I love to watch Julia Ann and the prospect of seeing Nina Hartley had me interested enough that I sat right down the minute Stepmother 4 arrived on my doorstep. I loaded up the movie and prepared to be entertained. The movie boasts that the orgasms are real and the love scenes aren't horribly choreographed, to this I will agree. There was some pretty great chemistry between the actors right from the beginning. The acting wasn't awful though the plot and script was weak and forgettable.

The movie opens with James Deen and Gracie Glam in the bedroom, well c'mon it IS a porn flick! Gracie is pissed at her Stepmother and James wants to discuss anything BUT her stepmother. A rather nice but very vanilla sex scene follows.

In the next scene we meet the 'evil stepmother' Julia Ann and the cute but clueless father Tommy Gunn. They discuss a little bit about the day, he compliments her on her beauty, and they have sex in, yet again, a rather nice but not terribly memorable scene despite Julia Ann being a smoking hot woman. All very vanilla and still following the usual porn industry standard of a bit of oral and then some PIV sex followed by more oral. Still it is conceivable that this could be the 'average' household...

Later that night James is thirsty and thinking about Julia, and who wouldn't be? Who should he run into in the kitchen? Yup, Julia Ann clad in lingerie. Like any good StepMom inlaw-to-be Julia is concerned about the impending marriage of James and Gracie. She invites James to an empty bedroom for a brandy and some conversation and here is where I thought the 'secret' would be revealed. Alas, no after warning James about Gracie's temper the subject in question shows up to spoil the fun!

In the next scene Tommy advises his 'daughter' that he is planning dinner for the family but Gracie is late as she is meeting some friends. The scene cuts to Christian and Nina Hartley waiting for Gracie, these are the 'friends' she is off to see! Given that they are half dressed we can clearly see they are waiting for a play partner. Gracie finally arrives and is playfully punished for being late. A pretty great threesome ensues between the couple and our poor abused stepdaughter. The scene is pretty tame but still hot. Here is where we finally learn Julia Ann's deep, dark secret: She was Christian's Domme! Ummmm, oh, uhh sure! Nothing about her seems overly domineering but ok we'll leave it at that.

Gracie rushes off home to 'expose' her stepmother's awful secret but ends up revealing that she is involved with the kinky couple herself while engaged to be married. So the plan doesn't work as well as she hoped it would and Julia Ann takes the opportunity to warn little Gracie that she is messing with the wrong girl. I guess to cement her warning Julia begs off dinner and remains home alone with James, the hapless Gracie's fiance. They do what comes naturally, now that they have the pick of bedrooms and time to spare before the movie closes.


Honestly, the movie uses weird angles and grainy shots to show authenticity but to me it just looked amateurish. I LOVED Ms. Hartley and her running commentary during the threesome, it was endearing and cute. Some of the dialogue during the other scenes seemed forced and, at times, just odd.

Likewise, the audio was a bit off during some scenes, it sort of all blurred together. At one moment the actors would be clear and after a change of position they were hard to hear which speaks of microphone mismanagement.


All in all I liked the individual performances though I really wished for something more when it came to plot. The lack of real kink was acceptable to me as I knew going into the movie that the sex was going to be pretty straight forward. Sometimes that is what I'm looking for! I wish the secret had been followed by Julia Ann being a real Dominatrix with James or just really tearing into Gracie and possibly dominating her. Still, I give this movie an average score and recommend it for people who like straight sex porn with a bit of plot.

I realized that I still hadn't done a follow up on this particular movie, then I realized also that I couldn't remember what the secret was! Well, the movie was so memorable, and all that.
I dug this out and tried to sit through it again. This time around I wasn't quite as nonplussed as when I first watched it. My real problem is I like the actresses in the film, I just don't like the film!
It's not a bad film if you like really vanilla sex scenes and mild intrigue.
All in all, I don't know if I was just more critical when I got this movie or my tastes have slightly changed but I found myself actually sitting through it. It's not a bad movie but then again it's not a blockbuster either.
I think I would still give it about 3 stars.