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As retailers, you get hit up all day about this studio and that studio. You know who the big boys are, but occasionally some salesperson tries to sell you on some studio that you’ve never heard of. Recently an adult retailer told me about a title that had performed very, very badly for him. It was from a studio called “Unplugged”. Having been a buyer myself, I was familiar with this name as it was a studio I had refused to carry. Why did I refuse to carry it?

Well, my gut reaction was that it was crap. I remember their initial salesperson was a guy who had tried to rip me off at his previous employer…Don Goo. If you don’t know who Don Goo is, it was a studio full of con artist salesmen and rip off product. It was ran by Jeff Krull, who’s about as shady as they come. His salesman was a guy named William Millard who was equally shady. Jeff cites his time at Jill Kelly Productions as something to be proud of, and after ripping off people at Don Goo, he went on to rip off people at Darling Girls. The salesman William went on to Dane if my memory serves me correctly and then to Critical X. So when he called me, I knew instantly that this was some sort of cheap, crappy product using recycled scenes. A tiger doesn’t change it’s stripes they say.

So just who is Critical X / Unplugged? Well the UPC codes start 826865 which means they are related to Latin X and Explosive Pictures. Also their Custodian of Records address links to those studios as well. A quick search of recent Critical X “New Releases” shows titles released in 2008 featuring stars like Bridget Kerkove, Hillary Scott and Audrey Hollander. Bridget retired in 2005, so unless a company that was barely around in 2005 sat on a scene for 3 years, I’d say any scenes with her are recycled from some other company’s DVDs. Likewise with Hillary Scott…who has been exclusive to Sex Z for some time now. Audrey Hollander is important to note because these recent titles show a much younger Audrey, clearly the scenes are from a few years back.

I searched some past reviews of Critical X titles and found THIS one by my friend Don Houston of X-Critic. It’s important to note the Lanny Barby / Ben English scene. Then I searched IAFD for scenes where Lanny Barby and Ben English were listed together and found THIS. I figured Critical X either used the Fusxion title or the Powerhouse/Wildlife title “Intensitivity”. Luckily for me, Intensitivity was reviewed HERE. Seems like it might just be the same scene. So I’d wager that there’s a pretty good chance that Critical X bought the Wildlife scene to be re-used for their title. That’s called recycling and while Al Gore might love it, it’s a ripoff to adult retailers and to customers.

Now maybe it wasn’t Wildlife that did it. Who else could it be then? Well my suspect #2 is Metro/Fusxion. Namely because of the amount of Bridget Kerkove scenes Critical X seems to use. Bridget was a mainstay at Metro for quite some time. She’s been retired for over 3 years. If that doesn’t show how BS Critical X is being, I don’t know what does.

Audrey Hollander worked for a lot of different people, but did a lot for Mach 2 Entertainment. Hmmmm, they went out of business recently. Wonder what happened to all those scenes? What’s even more interesting is that Mach 2 Entertainment used Cal Vista for foreign distribution.

As did Metro. As did No Boundaries (remember them?). So I’ll betcha dollars to donuts those studios sold foreign rights to Cal Vista who sold them to studios who turned them around and put them back into domestic releases. Companies like Critical X. So you, the retailer, got double dipped. I’ll betcha Critical X has taken the same scenes and put them into releases from every made up “studio” they own.  That sinking feeling in your stomach is the feeling of getting ripped off.

So I’m wondering if adult studios even watch out for their product when it’s given to someone for foreign distribution. Or are you giving away scenes that will wind up creating a new “studio” here in the States?

If anyone has any further info on this situation, please email me.  This is just another example of studios doing shady shit and screwing the end user and the adult video store in the process.  Recycling your OWN scenes for a comp is fine, everyone does that, and as long as you advertise that it is a compilation, I think you’re fine.  Taking another studios old scenes and trying to pass them off as a “New Release” is just crap.  The store sold that scene before, the customer bought it before, and now when the customer brings it back to the store, the store ends up being the one holding the bag and looking like assholes.  That’s just a shitty ass business practice and it’s another reason why people can rationalize pirating porn.  We’ve ripped them off so many times in the past, only fair that they rip us off in return.


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