Beautiful (Wicked) Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  7/26/2004

The Little Details

Running Time: 99 min.

Production Date: 3 / 18 / 2003

Director: Michael Raven

Cast: Julia Ann, Stormy,Devinn Lane, Kaylani Lei, Steven St. Croix, Brad Armstrong, Joey Ray, and Eric Masterson in sexual roles, Olivia Del Rio, Angela Crystal, Ashley Long, Dale DaBone, and Randy Spears in sexual cameo roles, and a few others in non-sex roles

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: I’ve been really curious about this one ever since Michael Raven told me about it roughly a year ago. After the job he’s done with other popular stories I’m really looking forward to this!

Initial Reaction: It’s very well done, but I might have had my expectations just a little high.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody wanting artistic vision and plot with their porn

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody wanting some nastier sex

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The technical aspects are nicely done. The audio is clear and well balanced, but there are a few minor spots where it didn’t seem to quite synch with the video. The video is presented in the non-anamorphic widescreen format. It’s very well lit, although there are a few artistic effects which sometimes interfere with things.

Music: The music is very well done. It varies nicely both in style and balance throughout the movie, and helps out many of the scenes.

Menus: As usual, Wicked has put some nice effort into their menus. The main menu has some nice animation and makes a nice first impression. The chapter menu, however, is a bit generic and lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene and a chapter number.

The Feature

When Eric Prince (Brad Armstrong) takes an interest in Sandra White (Stormy) rather than the evil Ellen Queen (Julia Ann), head of Queen Mirrors, Queen decides to off her with a poison apple martini. That’s right, Michael Raven is taking on another classic. This time it’s Snow White, and like his tale of Orpheus with Underworld (one of my all time favorite adult films) and his bondage Beauty and the Beast in Beast, it’s not quite the tale as you recall it.

Scene 1 - Devinn Lane and Joey Ray

Devinn starts things out having Joey eat her pussy as she lies back on the bed. She enjoys his oral attentions with some nice vocals before giving Joey her gum so that she can properly thank him. After ripping his shirt off and using it to blindfold him, Devinn laps, sucks, and strokes his cock as well as giving his balls a little attention. She moves up to ride him reverse cowgirl style and to let him pound her doggie style. Finally Devinn strokes Joey onto her great rack while giving him some nice and dirty eyes and titty fucking the last little bit out.

This is a nice way to start things out. Devinn is amazing, and puts out more energy and vocals than is comes out in some entire orgies. She also has some very nice chemistry with Joey, and if you didn’t know it you’d think she’d been taking cock on camera for years. This is a hot scene.

Scene 2 - Julia Ann and Stormy

At night, Stormy dreams about Julia Ann, who looks fantastic in black fetishwear, having her way with her. Julia has Stormy, who looks pretty darn hot herself in some blue fetishwear, tongue her twat before she puts on a strap-on. She has Stormy suck it before letting Stormy have it in both reverse cowgirl and doggie. Finally, things come to a close with the girls kissing a little.

This is an okay scene. The girls seem to be into each other very well, but the artistic feel just didn’t work for me. Things never get clear enough that you can see either girl well at any point in the scene, and I couldn’t help but think that the scene might be best viewed with a heavy pair of beer goggles. I know that it’s a dream sequence, but it just didn’t quite work for me.

Scene 3 - Kaylani Lei and Steven St. Croix

Kaylani gets it on with woodsman Steven next, starting with a nicely energetic hummer complete with some great eyes. Steven returns the favor with some nice oral attention for each of Kaylani’s holes before fucking her missionary style. Kaylani also lets him take her from behind before finishing things up nicely.

This is a hot scene. Kaylani and Steven have very nice chemistry, and both put in some nice energy. It has an artistic feel due to some nicely done low lighting, and this time the artistic effects really help the scene out. Kaylani is smoking in her outfit, and had my blood flowing away from my brain right from the start of the scene. This is a hot and nicely done scene.

Scene 4 - Stormy and Brad Armstrong

After rescuing her, Brad gets it on with Stormy back at his place. He kisses her on the lips before moving down to kiss her kitty, and then lays back for Stormy to mouth his manhood. They fuck both doggie and missionary style before Brad drops a nice load on Stormy’s stomach and lower lips.

This is another gorgeous scene, and pretty hot as well. Everything about this seem is beautiful, from the set to the costumes, to Brad and Stormy. Since beauty isn’t enough for a sex scene, Brad and Stormy also have some nice chemistry and energy. This is a very good scene, and as usual Stormy and Brad make a great team.

Scene 5 - Julia Ann and Eric Masterson

Julia starts out the final scene having slave Eric worship her shoes as she sits on the throne in her factory. She lets him move up to tongue her twat and pucker before laying him down to ride him reverse cowgirl style. Eric also takes Julia from behind before popping on Julia’s foot.

This is a great scene to finish things up with, and my only complaint here is that it didn’t last longer. It has a great ‘evil queen’ feel to it as well as a great sense of style that works into the scene extremely well. This is a great scene, and perhaps my favorite in the entire movie.

Beautiful is a very impressive adult film with an excellent sense of style. Almost everything clicks together to make Beautiful a winner, and it’s easy to see why it’s received the attention and accolades it has. Once again, Michael Raven does a great job of adapting a classic story to a new time (with the help of the great George Kaplan), and Rod Hopkins’ art direction only makes it stronger. The cast does a great job bringing it to life, and makes the non-sex sequences drive the movie. Amazingly, the non-sex sequences were stronger than the sex scenes for me. The sex scenes had some nice chemistry and energy, but the art direction often overshadowed the sex and they seemed a little limited. Beautiful has a few minor hiccups sexually, but is still an amazing adult film that’s worth checking out.

The Extra Stuff

Wicked has put quite a bit of effort into their extras here. In addition to a trailer for Beautiful, trailers are included for Bordello Blues, Falling From Grace, Heat, Hercules, and XXX Training. There’s also promotional materials, DVD ROM extras, and a commercial for the Free Speech Coalition (which gives you pretty much everything except for their location on the web).

There’s plenty of extras if you’re interested in the stars. Star stats with a little personal information, a few photos, and a link to the star’s scene are included for Julia Ann, Stormy, Devinn Lane, Kaylani Lei, Brad Armstrong, and Steven St. Croix. There’s also star photo galleries for Julia Ann, Stormy, Devinn Lane, Kaylani Lei, Olivia Del Rio, Ashley Long, and Julia Taylor which last from about a minute and a half up to two minutes with roughly six seconds per very nice looking full screen photo or snapshot. If you want more photos, there’s galleries for both the feature and behind the scenes, each of which last over three minutes.

There are also interviews with Stormy, Julia Ann, and Devinn Lane. Stormy talks about her scenes in the movie and how she is sexually for about two and a half minutes. Julia Ann takes a little over a minute to talk about being a bitch, fucking everybody, and her role in the movie. Finally, there’s a couple minutes with Devinn Lane talking about sugar-free gum, her role, and the penii which have been sanctioned to enter her for her scenes. It’s a nice group of interviews that does a nice job of showing the personality of each of the starlets.

Stormy and Julia Ann join director Michael Raven for the audio commentary. Sadly, this might be the worst Wicked commentary I’ve heard so far. There’s a ton of dead air throughout the commentary, and it doesn’t have the spark that makes most of Wicked’s commentaries a lot of fun. If that isn’t enough, the movie audio doesn’t synch well with the video much of the time, which throws things off even further. Normally Michael, Julia, and Stormy are very entertaining during their commentaries, but this one is definitely an exception.

Finally, All Access: The Making of Beautiful lasts a little over a half hour. As usual, the movie is broken down day by day, and everybody’s nicely identified as they take the screen. You get to see plenty of the cast between takes as well as having Michael Raven talk about the making of the movie. It’s a pretty good behind the scenes featurette, and gives you a nice look both at the making of the movie as well as the stars as real people.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Straight, group, lesbian, toys, rimming (male > female), and B&D

Raincoat Factor: Medium

Condom Usage: 100%

The Bottom Line:

Currently, many of Wicked’s DVDs can be found online for between $15 and $30 with many stores offering them for around $21. Rent this one first. It’s gorgeous, but sexually I don’t think it’s quite as good as some of Raven’s other work. The technical aspects are very good, and there’s some nice care given to the extras. This is a very good DVD, but something just seemed a touch off much of the time.

Note to Wicked Pictures: It’s great to see you supporting the widescreen format, but I hope to see you taking your support all the way to the anamorphic level in the near future. It would have also been nice to have had the orgy scene included as a bonus sex scene in the extras.

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

Other reviews by Astroknight