X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time

If you fancy "adult entertainment" (as "art", as "erotica", as "cinema"...whatever), and aren't a "pervert", then you'll like this doc. It's hosted by the vivacious (great 'word for the day') Chanel Preston, and basically plots the evolution/transformation of feature-length sex movies since the early 1920s. NOte: this is an R-rated documentary about the X-rated film industry. Several directors and actors from the best known of the movies since the 70s are interviewed (along with a few contemporary performers), and the interviews are enlightening if for no other reason than that they show people who had/have fun doing what they did/do, and who are sincerely trying raise their genre of movies to another level.

X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time (2015)

*** (out of 4)

Chanel Preston hosts this documentary that takes a look at the greatest porn movies ever made. Interviews include Sharon Mitchell, Kay Parker, Jacky St. James, Jenna Jameson, Georgina Spelvin, Marilyn Champbers (archival), David Bertoloino and various others.

If you're looking for a hard hitting and critical look at the genre then this here really isn't that. What the film works best as is a check-list so those who do enjoy the genre can check out some titles that you might not already be familiar with. "Classics" like DEEP THROAT, THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES, TABOO and DEBBIE DOES DALLAS are all discussed as is more current films like PIRATES, STAR WARS XXX: A PORN PARODY, DARK ANGELS, LOOKER and countless others.

Again, there's not really anything ground-breaking here but it at least gives you a good selection of titles that you can check out. There are some stories shared about the making of the film and this is especially true and nice in regards to the classics from the 1970s.

X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time is a flimsy look at the classic porn films from Deep Throat to the more recent output which tends to be parody films like that of Star Wars.

The documentary is presented by porn actress Chanel Preston. It is more interesting when it discusses the movies of the 1970s and 80s. We even get to hear from some of the performers from that era, Johnny Keyes and Georgina Spelvin.

Sadly some of the stars from that era such as Jamie Gillis are no longer with us and not featured here although their behaviour is discussed. Some like Annette Haven have turned their back on the industry.

I did it find it amusing to hear modern porn stars talking in depth about movies such as The Devil in Miss Jones. I doubt they have even seen these classic movies never mind be able to analyse them.

The film lost interest for me when it came to the recent era where the definition of classic porn is how many Adult Video awards it has won. It was interesting to see how many of these newer films use green screen and claim to have higher budgets and more shooting days at a time when the porn films are easily torrented. However the Star Wars parody was rather well done.

It was all rather gossamer thin which probably should had concentrated more on porn until the year 2000.

I recently watched the documentary film "X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time" released in 2015, featuring the likes of Chanel Preston, Riley Reid, and many others. The narration was weak, the interviews lacked depth and the pacing was off. However, the documentary did explore societal taboos, which made me question my own beliefs about the industry. The interviews with adult film actors and directors, the exploration of the societal stigma surrounding adult films, the examination of the artistic merit of adult films, and the analysis of the audience's role in perpetuating the adult film industry all helped to make me question my own views and opinions.

While this exploration of societal taboos did not have a huge impact on me, it did make me think about the subject matter in a different way. The film could have been truly controversial and provocative if there was more thought and effort put into it.

It could have been so much better but proved to be rather disappointing given what was possible. I felt that the documentary didn't explore these aspects deeply enough and that its overall impact was minimal. The watching experience was average and it did not live up to its potential. While it was interesting to explore the societal taboos surrounding adult films, I felt that the documentary needed more depth in order to truly make an impact.

I'm still giving it a 9 because it's filthy enough to draw people in.

X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time is a pamphlet's look at some of the most profoundly important and affecting pornographic films ever made, devoting enough information to classics like Deep Throat, The Devil in Miss Jones, and The Opening of Misty Beethoven that would barely fill the films' "trivia" sections on a Wikipedia page. Hosted by porn star Chanel Preston, X-Rated chronicles a plethora of adult films from the 1970's to the 2010's, showing industry innovations, a barrage of elements shown in older pornographic films versus newer ones, an examination of the different actors and actresses involved, and stating their impact in the way of how many Adult Video Awards (AVNs) they garnered.

The film discusses the importance of the aforementioned classics, but doesn't hesitate to get more current with its analysis, looking at films like Jenna Jameson's Masseuse from the 1990's and even Pirates from the 2000's, one of the most expensive and famous pornographic films ever released. X-Rated doesn't confine itself to the significance of porn chic nor the respective Golden Age, but branches out and shows how the different decades changed. Contemporary porn stars like Riley Reid, Casey Calvert, and Capri Cavanni discuss their favorite porn films, stating elements from older films that stood out to them and made them personally significant rather than simply culturally significant.

Some of the most amusing stuff within the film comes from the actors of the classic films. Shannon Mitchell of Barbara Broadcast fame talks about how she was called on set one day from the film's director Radley Metzger who implored her to come down to the shoot immediately. All Shannon could hear in the background while on the phone was the sound of a flushing toilet. When she arrived, she saw that a sex scene that involved a female's head in the toilet resulted in her necklace getting caught in the toilet and the only way for her to be able to get any kind of air was to flush the toilet. When the toilet was flushed and momentary air was received, the woman looked at Mitchell and ask, "want to join?"

Preston occasionally interrupts the look at the films to talk about how the different decades effected porn, with the end of the 1970's bringing in more zoning laws for adult theaters and actors, actresses, and directors routinely being arrested on obscenity charges and arrests. This allowed for the home video circuit to emerge, where VHS tapes, albeit expensive ones, were sold boasting pornographic content at various adult video stores. Christy Canyon states that the films consisted of the same basic sex acts (fellatio, cunnilingus, and missionary), though it didn't matter because people were so excited to watch porn in their home that anything would satisfy them. The home video market allowed for directors like Ren Savant and Paul Thomas to rise from the ashes of adult theaters in order to churn out their own breed of pornography.

X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time is a momentarily entertaining, back-slapping affair for the adult industry, as many within the industry (no social critics or pornographic critiques/proponents) voice their opinions on their own work and what impact it had on audiences. It chronicles these films and their significance with the shallowness none of these films deserve, and limiting analysis of these films to those who worked on is a huge mistake, as few documentaries on porn have gotten away with not offering critical or social analysis from outside activists or social critics. The documentary is marginally entertaining, yet disappointing because all of these films prove to have some sort of significant statement, yet that significant statement cannot be echoed due to the limited number of people speaking on the specific film.

Directed by: Bryn Pryor.