LOS ANGELES — Wicked Pictures and Adam & Eve gambled on a period piece and sharpshooting director Stormy Daniels came up with nothing but aces in this raucous throwback that sets a new bar for porno Westerns.
Engaging, sexy and full of badass women, this double-barreled epic hits every target as one of the best adult movies of the year.
Daniels & Co. stacked the deck with a versatile ensemble cast led by 2015 XBIZ Female Performer of the Year Anikka Albrite, Amber Rayne, Allie Haze and Wicked superstar jessica drake, while perennial Best Actor Steven St. Croix and fellow XBIZ Award-winning stud Brendon Miller could not have been better as leading men.
But it was Daniels herself who not only called the action and wrote the screenplay for “Wanted,” she also delivered perhaps the most dynamic and entertaining performance of her career. A hustler, lover and a fighter that becomes the gun-slinging leader of this smoking band of outlaws, Stormy’s Dani is a ride or die chick with a checkered past.
Beneath her hard exterior is a woman who’s come to grips with her choices and stands ready to sacrifice to help her friends. Those themes form the heart of this dangerous love story that rumbles through the Wicked Wild West in classic style.
The Game of Blood starts when the shady Sheriff of Diablo City (Steven St. Croix) wrongfully accuses bathhouse whore Joanna (Anikka Albrite) of murdering wealthy landowner Frank Garrett (Jay Crew). Despite being married to the stunning Pearl (jessica drake), the sickly Garrett makes regular visits to Joanna, whom he’s fallen so in love with that he hands her a copy of the deed to the north end of his ranch along with a map. But not before they swap bodily fluids one last time in a rousing coupling between Albrite and Crew.
Garrett tells the sweet Joanna he knows his days are numbered and wants to take care of her when he’s gone like he wishes he could’ve all along. Minutes later, Garrett is found dead and the opportunistic Sheriff Clayton roughs up Joanna and pins it all on her.
“For the murder and attempted robbery of Frank Garrett, I order this woman hanged,” the Sheriff declares, while the bloodied Joanna looks anguished.
It’s a terrific tone-setting scene that’ll have viewers reaching for the popcorn.
As fate would have it, Dani (Stormy) has also waltzed into Diablo City for the big poker tournament, where she’s intent on winning enough money so she can help her spunky friend Birdie (Amber Rayne) save the family ranch.
The rowdy arrest of Joanna breaks up the poker game just in time for Dani, who’s already being accused of holding cards. When she ventures outside and gets wind of Joanna’s dire situation from Garrett’s assistant Samuel (Eric Masterson) and Joanna’s harlot friend, Lilah (Allie Haze), Dani hatches a plan to save her.
“I have an idea,” Dani says. “Birdie, get my gun… and my pants.”
Just over 20 minutes into “Wanted,” we’re hooked.
Dani’s crew swoops in without a second to spare, shoots it out with Sheriff Clayton and his posse, picks up Joanna and gallops out of town.
Now royally pissed, Sheriff Clayton asks who wants to ride with him to apprehend Dani, Joanna and the gang. Enter Morgan (Brendon Miller), a mysterious bounty hunter who tells Clayton he’s on board.
There’s lots of story to tell in “Wanted,” but Stormy doesn’t skimp on the sex along the way. A welcome session comes when deputy Dale (Dick Chibbles) sees mouth-watering Nurse Alice (Cassidy Klein) to dress the flesh wound he suffered in the gun battle. Alice cleans up Dale and then lets him plow her backside while Dani’s crew makes headway on horseback.
But Lilah is also still bleeding from a gunshot and is in need of urgent care herself, so Dani’s crew veers off to an Apache Indian camp to see a medicine woman. Lilah gets treatment and Birdie gets throttled by Apache warrior Taza (Tommy Gunn) in a teepee. His wife Eela (Mia Li) even joins them in what becomes a sizzling threesome.
Even though the ruthless Sheriff now has his own plans for Garrett’s land, the plot thickens as Samuel returns home to get the original deed, telling his wife Sally (Jodi Taylor) to giddy-up to Yuma, find Marshal Lane (Brad Armstrong) and hand it to him. But first things first as Sam bangs Sally.
Meanwhile, Joanna, Lilah and Dani decide to go for a skinny dip in a pond. That’s when Dani reveals why Morgan is tracking her in a series of flashbacks to when she was a working girl on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. She recalls that’s when she met Morgan, “a cowboy from Kansas City” who was an expert Poker player.
In an unexpected encounter, we see Stormy go to work on a client (Ryan McLane) in a volcanic sex scene.
The flashback continues in one of the best sequences of the movie as the chemistry between Dani and Morgan creates a palpable sexual tension. Dani invites him back to her room for a card game, drugs his drink, knocks him out with a bottle and takes his money.
Fast-forward to present (the late 1800s) and Joanna, Lilah and Dani decide to sex each other up in the pond in a beautifully shot interlude. But when it’s over, they see a gun being pointed at them because Morgan has come to collect.
Dani knows the only way out of this mess is to make a deal, promising to split her share of whatever they find at Garrett’s ranch with Morgan.
“Just let me finish what I need to do and I’m all yours,” Dani tells him. It’s what Morgan needed to hear because he’s secretly in love with her.
Back in Diablo City, Sheriff Clayton and Pearl Garrett (drake) have inked a deal of their own.
“When this place sells, you can wire the money directly into my account,” Pearl tells Clayton as he signs off on her husband’s deed.
They celebrate with a steamy boff as drake and St. Croix show why they’re elite industry pros.
With the race to Garrett’s ranch on between Dani’s posse and Sheriff Clayton’s thugs, it’s only a matter of time before the climactic showdown. Speaking of climaxes, Marshal Lane (Brad Armstrong) gets to have one with Hannah (Chanel Preston) right before he receives the special delivery from Sally.
What Stormy and her team have created with “Wanted” is a dynamite package that sparkles with sensational acting and gorgeous cinematography from director of photography Jake Jacobs and Andre Madness.
The feature also reaches rarified air with its detailed art direction by Kylie Ireland and Andy Appleton and inspired period wardrobe courtesy of Brad Armstrong, who researched, designed and shopped for more than 50 authentic outfits in order to bring the Old West to life.
And Stormy puts a fitting bow on the package at the end as the Sheriff gets his comeuppance and Morgan finally gets his girl in the most passionate tryst of the movie.
Extra credit goes to Brendon Miller, who is also a musician that even belted out the catchy title track, “On the Run,” with The Wicked Outlaws. So cowboy up, fellas, this is one of the most enjoyable adult films of 2015.
