven strings together the requisite four sex scenes culminating in a particularly dull orgy.

This represents the sort of lazy, pointless story-line XXX video that helped contribute to the death of narrative porn, as audiences understandably balked at suffering through such sludge when tuning in merely for explicit sex action. Jade Marcella is fine as another club girl in her sex scenes, while the all-time great Syren in a slit at the side Suzy Wong outfit is visually appealing -too bad Raven didn't give her much of a character to play as Price's right-hand woman.

Bridgette Kerkove is hot in her pre-boob-job state as a blonde victim just preceding Zoe as Price sells off his girls to wealthy overseas buyers. Non-ending after a fake-rooftop shootout between Zoe and inept bouncer/guard Evan Stone is truly terrible, part of the insult attitude of the filmmaker this time out.

Sloppy credits omit Herschel Savage, who appears sans dialog as one of the club customers serviced by Jade in the back room. Continuity is also poor, as the male cast, including Dale DaBone in a navy officer's uniform, Mark Davis are prominent as extras in the opening scene and then pop up later with footage rather randomly presented. No Tokyo atmosphere is developed at all, as Raven assumes mere casting of Syren and Jade is enough to give the lame story "Oriental credibility".