The Driver

Harley Jade gets a shot at a leading role in Jonathan Morgan's Wicked release "The Driver", a low-key romance from the screenplay file of Stormy Daniels. Why the superstar Stormy didn't direct it herself is a mystery of little interest at best.

What emerges is "pleasant" porn, undemanding and lacking in the drama or sexual excess one expects in these Gonzo times. Instead, as per Stormy's usual m.o., it's a throwback to traditional Hollywood and even the sex scenes are rather gentle compared to what passes for XXX entertainment.

Casting emphasizes a low-key mood, with inexpressive Lucas Frost in the title role, apparently a Lyft or Uber guy who arrives to take Harley to a clubbing date with gal pal Cassidy Klein. Cassidy phones our heroine mid-drive to report she's ill, but of course in a porn saga she's actually at home humping a guy (Jay Smooth) rather than keeping her girls' night out commitment.

The gradual falling for each other process for Harley & Lucas is as calm as it is inevitable. Along the way we have a very hot but clearly extraneous sex scene tossed in as Lucas flashes back to a couple of lesbians making love on his car hood, in the persons of redhead wonder Lauren Phillips and lovely Jenna Sativa.

Michael Vegas rubbed me the wrong way (as usual) as he overplayed his role as Jade's mean-spirited ex-boy friend. Director Morgan didn't seem to get inspired by this project, so the question remains not why Stormy didn't direct it herself but rather why Wicked accepted it in the first place. It doesn't even fit the label's previous policy of cranking out vehicles to keep its many contract stars working -none of them show up (no Jessica, Asia or Kaylani or even Stormy).