The timeless argument about sequels not living up to the original will forever be debated. Some exceptions can be made of course, and one could pontificate for hours about how Aliens is better than Alien. But at the end of the day, does anyone care? The great debate about which Babyface is better must be left to someone else dear nieces and nephews since Uncle Manhammer has never seen the original. My fellow Nerd Mentality staff member Garrett has, however, and you can find his review here if you so desire. I wonder if he would have enjoyed Babyface 2?
Nine years after Alex de Renzy unleashed the original Babyface on the world he decided to release Babyface 2 as a spiritual sequel. Having nothing to do with its predecessor aside from sharing a name, the film tells the story of a group of women gathering together to throw a bachelorette party for their soon to be married friend. It’s your typical 80’s porn setup where the women are prancing around in lingerie and openly masturbating until it’s time to bring out the cake. Inside the cake is a slovenly male stripper who warns the women if he gets aroused they’ll get CRAZY aroused and of course that’s what happens.
Not for nothing, one of the women’s boyfriends is watching from the outside and after getting dragged into the ensuing orgy, he goes to enlist his pals and the women’s significant others to witness the happenings and of course, become involved in the sex antics. Sprinkle in a few extra sex scenes getting the male characters separated from the women until the final act and you’ve got yourself a 1986 adult film.
There’s nothing particularly special about this film that I can tell. The blurb on the back of the case mentions some of the cast and previous credits which might mean something for someone more educated in adult film than I am, but it’s largely lost on me, as is any real significance this has as a valuable piece of the genre. The production value is adequate, the cast isn’t hideous or anything, and it’s put together better than a lot of mainstream films are. All in all, it’s just mediocre.
Vinegar Syndrome should be given a lot of credit for the quality and care they put into this release, though. The transfer is quite good (a little too good, honestly. Some of the women have visible bruises) and the mono DTS-HD audio track is quite good, too. Even though this particular film isn’t my cup of tea, I do applaud Vinegar Syndrome for what they do with films that would be otherwise forgotten, especially in regards to the transfer.
Special Features:
Remember the early days of DVD when animated menus were a special feature? Well, Babyface 2 sports the 2K transfer from the 35mm camera negative, trailer, reversible cover artwork, and subtitles as special features. Otherwise, there’s a DVD copy included.
Babyface 2 Final Thoughts:
From a Blu-ray collector standpoint, skip this one. It’s a niche within a niche and without any special features, there’s nothing in the film itself that hasn’t been seen in other adult films of the same time period. If you’re looking to complete your Alex deRenzy collection, sure, but otherwise I’d purchase something else from Vinegar Syndrome instead.
Babyface 2 is available on Blu-ray from Amazon for those interested.
Note: This Blu-ray was sent to us for review. This has not affected our judgment or editorial process in any way. Please contact us if you have any questions regarding this process.