Hooked

Since I have always detected a resemblance between XXX superstar Jessica Drake and mainstream superstar Julia Roberts, "Hooked" is no surprise as a rather interesting variation on the "Pretty Woman" formula. Oddly enough, this film has no writing credit, even though I found its take on the world's oldest profession quite effective, and the dialog sharp. (Looking at her more recent photos in IMDb, Drake now resembles an odd mixture of Angie Dickinson and Julia, quite a combo.)

As Andrea, she narrates her story, a bored office worker who visits a cocktail bar and is mistaken for a hooker there by Marcus London. It seems that the bar has a bad reputation -and she's in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Their "meet cute", ending with her throwing her drink in his face and storming off leads to second thoughts, as Andrea returns to the scene and this time tries being a hooker for real. She's so successful that she gets the attention of a call girl wrangler well-played by Chanel Preston, who signs her up and starts sending her on assignments, including threesomes where the fans get the thrill of two big stars from different eras, Chanel and Jessica, teaming up in bed.

There's surprising depth to this frothy format, and noted director Brad Armstrong stages it all quite lavishly considering it is B material compared to his usual and far more famous pretentious projects. In looking back at the story-rich XXX features made a decade or two ago (seen from today's vast wasteland of new material perspective), I find that often the star vehicles and standard quickies hold up better than their big-budget, award-winning contemporaries -sort of a tortoise and the hare syndrome.

Wicked peppers the cast with talent, including a post-stardom Eva Angelina, still uber- sexy in a character role as Drake's best bud; Jenny Hendrix, Shyla Stylez and Kortney Kane bringing glamor and sexual prowess to standard call girl roles and even Eric Masterson taking a break from his starring rom-coms to play a non-sex bit. As Andrea's horrific boss who gets his comeuppance, Randy Spears is perfectly cast - hissable from the word go.