Everyone, it seems, wants to be somebody else.  Brian DePalma wants to be Alfred Hitchcock, James Ellroy wants to be Raymond Chandler, Bill Clinton wants to be JFK.  So it comes as no surprise that Andrew Blake wants to be Helmut Newton.  (Newton, thanks for asking, is that outré photographer who turned the fashion world on its collective ear by posing famous models in pseudo-bondage leather gear - at a time when leather was considered no more than a second choice over slip-covers for rumpus room sofas.)

If Blake's meditations on fashion and sexuality are a tad derivative, nobody's complaining.  Hell - nobody's brought this kind of stylization to porn before.  Blake's vision is nothing if not consistent, and to the viewer who appreciates where he's going with the designer eroticism thing, consistently arousing as well.

To the raincoat crowd, Blake may as well be preaching Taoism from Mars.  His ardent fans, however, will be sporting chubbies from the first glimpse of every rubber-wrapped nipple to every pink moon boot rubbing against a chiffon-clad crotch.

Like his other films, Unleashed jettisons a formal plot for exotic dream imagery.  With high-tech sets clashing against French Provincial drawing rooms, Blake may be making some kind of statement here, but we at AVN are more concerned with the sumptuous parade of pussy.  Blake molds two lesser-known performers (icy blonde Laura Palmer and feisty brunette Selena) into two halves of the same coin - one split personality in search of instant gratification.

Sometimes they're content to watch and masturbate as others frolic.  Rubber-maid Asia Carrera is a fetching subject as she's licked and poked by Vince Vouyer and Monique DeMoan.  Asia sucks a mean cock but the arousal factor tips into overdrive when Vince slips it to her from behind in a sumptuous standing doggie amid the glass and chrome.  She's one of the few gals who can wear a labia ring without looking like a low-rent biker slut.

Speaking of jewelry, Shelby Stevens nibbles on Misty Rain's nipple hoops while Selena (in a latex hoop skirt minus the hoop) tends to her needs from a safe vantage point.  When Stevens attaches a matching blue strap-on to her patent leather bondage gear, the threesome engage in one of the tastiest girl/girl scenes since the ice dildo in Hidden Obsessions.

Pretty as the lesbian sessions are (and there are plenty of them), Unleashed works best with hetero combos.  An exterior sequence featuring Colt Steele planking the lead girls (separately) works its way up to a tension-filled climax, as he blows a load in each of their mouths via intercutting.

Although there's a fair amount of hardcore action, Blake treats the average pop shot as if it were some kind of ritualistic potion to be anointed on the chosen few.  Evidence of his fetishistic fascination occurs late in the program when Mark Davis, after humping the lead girls on a long table, deviates from expectations and unloads his lusty glue onto Palmer's high heel, letting it drip down into Selena's waiting mouth like an ambrosia of the gods.

Unleashed isn't the everyman's fantasy, but for couples and individuals of discriminating taste, it's a gourmet feast of erotic eye candy.