Driven

There are no thrills in Cash Markman's would-be stalker thriller "Driven" for Wicked Pictures. Cash explains in the BTS his central gimmick here: what if a woman being stalked actually enjoyed it? He's satisfied that he's come up with a brilliant idea but the movie doesn't develop the story beyond that and is stillborn. Of course the idiots at AVN nominated him for an industry Best Screenplay award as a result.

The BTS also tries to blame this junker on Stormy, as she indicates in an interview that she had seen a prior Cash feature for Wicked and requested him as her director. She was already writing many screenplays at the time, and fortunately opted to direct her own work in future, with Cash turning to Penthouse Video and Kelly Holland to pilot dozens of lousy videos there.

Randy Spears in the lead role is one-note throughout: menacing heavy, with as many variations in facial expression (none) as the great Charles Bronson in his archetypal loner roles. Cash's first mistake is to stage the feature in bright sunlight, perhaps wishing to establish the banality of evil (see: "Purple Noon", the Rene Clement modern noir in color classic starring Alain Delon) but fails miserably. Using the Wide World of Sport video look of the VHS era was a blunder, especially since his d.p. Francois Clousot had already established a more suitable and stylish house look to Wicked features in dozens of other movies for the label.

Self-indulgent casting has Cash using Slick Rhodes, his favorite NonSex performer, as Cindy Crawford's old-man boyfriend in a confrontation scene with Spears, while he's taking time out from stalking ex-girl friend Stormy. The role called for a muscular, imposing guy to match up against interloper Randy, perhaps a Lee Stone, John West or Dale DaBone, so having the wimp Rhodes nullifies the scene completely.

Worse yet, without my being too specific and thereby spoiling the single twist in this stupid screenplay, Cash stages the final scenes so poorly that the credibility of his central "she liked being stalked" premise is ruined. We're left with one of those trick endings, about on a par with the granddaddy of all false endings, Brian DePalma's idiotic and endlessly copied finale in "Carrie".

Blonde-heavy cast offers besides Stormy and Crawford some quality porn beauties like Brooke Haven and Lexi Lamour, while the mysterious Demi Delia has a lesbian scene with Brooke, and later moved from porn to straight work including managing Stormy Daniels.