Dreamquest

Dreamquest; erotic film, USA, 2000; D: Brad Armstrong, S: Jenna Jameson, Herschel Savage, Alexa Rae, Devin Wolf, Asia Carrera

One evening, while lying bored in her bed with her cat, Sarah asks herself if true love disappeared in the modern world. Just then, two fairies show up and she follows them, entering through the mirror into a different fantasy world. There, the shy Sarah is made more "extroverted" when she makes a menage a trois with a man and a woman, Arachna, who gives her the assignment to save fantasy which was stolen by the tyrant Vladimir. She goes through a castle into a forest, finding numerous sex adventures along her journey. Finally, she arrives at Vladimir who captures her and makes her his queen. Still, she gets fantasy away from him and releases her back into the world, returning home to her lover Steve, now ready for real erotic adventures.

Ever since an appearance in a "Family Guy" episode and numerous references about her throughout numerous TV shows, former AV actress Jenna Jameson assured that even people who keep a distance from the AV industry will hear about her and get curious. One of her last films, "Dreamquest", shows that it is difficult to review an adult / erotic film. Right of the bat, despite a few more ambitious approaches of director Brad Armstrong, "Dreamquest" isn't much of a film. Some reviewers called it "one of the best films Jameson starred in", even one of the "best adult films" of the decade, but somehow it's hard to figure out what they meant. Maybe there are some different criteria for rating a film in this genre, except maybe for the criteria of getting a viewer aroused. And yet, since there is at least a plot and some vague point, even such small dose of imagination and real plot should maybe deserve modest praise. "Dreamquest" starts off nicely, with Jameson playing Sarah, a shy, bored woman with glasses who laments about how "true love got lost in the modern world". Just then, two butt naked fairies show up from the mirror and stimulate her to enter into their fantasy world, creating a symbolic story about frigidity and the need to get some excitement and liberate oneself in order to enjoy love in bed without boundaries. Some of the more engaging scenes have charm, like the one where a man dressed up like a gladiator poses Sarah a trick question: how to extinguish candles that are held by two naked women without touching the fire or puffing them. So Sarah uses a feather to tickle the two women and make them sneeze and extinguish the candles. Pretty clever, but right after the that the film becomes more banal: she runs away and the man stops the two women who held the candles by having sex with them. Unfortunately, very lousy one, with pathetic music. The story about a quest to find fantasy held by the evil tyrant and release it is actually more interesting than the syrupy erotic sequences, but the two exclude each other. The whole film is like this. Plot. Stop for porn. Plot. Stop for porn. Plot. Stop for porn... And the erotic sequences are rather restrained, with always the same motive of naked women and dressed men who have intercourse with their clothes on. Frankly, most of the sex scenes don't have sense, but they don't have to, either. They are there for fun. Some of the scenes, like when the two fairies "pay" the bridge toll through sex with a knight, are almost unintentionally comical, yet at least the director managed to pull off a solid film, even if the magic is pulled through the mud here. 

Grade:+