Bonnie & Clyde: Outlaws of Love Review

Distributor: Vivid Entertainment Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Feature Film, Classic (1990s Shot on Video) Also known as: Bonnie & Clyde: Outlaws of Love, Bonnie & Clyde: Director's Cut, Bonnie & Clyde 2: Desperado, Bonnie & Clyde 2 Run Time: 90 minutes Rated: XXX Release Year: 1993 Director: Paul Thomas Written by: Catherine Tavel (as Ariel Hart) Director of Photography: Jane Waters Cast: Ashlyn Gere, Randy West, Racquel Darrian (as Raquel Darian), Derrick Lane (as Derek Lane), Francesca Lé, Nikki Dial (as Nicky Dial), Alex Jordan, Micky Ray (as Mickey Rae), Nick East (as Nick E.), T.T. Boy, Jonathan Morgan, Tom Chapman Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1 Disc: DVD 10 (DS, SL) Special Features: Multiple Screens (Stills, Live Action and Bio's of all the Wave Girls), Chapters, Int. Tel. Sex., Previews DVD-ROM Special Features: none

Synopsis:
The story of real life gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Burrow is brought to the blue screen by Vivid. Although this version is not as historically accurate as the 1967 mainstream film with the same name, this is still an intriguing little film.

Video/Audio:
Bonnie & Clyde is presented in a full screen, 1.33:1, aspect ratio, which appears to be the original aspect ratio for the film. Bonnie & Clyde looks like it was originally filmed on video tape and not film. This print of the film is not perfect. The picture is soft and grainy at times. There are occasional picture blemishes and the color is washed out in some scenes. Over all, this does not affect the viewing of the film and the print is very watchable.

The two available audio tracks are an English 2.0 Stereo track and an English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround track. The 2.0 Stereo track sounds flat and very monaural with the music being the only part that appears to be in stereo. Unlike previous Vivid Wave titles that I have seen, the 5.1 Surround track sounds much better than the 2.0 track and the sound fills the room for both the dialog and the music. A few parts of the film still sound monaural even with this track, but for the overall presentation, the 5.1 track is much better. No other language tracks are available and no subtitles are available. The music is a combination of standard adult film sounding music and classical music. At no times does the music drown out the dialog.

Cut Warning:
Bonnie & Clyde is a combination of two previous Vivid titles available on VHS tape, Bonnie & Clyde and Bonnie & Clyde 2: Desperado. Although I haven't seen either of the VHS versions, they have listed run times of 79 minutes and 75 minutes, respectively, so with a missing hour and four minutes obviously some content has been cut for this version. Only one scene, Alex Jordan with T.T. Boy, appears to have been cut completely from the feature film, so other scenes must have been shortened to equal the amount of missing time. Apparently this is the same cut that was also released on VHS tape a few years ago under the title Bonnie & Clyde: Director's Cut.

Special Features:
Like the other Vivid Wave titles that I have seen, the special features on the disk have nothing to do with the feature film. The Multiple Screens special feature, billed as stills, live action and bios for all of the Wave girls, is split on two sides of the disk. On the “A” side of the disk are the bios and still shots for the Vivid contract girls: Celeste, Jenna, Heather, Melissa, Asia, Dyanna, Jenteal and Nikki. The bios are mostly useless and the stills are nice but are beside the bio so you can't flip through them yourself. For the live action portion on the “B” side of the disk there are three scenes for each of the following categories: Girl Girl, Anal and Threesome and two scenes for each of the following categories: Racquel Darrian, Chasey Lain and Alexandra Silk. As usual for a Wave disk, none of the scenes list the movies they are from.

There are nine chapters for the film, one placed before the beginning of each sex scene. They allow for easy navigation to each scene. Although they make navigation easy to the scenes, they would have been more useful if more were added breaking up the scenes a little more and then ones for the plot portions of the film as well. Those individuals uninterested in the plot will probably find them very useful to jump right to each scene.

Int. Tel. Sex., located on the “A” side of the disk, consists of three more sex scenes from three more random movies. None of the scenes here contain the name of the movie the scenes are from either. The available previews, located on the “B” side of the disk, are for Savannah Superstar, Torrid Tales, Cheating, Asian Chow Down, Encore, Suggestive Behavior, Immortal Desire, A Geisha's Secret, Ginger on the Rocks and On Trial 2.

As per the norm for the Vivid Wave title line, the special features for the film are completely useless. Since none of them pertain to the film actually on the disk, they don't add to the feature at all and since none of the added scenes tell you what movie they are from, they can't even be used to find more titles that you might be interested in purchasing.

Conclusion:
Bonnie & Clyde is one of the best Vivid titles that I have managed to see so far film regarding the content of the film. Unfortunately it is one of the worst Vivid titles regarding the video that I have managed to see so far. It is a fun movie with a beautiful female cast and the males are better looking than usual. Also the cast has, to an extent, an acting ability as well, raising this film above the level it could have sunk to. Nothing is worse than a plot based adult film when the cast has no acting ability whatsoever.

The film sports nice locations and plot. Most of the props used are period and the wardrobe worn also fits the period. The simple story line pulls the sex scenes together there is enough time between the sex scenes that people who are uninterested in it will have to fast forward.

Although it is annoying that Vivid felt the need to cut the film, the cuts aren't very noticeable if you haven't seen the original film. Some of the sex scenes, like the first one with Ashlyn Gere and Randy West, appear to be rather short when watching them. The plot still flows smoothly so if any plot portions were removed they aren't noticeable. Where the missing scene originally was is slightly noticeable because the movie builds to a scene that isn't there.

The sex scenes are very formulaic unfortunately, as is often the case with a Paul Thomas film. You can usually predict what will happen in each scene and very seldom are you surprised. The scenes could have been hotter as well, especially the scene with Alex Jordan, Jonathan Morgan and Tom Chapman. There was so much potential for the scene but most of it ended up being wasted on a scene that also appeared to have suffered from the reediting cuts.

Bonnie & Clyde is a great couple's film with a slim plot holding it together. I can't recommend it for fans of nasty sex or people who can't stand any plot in their adult films as there is enough of a plot here that it will interfere with their viewing. It would have been nice if the video had been of better quality and that instead of putting the useless standard Vivid special features that the two films had been presented in their entirety as there would have been plenty of space for them or if the cut scene with Alex Jordan and T.T. Boy had been added as a special feature so you could have at least seen it. If the film sounds interesting, it is definitely worth picking up as it can usually be found relatively cheap online. If you already have a copy on VHS you might not want to bother picking this one up because with the video issues the picture is probably about equal to that of a VHS tape and with the cuts you are actually getting a shorter movie.

Past Reviews Interviews