What Does the First Porn Movie of 2011 Tell Us About Porn in General?

Granted, the Tom Byron/Lexi Belle vehicle "Games Couples Play" was filmed deep within the 2010 zeitgeist, but it was the first porn movie I opened upon my return from Las Vegas. What can it tell us about 2011?

Hint: Not much, except 2011 will have boobs.

Byron, who produced and directed this movie a mere two months before winning the most recent AVN Best Actor award, takes a shot at the Sex Ed nichelette created by Nina Hartley and occupied more recently by Tristan Taormino and Jamye Waxman. Byron wears the lab coat he wore in "Human Sexipede" (and he tells us this) and plays a PowerPoint slideshow detailing what sexual role-playing is.

Multiple camera angles and transitions from black and white to color are a distracting nod to basic cable infotainment, and Byron's direct address of the camera suggests that he knows that his personality is what drives the movie.

So what do we learn? Byron is cashing in on an emerging niche and he understands that people buy movies based on individual personalities, the way today's porn girls are themselves cashing in on webcam schemes like Streamate for individual interactions with fans.

Then, finding a definition for role-playing on the computer, Byron points us to a scene in which his wife distracts him from his XBox by donning and doffing a French Maid's outfit.

(In addition to Employer/Maid, there's also Boss/Secretary, and "Student/Pupil," which I'm guessing was a mistake, as those are the same role.)

There is nothing different about this scene other than "Doctor" Tom introduced it; the Sex Ed aspect is a wraparound. It underlines the fact that sometimes new doesn't matter as long as you have someone who looks good in a French maid's outfit, as Belle undeniably does.

Not everything new is good, and not everything good is new. This movie shows that you can dress up something we've seen thousands of times before and make it interesting. Porn consumers don't need too much to keep them happy for three minutes; the trick is not screwing up those three minutes.

· Tom Byron Pictures (tombyronpictures.com)
· Buy "Games Couples Play: A Guide to Role Play Fantasy" (tlavideo.com)