Manhunters

The sex in Manhunters is great -- that's not the problem -- and I'll get to it in a minute, but what bugs me about this one is what a waste of potential it is. I love the idea of merging adult entertainment with a gritty cop drama like The Shield, and the Wicked folks already had the setting to film it in: Los Angeles.

So what holds this movie back? A so-so script, some casting mistakes and a lack of attention to detail. Hell, I'd love to see The Shield done with sex scenes, but to pull off that formula, the Wicked people simply shouldn't have used Kirsten Price and Jessica Drake as two of the four central bounty-hunter-cop heroes. Drake almost pulls it off, but she spends most of her performance scowling, while Price is just too slight. Carmen Hart gets points for her rural accent, leaving the ultra-buff Exotica as the only one of the four leads with the perfect mix of sexiness and physical authority to play this kind of part. And don't get me wrong: ultra-buffness isn't a requirement of a role like this -- just look at Keira Knightley in Domino -- but it helps.

Other details feel wrong. Most of the women leave their hair down when they storm a house on a raid, when they ought to tie it back. (There's plenty of time to look stylish in the sex and party scenes.) I also understand that earrings are a no-no in legitimate police work.

Now on to the sex. It's great, but really distinguishes the sex in this one is the way the filmmakers fetishize brawny, strong women. It's a different kind of female worship than the Russ Meyer school, where super-busty babes routinely broke men's necks and balls, but it ain't bad. Devon Michaels -- another ultra-buff babe with huge, oddly pleasing fake breasts -- has a kick-ass scene with Lee Stone, and it made me wonder why they didn't use her in one of the lead roles. Still another scene has Exotica wrestle a convicted rapist character to the ground and mace him. It's not sexy, but it fits into the overall scheme of female worship.

(Oh, one more casting complaint: Luscious Lopez has a great sex scene in here, then disappears from the movie. Why waste Lopez as the gang member's girlfriend? The whole movie is about women kicking ass -- why not make the villain a woman, too? Maybe Lopez will get the chance to play an intergalactic villainess someday.)

OK, so this movie's pretty far from perfect, but I'm going to give it an editor's choice on these grounds: It worships strong women. It has great production values. It comes with two extra disks filled with fantastic special features. All I ask from Wicked is this: Keep making movies like these, and imitate The Shield more closely.

Directed by Brad Armstrong.

Starring, Brad Armstrong, Brian Surewood, Carmen Hart, Cassie Courtland, Chris Cannon, Devon Lee, Devon Michaels, Herschel Savage, Jada Fire, Jessica Drake, Julian St. Jox, Kaylynn, Kirsten Price, Lee Stone, Luscious Lopez, Marcos Leon, Marcus London, Nyomi Banxxx, Sandra Romain, Shannon Kelly and Tommy Gunn.

Extras include several making-of documentaries, bonus sex scenes, photo galleries and trailers.