Rog Reviews Critic’s Choice 2003- An Overview
Now that this year’s awards have been announced and I’m sitting on a whole box full trophies I figured I would sit down and write out a little over-view of the third annual Rog Reviews Critic’s Choice Awards. Last year the awards were announced and trophies handed out at the AdultDVDTalk.com party. That was a blast, but it didn’t work out this year. I didn’t get the order for the trophies in on time and with the party even bigger than last year, a break to pass out awards wouldn’t have been an easy task. (If you had a chance to watch naked girls dancing would you want some guy to stop the action to hand out Lucite diamonds?) Winners of the 2003 RRCC Awards were posted on this site last week and most winners were notified on the floor of the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo.
Since I left for Vegas on the same day that I announced the winners, this is the first chance I have had to talk about the nominees and the people/movies that I chose as the best of the year. As in the past, I am the only voter in these awards, hence the singular possessive apostrophe. The nominees are lists of people and movies that I felt were most deserving. Readers of this site had their say in the RRFF (Rog Reviews Fan Faves) poll. So anyone is welcome to second guess or criticize, but these are my awards. (Please though, discussion is encouraged.)
Best DVD: The Fashionistas- Evil Angel
This one really was a no-brainer. There were some very good DVDs on the list of nominees, but as soon as Evil Angel released “The Fashionists” this award was pretty much locked up. It was hands down the best movie of 2002 and the DVD is exquisite. It beat out some other outstanding DVDS from Evil Angel as well as “Space Nuts” and Private’s “Gladiator for top honors. As good as some of these other DVDs are, they can’t touch “Fashionistas” for pure porn brilliance. The movie is perfect and the DVD is a must-own for any true smut fan.
Best Feature: The Opera- Elegant Angel
I went through some tough times in this category. Three outstanding Elegant Angel features fought it out. Axel Braun’s “Compulsion” was a really solid movie and was very impressed with the performances. Zupko’s “Flesh Circus” was interesting and appropriately freaky. Sin City also had two very strong movies with “After Midnight” and the light-hearted “Exile.” Two really big features, “Rawhide” and “Spacenuts” were impressive as well. The former was an amazing piece of film-making, but the sex was horrible. As for the latter, it was a contender for this title and easily my favorite sex comedy for 2003. (Though JM’s Perverted Stories the Movie was right up there.) In the end, I chose Zupko’s “Opera” for a couple of reasons. First it is the most unique adult film I’ve seen in years. That goes a long way for me, but it isn’t enough. Unlike a lot of the nominees in this category “The Opera” had hot sex scenes that could stand alone in the raincoater world. When Zupko is at his best, we get something brilliant and that is what “The Opera” is.
Best All-Sex Movie: Lewd Conduct 16- Diabolic
This is always one of my favorite categories since it always has so many great stroker movies in the list. From the time I saw “Lewd Conduct 16” I knew that it would be tough to beat. Mike John is a great sex shooter and he has one of the best casts of the year for this one. This one beat out two entries by both Jules Jordan and Joey Silvera. (Any of the four of these titles could easily have won as well.) Raincoaters basically can’t go wrong with any of the movies picked. All of them have permanent spots on my porn shelf, but it’s John’s perfect 140 minutes of amazing babes that made LC16 the top choice for 2003.
Best Director: Joey Silvera
This award could be re-named the “best Evil Angel director” since someone from that company has taken the hardware each year. Joey took the award this year over Evil Empire mate Jules Jordan in a very close race. Mike John and Tom Zupko both had strong years, as did Vince Vouyer. Robbie Fischer and David Aaron Clark quietly put together really solid years and beat out some big names to land on the ballot. At the end, it was Jordan vs. Silvera for top honors and I went with Joey this year. I’ve liked Joey’s stuff for a long time and I don’t think he gets nearly enough credit for what he does. So in a close race, Joey wins this year.
Best Newbie: Loni
This is always the most controversial list of the bunch. How new is new? How many scenes does someone have to do in order to qualify? I have no set criteria so as usual there were complaints. Why weren’t Ariana Jollee or Selena Silver on the list? Well, I’ve only seen Selena in two or three scenes and she is already on the list for 2004 if she keeps working like she has so far. As for the women on the list, I like the variety in this group. It was a pretty strong year for newbies, though not a slam dunk by any stretch of the imagination. Contract girls Cindy Crawford and Jesse Jane certainly deserved a lot of recognition. Amee Donavan won the RRFF and she very nearly walked away with this one as well. Alicia Rhodes, Crystal Ray and Gen Padova scored high marks for being all-purpose sluts with killer bods. Kitty and Audree Jaymes are personal favorites and I hope that some of you will discover them after seeing their names on this list. In the end I chose a personal favorite who I think gives some of the best scenes in the business. Loni is cute, steady and nasty as hell. A controversial pick maybe, but one I think at least some of you can support.
Best Male Performer: Erik Everhard
Even though Lexington Steele changed companies twice and cut back his scenes, he still ranked high on this list. There were a few new guys on it this year including Manuel Ferrara and Brandon Iron. AVN gave it to Stefano and it’s about time he got some recognition. Rocco, Lex and Erik could split the award in any given year, but I went with Erik for a second straight year. Interestingly enough, this is the award that most people just don’t bother to complain about.
Best Female Performer: Aurora Snow
I know, everyone calls this the least surprising award of all, but it was closer than you might think. Yes, Aurora has won it all three years I’ve been doing this, but she had some serious competition this year. Both Aurora and Bella had busier and arguably better years in 2002, but Aurora made it again this year. Jessica Darlin’s comeback was hard to ignore and she could be an early favorite for 2004 if she works as hard as I did last year. Carmen Luvana and Nicole Sheridan do a lot of feature work, but they both give good performances and look fantastic. Taylor Rain won the RRFF and was probably fourth on this list thanks to her good looks and some really hot scenes. The top three? Avy Scott, Sabrine Maui and Aurora. Avy did some really hot stuff and finally gave up the booty this year. Sabrine is just a super cute baby who still fucks like she can’t get enough. In the end, Aurora beat out everyone and added yet another trophy to her collection. (Sadly, none of the nominations or wins got me even a blowjob offer.)
I hope everyone enjoyed the selection process. Now I leave it up to you. Send me your lists, bitch about mine, convince me I missed someone or just to throw out some ideas for next year. Let’s get some good participation going here people.
Of course now the winners need to get in touch with me so I can bring or send their trophies. If any of you have any statements to make since we didn’t get to do the awards show, shoot them over and I’ll put them up. And if you know how to get in touch with a winner, please drop them a line so maybe they will get in touch.
