Century Mining

A cave-in releases much sexual tension in CENTURY MINING, an initially-intriguing offering from director Al Parker that eventually tips its hand as a lazy sex flick.

Set-up is interesting, with a couple bunkmates (Eric Ryan and Pierce Daniels) skipping an early-morning quickie at the film's outset (a rarity in porn) so they can make it to work on time. Down in the mines, fellow workers Pat Allen and David Hughes get the showstopper out of the way early, delivering a passionate and raunchy sex session that's both electric and educational about the many things you can do with foreskin. As the boys make passionate love, the struts of the supports quiver around them, signaling the mine's impending collapse.

Unfortunately, once the walls cave in, so does the plot. Abandoning any real pretext of narrative or character development, the film simply moves from scene to scene of various guys getting it on in the mine, with occasional cuts to an office set on "the surface" where director Parker (in a non-sex role) and a bunch of extras run around squinting at a map while trying to get the guys out. It's not like I was expecting a XXX version of THE 33, but after a promising start that seemed to establish a couple interesting protagonists and side characters, it's frustrating to watch the film chuck all this aside for a series of overlong (there are only four scenes in the 85-minute film!), one-after-the-other sex sessions. Aside from the first scene, few are much to write home about - neither bad nor good enough to be memorable. And while the film does an interesting job with the sets, creating a fairly believable, detailed mine interior on sound stages (kind of like a gay porn version of that same year's horror indie THE STRANGENESS), any interest in evoking atmosphere dissipates following the opening. Parker and his crew show potential at the outset, but quickly run out of steam. Would that they'd dug deeper.