Beast (Sin City) Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  1/27/2002

Running Time: 89 min.

Production Date: 7 / 15 / 2001

Director: Michael Raven

Cast: Jessica Drake, Ava Vincent, Wendy Divine (listed here as Maya Divine), April, Miko Lee, Anthony Crane, Alec Metro, Lee Metro, Eric Masterson, and Evan Stone in sexual roles and Julie Meadows, Flower, Sal Duchene, Robby D., Anthony George, Karen Dior, Tanya Danielle, Frank Thring, Mike Horner, Michael Raven, and many others in non-sex roles

Initial Expectations: Michael Raven climbed onto my list of favorite directors almost immediately. I always have very high expectations for his work, especially when it gets as many AVN nominations as this did.

Initial Reaction: It’s an extremely well done feature that I have a feeling is really going to grow on me over time.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody looking for something different from the run of the mill porno

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody who thinks Vivid pushes the limits a little too much

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is very clear and well balanced through most of the feature. There are a few seconds where the balance is off a little, but it’s during a non-sex moment. Once again, Michael Raven shot the feature on film and uses the matted widescreen format. For being shot on film, the video looks extremely clear. There are some shadows throughout the feature, but they normally enhance the mood of the scenes and fit in extremely well.

Music: The music varies some throughout the feature, but unlike the music in most adult features, much of it has lyrics. Some of it is a very driving dark rock, while other areas have a softer style. The balance ranges from the music taking over the audio to being barely noticeable. The changing balance helps it to enhance the moods of the scenes and are very well handled.

Disc Problems / Complaints: As usual with Sin City’s releases, there’s two commercials for phone sex and one for Sin City’s web site that you can’t skip past. This is one of those things that always starts a DVD off on the wrong foot for me. I have no problem with somebody being proud of their website or offering phone sex commercials, but to make the viewer sit through them, or at least scan through them, every time they watch the DVD appears extremely rude. If you could skip past them, I wouldn’t have a problem. Heck, I’d even have a little less of a problem with them if they’d change the commercials once in a while, but to my knowledge, there’s never been a single change in any of the commercials.

Menus: The main menu is pretty simple, and doesn’t even have any animation. The chapter menu lists the chapters by a scene number and a small clip of the scene. It’s a pretty average way to offer a chapter menu, but I would have been much happier if the performers for each scene were listed.

The Feature: Beast is Michael Raven’s take on the classic tale of Beauty & The Beast. There’s no talking teapots or singing candlesticks here. Instead he starts things out from the first moment letting you know that this probably isn’t going to be like most adult films you’ve watched as Jessica Drake whips Anthony Crane while he proclaims that beauty is his savior and he’ll accept any pain for her. When he wakes up the next morning he looks in the mirror to see Evan Stone in the reflection. Anthony lives around the porn and S&M world, yet never gets off on it. As one of his friends puts it, he gets off on not getting off. When he finds Beauty, a Mistress at a local dungeon, he immediately knows that she’s the one for him and knows that he’ll do anything for her in hopes that she can see what’s really in him. Of course, since this is Michael Raven, there’s also a few other twists and turns that one might not expect.

Miko Lee starts things off making a video for Michael Raven and Anthony Crane. She punishes Alex Metro for being a bad boy and jerking off and then makes him eat her pussy, pulling his head in and making him tell her how good it tastes as well as smothering him with her pussy. She sucks his cock to get him good and hard so he can fuck her, and gives him a little pain by using her teeth quite a bit. She climbs on him to fuck him before having him fuck her from behind while pulling her hair. Miko finally takes the facial from Alec, but stands up and spits it back at him. It’s a very hot scene, and Alec and Miko work great off each other.

April is taken into the back room of an S&M club by the leash she wears and is given to Lee Stone, who’s stripped down and ready for her to suck his crooked cock. She takes him down her throat repeatedly and then lays back for him to fuck her. She lets him fuck her from behind before taking a weak pop in her mouth. It’s a hot scene, but the end was a letdown.

Anthony Crane watches dominatrix Wendy Divine take care of customer Eric Masterson, who starts out in a pink fur coat. Not surprisingly, Wendy looks amazing in her fetishwear and does a great job in her role. She whips and spanks Eric before making him lick her ass and pussy, and finally climbs on to fuck him. She pulls him out so she can spank his cock, and then bites it before getting back on. She lets Eric loose to allow him to fuck her from behind, and has him spank her ass with his cock a little during their fucking. Wendy finally lets him cum on her face and tits before licking it up off his leg and a little from his cock, which she spits on him to end it. It’s a very hot scene, but the ending is a little off since I was once told by somebody who enjoys S&M that no dominatrix would ever allow herself to be given a facial.

