Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy (2001)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I had never considered Jeremy particularly likable. To me he was always this barely amiable porn actor who seemed like a media whore, hell-bent on being everywhere all the time. Every time I saw him in a video or a in movie cameo I had an immediate "oh, no, not him again!" reaction. But just how extreme that drive for fame is in him, surprised even me. His hunger for being noticed even rivals that of most Hollywood stars. Even Marilyn Monroe's willingness to do ANYTHING for fame pales by comparison! His drive for notoriety perhaps even rivals Princess Diana's willingness to do anything for money! (If that's actually possible.) However, as the documentary ploughed on, I realized that Jeremy isn't such a bad guy after all. Quite the opposite. In fact, he is more to be pitied than anything else. Not that I believe that he is unhappy, but his ambitions of being taken seriously as an actor - the ultimate cliché in porn biz, especially among women - make him somewhat of a tragic figure. Fortunately, he doesn't quite see himself in this light, hence he enjoys life to the fullest, the incurable glutton that he is, still not realizing that he will never come anywhere close to being anything more than a clown who did plenty of porn.The documentary doesn't suck up to him, i.e. plenty of negative, non-flattering opinions about him by various people are shown here, which is essential for a documentary to be a real documentary and not just a mere propaganda film (like Michael Moore's fantasy films for the politically retarded).The world of porn has always been a fascinating one, nothing new there, so the fact that this film is interesting was not a surprise.

Maybe it was the fact that I watched it at 2am, that I knew very little about Ron Jeremy, or that I was probably in the mood for an action movie but I found Porn Star: The legend of Ron Jeremy to be too slow moving. Despite its slowness, Porn Star did a good job of portraying Ron Jeremy as your average joe and not only as a porn king. So for those of you who envy Ron Jeremy and his particular endowment this documentary will help shed the light on how Jeremy actually lives his life. It goes to show that people will always want what they cannot have. For example, many men envy what Jeremy has in terms of physical endowment and success but it has not led to ultimate happiness for Ron. In fact, he wants to become a serious actor but that would be nearly impossible considering his past in the porn industry. Also, Jeremy talks about how he hasn't really been able to love anyone or have a serious relationship because of his work. I suppose the moral of the story is to be thankful for what you have and to do the best you can with it.

Forget every pathetic, dreary porn documentary you've ever seen, this is Ron Jeremy we're talking about and it is as fun and interesting as the man himself. Yes, it's a great look the biz details and yes, there are the occasional glimpses of the body part that helped make Ron famous. But the real heart of this documentary is in the day-to-day look at a nice guy who got a really nice break in an unconventional profession. Ron isn't John Holmes with an arrest record and HIV-status; he isn't Annabelle Chong, whose family felt disgraced by her adult film work. Ron's family is proud and supportive and he's made some smart choices. Ron is what's good about the industry.Highly recommend the DVD for it's deleted scenes, some of which are really funny. And if you ever have the opportunity to meet Ron, do so! He's great. (Although, ladies, his hands tend to wander when he's giving autographs....not that that was a bad thing...)

A documentary looking into the up bringing, family, career and future dreams of porn star Ron Jeremy. It uses old footage, interviews and clips from his films to show a guy who wants to be centre of attention and be talked about.This documentary is not one of the type I usually like to watch relating to porn. I usually like the ones that are done by people from outside – it tends to be less airbrushed! For example everyone should check out Channel 4's Hardcore (UK) it's an excellent documentary and will make it harder to get turned on next time you're watching porn. However this is more of a human interest story that a documentary – it's like those polished celeb features you see sometimes where a little bit of bad or unfortunate stuff is wheeled out, but not much. So we naturally have lots of porn celebs being interviewed as well as family and lots with Jeremy himself.However this is all still interesting – after all, how can you not be interested in a man who is one of the most famous males in porn for decades despite looking like a slob! But it does go beyond just the surface – we start with the idea that Jeremy is a pretty nice guy (not anywhere near as arrogant as you'd expect for a guy who gets sex so much!). But during the film little things come out – he is insecure, he wants to be the centre of things and maybe has too much importance put on himself.I did feel disappointed that it didn't push deeper when Jeremy was vulnerable. At times you can see sadness and hurt just behind his eyes but the director doesn't move at these times – instead the hurt is only really referred to in voiceovers by the narrator or by other people. It felt at times that the film was helping Jeremy to get exposure without actually letting us inside his character.However overall I enjoyed it. There is some nudity but it doesn't use the porn footage for titillation – instead most of the porn footage is old dialogue scenes. If you hate porn then this will be too glossy for your taste – but if you like it or just leave it alone then you should get something out of this.