Ten Great Porn DVDs

As editor of Batteries Not Included, a monthly newsletter about the porn industry, I watch more than 600 adult videos each year, with no visible harm to my body or mind but with severe strain to my VCR's fast-forward gears. I move quickly because life is short and porn is long. I can't claim to have seen every triple-X movie [according to the industry magazine Adult Video News, more than 10,000 titles are released each year], but I have seen damn near every one of quality. Here are the 10 best currently available on video and DVD:

[dvdTitle]The Awakening[/dvdTitle]

[releaseDate](1999)[/releaseDate]

The plot of this Paul Thomas film is strange, sort of Blow Up meets blow job. Following a near-death experience, Inari Vachs attempts to discover something that provides more for her than emotionally empty, random sex. Her photographer boyfriend ridicules this spiritual search, bangs her junkie sister (Kobe Tai) and becomes enraged when Inari tells him that things must change. Confused, Inari visits a New Age guru who claims he can walk through walls--and who has a thing for Kobe's feet. The filmmakers claim this is based on a true story.

[dvdTitle]Bobby Sox[/dvdTitle]

[releaseDate](1996)[/releaseDate]

Another Paul Thomas film, and perhaps his best. Jamie Gillis plays an alcoholic B-movie actor who has fallen to doing C movies. He's on the road to promote his latest horror film. Dressed as a space monster, he "kidnaps" Nikki Tyler. The film quickly turns into a parody of Rhonda Shear's old Up All Night movie marathons, but with sex scenes that would make Gilbert Gottfried hyperventilate.

[dvdTitle]Chameleons: Not the Sequel[/dvdTitle]

[releaseDate](1992)[/releaseDate]

John Leslie directed some of the most popular adult movies of the Nineties. This is his best. Rocco Siffredi and Deidre Holland play aliens who feast on the sex drives of humans and assume the identity of each person they fuck. One of their victims is Ashlyn Gere, who wants to become an alien herself so she can consume Rocco and experience sex as a man.

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[dvdTitle]The Devil in miss Jones[/dvdTitle]

[releaseDate](1972)[/releaseDate]

After directing Deep Throat, Gerard Damiano released his Catholic inner child with this film. Georgina Spelvin plays a virgin who commits suicide and finds herself on her way to hell. The devil offers her a short reprieve if she agrees to return to earth and be "consumed by lust." She succeeds admirably.

[dvdTitle]Face Dance I and II[/dvdTitle]

[releaseDate](1993)[/releaseDate]

John Stagliano is best known for his gonzo "Buttman" series. Face Dance is his attempt at plot. This festival of debauchery includes group scenes, oddball sexual roughhousing, nasty stripteases and the severe depletion of Rocco Siffredi by actresses fresh enough to look surprised.

[dvdTitle]House of Sleeping Beauties 3[/dvdTitle]

[releaseDate](2000)[/releaseDate]

The most recent chapter in this Paul Thomas series opens at a mysterious Victorian bordello in which elderly men retreat to dream of their sexually active youths. One old soldier fondly recalls a lost love (Taylor Hayes) who had a heart of gold, a healing touch and great tits.

[dvdTitle]Latex[/dvdTitle]

[releaseDate](1995)[/releaseDate]

In this classic from Michael Ninn, Jon Dough can see other people's sexual histories by touching them. The Big Sister state decides he must be cured. Is he a lunatic or a visionary? Only a mysterious blonde, played by Sunset Thomas, can protect him from kinky shrink Tyffany Million, but he wins either way.

[dvdTitle]New wave Hookers[/dvdTitle]

[releaseDate](1985)[/releaseDate]

Created in wonderfully bad taste by the Dark Brothers, the surreal NWH features Jamie Gillis and Jack Baker as pimps who can turn women into whores by having them listen to New Wave music. They even shared the beat with an underage Traci Lords, though that scene has long since been excised.

[dvdTitle]Nothing to hide 2: Justine[/dvdTitle]

[releaseDate](1993)[/releaseDate]

Paul Thomas again. Roxanne Blaze falls for an older guy she meets when he's shopping for cock rings. "You don't need a cock ring," she tells him. "You just need a good fuck." He gets one. As it turns out, the guy is her boyfriend's father and she must decide between the two. I won't spoil the ending.

[dvdTitle]The Opening of Misty Beethoven[/dvdTitle]

[releaseDate](1976)[/releaseDate]

Directed by Radley Metzger, this is the closest thing you'll find to a hard-core Woody Allen film. A therapist played by Jamie Gillis bets he can turn Misty (Constance Money) into the world's greatest sex star by teaching her to give better head. The result qualifies as porn chic.