Perhaps mirroring to some extent the creative drought plaguing mainstream Hollywood, the adult industry has seemingly sought to remake several of its greatest classics of late. Paradoxically to what you might expect, their attempts thus far have proved considerably more successful, possibly due to the key involvement of talented thespian turned fornication filmmaker Paul Thomas who has crafted perfectly honorable recreations of DEBBIE DOES DALLAS, DEVIL IN MISS JONES and now his own MASSEUSE. The original, one of the few ambitious projects coming into fruition circa the otherwise artistically barren year of 1990, proved a daring experiment at the time and as such certainly didn't please everyone. Basically a single sex scene evolving over the course of an entire movie, charting the growing attraction between 28-year old male virgin Randy Spears and the down-market masseuse he frequents, a career performance by legendary Hyapatia Lee, the film narrowed its focus to an almost minimalistic degree by including non-sex supporting characters for narrative purposes only. While this approach brought plaudits from fans worn down by formula, to a great many other it just wasn't porn anymore.
Tellingly, for his revised version, PT has "opened up" the condensed source material, retaining the original Mark Haggard screenplay almost in its entirety with additional scenes courtesy of talented scribe Dean Nash who wrote the instant classics BAD WIVES and FADE TO BLACK for the same director but allowing his characters to "see other people" as it were. Resulting on one hand in a more conventional carnal cinema format, the expanded script still succeeds in shifting nuance so it doesn't feel at all like a "dumbed down" rendition of a daring original. The basic situation stays the same. Lonely male virgin Jim (Justin Sterling), stuck in a dead end office job and sign of the times ! addicted to Internet porn, goes to visit a massage parlor in the seedier side of town. He's welcomed by sympathetic receptionist Tina Tyler, in a characteristically terrific turn, who casually informs him of all the possibilities and their prices before he settles on Barbara (Jenna Jameson) who just happens to be free. A match made in Heaven, or maybe it's the other place, as it turns out and the two of them get to know one another over a series of encounters, Barbara bending her no touching policy to include manual then oral relief and accepting Jim's invitation to visit him at home. As in the original, he has a considerable collection of S&M paraphernalia but while this initially scared off his reluctant lady love, this time she embraces it wholeheartedly. This provides the breaking point between both movies, where the remake diverges dramatically and takes on an identity of its own. While Barbara's intentions were primarily monetary yet basically benign in the original, her motivations prove far more sinister and harder to fathom on this occasion. Ironically, Vivid the company producing and distributing the movie commissioned this "update" for its extremely bankable contract star Jenna and her heavily publicized real life paramour Justin. Thomas tweaks the narrative to such an extent that Barbara might be viewed as its villain, milking Jim's dependence for all it's worth, having him wait by the phone for calls that never come. He also offers a clever twist on the presence of a baby in her "private" life, which seemed like a flubbed scene at first ("revealing" the bundled up tot as a toy doll) but presumably was no such thing. Think about it
A potentially "superfluous" subplot has office co-worker Wendy formerly Maya Divine (who took center stage in Michael Raven's endearing WOMEN ON TOP) coming on to an increasingly distant Jim with buddy Evan Stone (about a million miles removed from his Fabio brooding hunk turn in Veronica Hart's superlative TAKEN) stepping in to literally fill the void ! An obvious side effect of the whole "opening up", this temporary distraction from the central coupling could have been disastrous if both parts hadn't been played this beguiling so there's an albeit minor audience investment in wanting to see these two get together as well. Savanna Samson, the impressive "new" Miss Jones, is wasted dramatically though put to good use sexually as Barbara's friend and colleague hired to "put on a show" for our out of his league anti-hero. Interestingly, Thomas has spun a few downright subversive variations on the film's central coupling while still delivering the tabloid-inspired star vehicle Vivid was clamoring for, making its more "conventional" appearance merely skin deep. While neither Jenna nor Justin possesses the versatility of their illustrious predecessors, both fit the bill visually (Sterling making for a more convincing nerd than matinée idol handsome Spears) and show a good grasp of character that outdoes most of their previous work. It goes without saying that they have incredible chemistry, perhaps even a little too strong at the outset when they're supposed to be perfect strangers feeling each outer out but, hey, these things happen, I suppose.
Both a wise and cost-effective decision on the director's part was to recycle Michaelangelo's absolutely haunting soundtrack from the original lock, stock 'n' barrel. A gifted singer/composer himself (he played Peter in Norman Jewison's film version of Jesus Christ SUPERSTAR and wrote several memorable songs for adult movies including Bob Chinn's LET'S GET PHYSICAL and Jeff Fairbanks' FANTASYWORLD), PT knows the importance of good as in appropriate music to underscore sex scenes, an art he delivers a virtual textbook example of on this occasion as in the movie it reflects and ever so subtly distorts.
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