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Riding Hard
Rating: 2 Stars
Directed by Chris Steele. Written by Scott Swann. Videography by Ross Cannon. Edited by Starring Matthew Rush, Roman Heart, Scott Swann, Mason Wyler, Ken Browning, Carter Longway, Dean Monroe, Manuel Torres. and Jenna Banks.
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Model Scott Swann didn't do his career any favors when he wrote a major role for himself in Riding Hard, the latest piece of evidence that Falcon Studios is slipping. His sudsy sexual encounter with Mason Wyler at an outdoor wash trough works reasonably well, but Swann's rudimentary screenplay might have been scrawled on the back of an drycleaning ticket with the aid of half a case of Coors.

The story involves the theft of a horse that a rancher (Swann) plans to bestow on his boyfriend (Wyler), and the horse thief's capture by Sheriff Matthew Rush. The bandit (Ken Browning) also kidnaps the horse's female groom (Jenna Banks in a non-sexual role), but in the tradition of Howard Hughes's The Outlaw, rescuing the girl seems less important than retrieving the horse. This is one anomalous instance where a porn scenario makes more sense than the discombobulated script suggests. It doesn't help that the acting, atrocious even for porn, would not pass muster with the East Bumfuck Barnstormers.

D

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irector Chris Steele, who's capable of much better work (i.e. The Velvet Mafia), seems asleep at the switch here. He has one good idea: when Manuel Torres ejaculates, Dean Monroe scoops up the result with his fingers and drips gobs of semen on Torres's tongue. It's a memorable finish to a sequence that builds from Monroe and Torres standing naked over a bucket of water, bathing each other with a washcloth. The semen trick, alas, returns for less effective encores in two subsequent scenes.

Falcon thoughtfully offers viewers the option of watching all four sex episodes without the embarrassing story elements. But porn fans might be advised to bypass Riding Hard altogether and turn to the bonus material, which includes two well-crafted 16-millimeter loops from Falcon's early-'80s pre-condom heyday. They're Western-themed pastorals called "Fuckin' Farmhand" and "Breakdown;" both have qualities of wit and spontaneity Riding Hard can't reach. The attractive, uncredited models can even act a little.