The bad news is that The Darkroom features the kind of muddled, unintentionally frivolous plotting that gives the whole concept of porn storytelling a bad name. The good news is that in between all that silliness, the tape -- shot a year ago, but released only recently -- actually contains a couple of pretty hot sex scenes.

With a voice over that's so echo-laden it's unintelligible for long stretches, The Darkroom centers on photographer Ian Daniels -- let's see if we can get this straight, now -- whose camera keeps taking pix of sexual encounters that may or may not have really happened. Or something like that.

Naturally, these encounters form the basis of the vid's six sex scenes, only about half of which get the blood flowing. They include a tongue-, vibrator-and finger-fandango between Sid Deuce and the now-retired but still hot Julie Rage (Julie! Come back. All is forgiven) and an S/M-themed strap-on encounter involving the venerable Sharon Kane and Micki Lynn.

Not quite as stirring, but steamy nonetheless, is the sight of the always-lovely Nici Sterling energetically riding hubby Wild Oscar's stiffie and taking his creamy load all over her gorgeous mug. The remaining three sequences, alas, are much more pedestrian. Even so, we'll take them over that fuzzy plot any day.