As Wicked Pictures' top dog, director Brad Armstrong seemingly has free rein with his projects for the label, but "Ethni-city" (the hyphen is actually represented by a bullet hole in the logo on screen) is an embarrassing retro movie harking back to the 1970s explosion of Blaxploitation films. Unfortunately, Brad's approach lacks the fun and excitement of those action movies, which I dutifully watched back in the day at Cleveland drive-in theaters and some indoor venues like the memorable Scrumpy Dump theater on Euclid Ave. (The in-joke at the Dump when I chatted with fellow audience members who were amused by yours truly the film buff taking notes on the movie was that the only other white person in the theater besides me was the projectionist.)
The classics featuring Pam Grier, Fred Williamson and many other cult players usually had plenty of white faces in the cast, as villains or ladies for both Pam & Fred to score some interracial sex with. But Brad chooses to have a lengthy drama in which no Caucasians (or Asians for that matter) show up, coming up as merely peculiar rather than an interesting touch.
Saving grace in this sentimental, often soap operatic opus is Kira Noir in the lead femme role, playing a doctor whose younger step-brother Ricky Johnson is headed for trouble. She's a fine actress and beauty, who rises above the lame material provided by Brad and creates a character rather than the mere stereotypes concocted around her. Her ability to overcome less than ideal Adult Cinema surroundings is also on view these days as Mandingo's lesbian assistant in a series of gonzo blacked.com releases including the recommended "Black and White Vol. 10".
Separate story line, which Brad eventually and pretentiously meshes with Kira's in the manner of the fashionable (and irritating) Chaos Theory applied to filmmaking (see: overrated Oscar bait "Crash"), stars Misty Stone and Prince Yahshua as a married couple prone to infidelity. Completing a triad of plot-lines we have Tyler Knight as a successful lawyer who's looking out for the ne'er-do-well he grew up with, ex-con played by Nat Turnher. Nat turns out to be the bad influence that gets Ricky in trouble, with melodramatic and hokey results. Tyler's buxom and beautiful wife (she could be a Wicked star in the manner of Asa Akira with facial features resembling the great AA, if and when Wicked ever signed Black ladies as contract talent) is the sexiest cast member, Osa Lovely.
As with several other recent Armstrong releases, there is no screen writing credit displayed. In this case, that's to hide the guilty, as the show is mired in clichéd dialog, failed attempt at hip talk (characters use the word Dog as often as Randy on "American Idol") and dated sentimentality. Brad's direction is poor, as in a "scene missing" mishap in the lengthy non-sex final reel, in which a crucial shooting during a hold-up fails to be shown while we're diverted watching one of the other sub- plots (a dumb "social consciousness" scene in which NonSex (for a change) Rob Piper displays his lack of acting ability as a resentful cop busting Tyler's chops while writing him a traffic ticket). Brad cuts back to a tense scene and I kept playing back the DVD to see if I'd somehow missed the nonexistent crucial footage he stupidly left out.
Another typical bit of sloppiness has the supposedly thorough end credits leaving out Dirk Huge, who is billed in the opening credits. I couldn't identify him in the cast, even though I had just watched him unspecified among 4 Black players getting a blow bang from Jessica Drake in Brad's recent release "Jessica Drake Is Wicked".
For the record, Brad previously directed all-Black casts (or nearly, including himself on screen egotistically) in the execrable gonzo video "Hot Chocolate" and the Wicked Passions (aimed at Couples) release "A Touch of Seduction", with several cast members from "Seduction" cast here too. As with many Wicked features made by Brad, a second disk is included in the DVD package (upping the price point), this one containing a useless 92-minute "Auditions" bonus in which the cast members (plus unidentified losers, who didn't get hired) recite the script while Brad's voice coaches them. Osa Lovely is the only one who has memorized her lines ahead of the audition. Also on Disk Two is a 43- minute NonSex version of the movie, including nudity but with all the XXX content thrown out. Is Brad trying to convince us, long after the ship has sailed, that acting and story line Adult Cinema matters? Well, it still matters to me, but with the proviso that the movie is done well - lousy features like "Ethni-city" hardly help the cause.