Jessica Drake comes home from work to find her girlfriend Ava Vincent waiting for her in bed. Jessica kisses Ava a little and then moves down to lick and finger Ava’s pussy. After warming Ava up, Jessica has her suck her strap-on to “warm it up” before plunging it into Ava’s pussy from behind. Surprisingly, they only use the one position, but they work it nicely. It’s a very well done scene, and not hard to see why it earned a nomination for best all girl sex scene for the 2002 AVN Awards. It’s stylish, and done in low light without feeling cheap or poorly done. The chemistry between the girls is great and it finishes up nicely.

Anthony Crane and Miko Lee head into the bathroom for a little fun, but are followed in by Mistress Jessica Drake, who pulls them apart, kisses Anthony, and then puts a ball gag and blindfold on Miko. She runs Anthony’s knife across Miko’s neck and then cuts Anthony’s face before making him eat her out. Jessica removes the ball gag, and moves the blindfold back and forth so Miko can catch a few glimpses of what’s happening to her. Jessica kisses Miko and then lets Anthony fuck Miko from behind and lets her ride him cowgirl before making Miko take a facial from Anthony. It’s another hot scene that’s very nicely done and has a very unexpected twist at the end that really furthers the plot.

Finally, Jessica Drake goes away with Anthony Crane, who’s now transformed into Evan Stone. Evan kisses her all over and eats her pussy before she rides his cock. After stretching out her pussy, Evan gets behind Jessica to stretch out her ass. They finish the scene with Evan leaving his dick droppings in a chalice and Jessica swallowing it down. It’s a great scene to end the feature with, and it fits in perfectly with the Beauty & The Beast story. It has all the great chemistry that one would expect from a real life couple, and is both romantic and hot.

Beast is an extremely well done take on the classic Beauty & The Beast tale. The story is familiar, but done with a freshness so that you don’t know what’s normally going to happen. The cast does a great job with it, and there’s enough extras that it almost has the feel of a mainstream movie in the non-sex portions of the feature. There’s a little variety to the sex, but most of it is darker and on the fetish side of things. Michael Raven does a great job once again with Beast. It might not be for everybody, but if you’re not sure, it’s at least worth a rental.

Extras: The photo gallery contains about thirty framed snapshots, all of which look very nice. Trailers are included for Eighteen & Easy, Eighteen & Awesome, and Just 18. As always, there’s also web site and phone sex commercials. For those who are curious, no they aren’t new ones, they’re the same ones that you were subjected to before the main menu.

In a great touch, the music video for Submission by Taime and the Newlydeads is included rather than having a trailer for the feature. In many ways it acts like a trailer for the feature, but there’s much more than that. It follows in the typical movie soundtrack music video and mixes together scenes from the movie with segments containing the musicians and people from the feature and related video clips. Although I don’t care for this song as much as some of the other music in Michael Raven’s features, it’s a great extra that should make a lot of people very happy.

There’s also behind the scenes featurettes. The blooper reel lasts about two minutes and includes mostly minor screw ups. There aren’t some of the ad libs that are included in many blooper reels, but mostly physical screw-ups and mishaps from when the scenes were being shot. The actual Behind the Scenes featurette lasts about thirteen minutes. It nicely shows both the sexual and non-sex scenes, and has some nice interaction with the stars. The scene with Alec Metro and Miko Lee is very impressive, as it appears that Michael Raven gives his stars quite a bit of room to work, as long as it fits within what he’s looking for. There’s some nice interviews with almost all of the major players, and it adds quite a bit to the overall DVD. The only problem with it is there’s a few flashes of artifacts every now and then which gets kind of annoying. Oddly, both of these featurettes, along with the music video, have time stamps where the actual feature does not.

Themes: Straight, spanking, S&M, rimming (male > female), cock torture, lesbian, toys, hot wax, and anal

Raincoat Factor: Medium high

Overall: Currently, Beast can be found online for between $19 and $25 with most stores offering it for under $20. It’s a very unique movie and a well done DVD that’s well worth the money. The acting and story is hard to beat, and the sex is almost as good. The transfer is very good for film, and the extras nicely finish off the DVD.

Note to Sin City: It’s great to see you using the widescreen format, but in the future please take your support all the way to anamorphic widescreen. Anybody who has a widescreen TV will thank you for it. Also, please include a time stamp on your features. Some of us want to go back and check things out, especially when the features are as well written as many of Michael Raven’s, or go back later to see a specific act. It’s much nicer to be able to quickly skip from point to point in the movie rather than having to scan ahead to it.

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me .

Other reviews by Astroknight