Ron Jeremy was not always the fat, slightly slovenly looking man he is today. When he entered the pornography business in the late 1970s he was reasonably if not uniquely attractive, determined to make a name for himself on stage and screen as a serious actor, and he saw pornography as a way to pay the bills and make contacts in the film industry.
The idea was not quite as far-out as it might seem. At the time, pornography was a big screen venue and films came with plots, dialogue, and reasonable budgets. As it happened, Jeremy had what it took to be a porn star and then some: a nine and three-quarters inch endowment and the amazing ability to control it on cue. But he failed to recognize a well-established show business fact that not even such legendary (and comparatively discreet) performers as Gypsy Rose Lee could overcome. Once a stripper, always a stripper. Once a porn star, always a porn star.
Twenty years after he made his adult film debut Ron Jeremy is still a porn star, only these days he is a chunky, sloppy one who commands a following largely due to his unlikely appearance and quasi-comic persona and who continues the career thanks to that near-inhuman control. And even as he takes a monthly AIDS test, scrambles for extra and bit work in mainstream film, and makes one porn flick after another he continues to dream of a "legitimate" acting career that will never come.
In theory, it is the stuff of both great comedy and great tragedy, but this fairly short documentary is neither; it has a touch of pathos, a touch of humor, but it never goes far enough in its exploration of Jeremy as a human being. I did laugh a little and I did feel a bit sorry for him, but the big questions were never asked and the big issues were never more than indicated. In the end, I feel like I met Jeremy at a party in passing--and when he left the room I knew little more about him than I did when he first came in.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
The idea was not quite as far-out as it might seem. At the time, pornography was a big screen venue and films came with plots, dialogue, and reasonable budgets. As it happened, Jeremy had what it took to be a porn star and then some: a nine and three-quarters inch endowment and the amazing ability to control it on cue. But he failed to recognize a well-established show business fact that not even such legendary (and comparatively discreet) performers as Gypsy Rose Lee could overcome. Once a stripper, always a stripper. Once a porn star, always a porn star.
Twenty years after he made his adult film debut Ron Jeremy is still a porn star, only these days he is a chunky, sloppy one who commands a following largely due to his unlikely appearance and quasi-comic persona and who continues the career thanks to that near-inhuman control. And even as he takes a monthly AIDS test, scrambles for extra and bit work in mainstream film, and makes one porn flick after another he continues to dream of a "legitimate" acting career that will never come.
In theory, it is the stuff of both great comedy and great tragedy, but this fairly short documentary is neither; it has a touch of pathos, a touch of humor, but it never goes far enough in its exploration of Jeremy as a human being. I did laugh a little and I did feel a bit sorry for him, but the big questions were never asked and the big issues were never more than indicated. In the end, I feel like I met Jeremy at a party in passing--and when he left the room I knew little more about him than I did when he first came in.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer