Better Sex Guide to Anal Pleasure, The Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  9/27/2005

The Little Details

Running Time: 61 min.

Production Date: 05 / 2003

Director: Mark Schoen, Ph.D.

Cast: Karen, Ben, Chennin Blanc (listed as Wendy), Cheyne Collins (listed as Mike), Julian St. Jox, Lee, Pason (listed as Judy), Kris Slater (listed as Chris), Billy, Julie, Wendy Divine, Eric Masterson, Leila, Charles, Lisa, and Chris in demonstrations with expert Jack Morin, Ph.D. and host Jane Monreal

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: Sinclair has been doing a very nice job with some of their recent releases. I’m looking forward to this one.

Initial Reaction: It’s definitely a beginner’s feature, but as a beginner’s feature it’s very well done.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody who’s curious but very nervous about anal sex

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody with a bit of anal experience

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The technical aspects are pretty good. The audio is very nicely done, with a nice balance and no background noises. The video is a little weak. It has a softness that seems unnecessary, but is well lit. It also comes off as pleasing to the eye in some of its formats, such as going with a matted widescreen format for the demonstrations with a picture in picture box for the participants or Dr. Morin to comment on the action.

Music: As usual, the music is very soft and very nicely balanced with the rest of the audio.

Menus: The main menu is pretty unimpressive and uses the typical Sinclair logo menu. The chapter menu lets you go directly to different subjects based on the subject and a still photo.

The Feature

Sex isn’t easy to talk about for many people, yet doing the same thing over and over again only leads to boredom in the bedroom. Sinclair aims to promote sexuality positively and to create long lasting intimate relationships. Here they focus on the often taboo subject of anal sex.

Dr. Jack Morin starts things out talking about society’s reactions and views on anal sex through history as well as some of the myths about anal sex. He starts out talking about the pain often perceived with anal sex and how to avoid it. Dr. Morin discusses the importance of relaxation and communication before covering a little anatomy. Ms. Monreal continues with a much more detailed look at both male and female anatomy before moving into anal preparation. Subjects such as cleanliness, safety (trimming nails), helping your sphincter muscles to relax, and patience are all covered. Ms. Monreal covers the importance of condoms, lubricants, and using toys with a flared base. She covers the different materials used for condoms, lubricants, and toys as well as some of the advantages and disadvantages of each (such as oil based lubes breaking down latex condoms). Once the different items are discussed, Dr. Morin discusses the three important aspects of inserting an object: the muscular awareness, the rectum not being a straight tube, and the awareness of the different sensations. They move on to discuss several different anal toys and rimming. Positions are also covered to wrap things up.

The material is presented very nicely. Some topics are repeated several times, but those topics are often the most important ones such as communicating, cleanliness, and relaxing. The demonstrations are handled very nicely, and bringing in comments from the participants about their anal sex experiences goes a long way into making the subject friendly and putting chemistry into the demonstrations. The demonstrations are handled fairly softly, but never so much that the subject and visuals get lost. The many aspects of anal sex are very nicely presented in The Better Sex Guide to Anal Pleasure.

The Better Sex Guide to Anal Pleasure is a very nice beginners guide to anal. The subject is made very friendly by the format and the pace of the feature. The people in the demonstrations come off as very normal and approachable, and also help the subject to be very friendly while providing some nice visuals. There’s plenty of dos and don’ts covered, and it gives a great start for couples who are curious about anal but who are also a little afraid of it. The Better Sex Guide to Anal Pleasure is definitely worth checking out if you want to try anal and want to make it work.

The Extra Stuff

As usual, there’s website information and sexual health information. There’s also the No Greater Love #1 featurette, which lasts about two minutes and does a very nice job promoting condoms. There’s also a behind the scenes featurette.

The behind the scenes featurette lasts nearly eleven minutes. After a short interview with Dr. Morin on how he became interested in the subject, there’s a quick look at Jane Monreal and Dr. Mark Shoen, there’s a quick look at how the scenes were shot and the performers. Each couple gives a few words about different aspects of anal sex and the production. It’s a nice behind the scenes, and the extra comments and tips from the couples make it a nicely worthwhile featurette.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Instructional, anal, male anal penetration, masturbation, toys, and rimming (male > female and female > male)

Raincoat Factor: Medium high

Condom Usage: Heavy

The Bottom Line:

Currently, many of the Sinclair Institute’s DVDs can be found online for between about $13 and $28 with a few stores offering them at the lower end. If this one interests you, it’s well worth checking out. The subject is handled very nicely and the technical aspects are pretty well done. There’s also a little effort put into the extras. This is a nicely done instructional DVD.

Note to Sinclair: Nice job!

Author’s Notes: There are a couple things I think Sinclair left out. First, is that for men to try receiving anal stimulation normally makes them much better at giving it. I’ve heard many women who love anal say that the guys who were willing to receive it as well were almost always better because they knew some of the sensations themselves. It also has the added pleasure for men of the prostate being the “male G-Spot”. Also, try different types of lube. There are several stores on the internet where you can buy a “lube sampler” to see what works best for you. There’s also plenty of other information on the internet for different anal methods. A little time researching anal sex can probably make it that much better for your partner. The more you can do to make your partner enjoy it, the better your chance of doing it more often.

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

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