Chasing Stacy Review

Reviewed by Drew Black  on  7/15/2000

test I've often stated that as a rule I don't like virtual sex DVDs. Chasing Stacy is certainly the exception to that rule. It's GRRREAT like a bowl of cereal. It's much more than just another virtual sex title. It is the new yardstick by which all future virtual sex titles will be measured. Chasing Stacy contains three full sex scenes, a well-done strip tease and a masturbation scene in addition to three interactive segments. It's also the most impressive use of DVD technology I have seen yet from any studio, adult or mainstream.

Chasing Stacy is broken down into 5 major sections from the opening menu.

Chasing Stacy:
'Chasing Stacy' is the first interactive segment where you get a simulated glimpse of a day in the life of Stacy Valentine. At various points in the 'chase' you have the option of asking her out on a date. If you ask her out at the right time she'll say yes and you are rewarded, moving on the 'Virtual Date' section. I felt a bit like Dirk the Daring (of Dragon's Lair fame) as the chase commenced. If your timing sucks you get the cold shoulder and get to listen to her complain to a friend on the phone about the dufus that asked her out. Don't be alarmed when your fast forward and rewind buttons don't seem to work in this segment. Those operations have been disabled in the Chasing Stacy segment.

Stacy's day starts out in the kitchen checking email on her notebook computer. You can ask her out here by clicking the Enter key on your remote but you would be missing out on quite a bit. I was surprised by the CGI editing that went into creating the graphics on the notebook's display. It does make you curious about the kind of email Stacy gets.

You continue to chase Stacy to VCA's offices where she makes a stop in Kylie Ireland's very spacious office. (OK, I know it's not really Kylie's office. I also think I have seen the 'Welcome to Hell' neon sign in the background somewhere before.) After signing a few copies of Sex Commandos she's off to her next meeting. You don't get the chance to ask her out in this scene.

After a quick stop in the bathroom to powder her nose Stacy is on her way out the door to her new BMW Z3 convertible. You pass by her in VCA's lobby and are given the chance to ask her out. If you do you soon will learn that she doesn't mix work and her personal life. Better luck next time.

Did you know that Stacy works out at your gym ? The next scene has Stacy hitting the weights for a bit, working up a sweat. You can ask her out here as well but you might want to think twice about it. Stacy, like many women, doesn't want to be bothered at the gym. You'll also miss the steamy shower masturbation scene if you ask her out here. I wonder if that kind of stuff goes on in the women's locker room at my gym?

After her shower she's back in the car on the way to do some shopping. You pull up along side her at a stop sign and she shoots a sultry look your way. Do you ask her out now? Not unless you want to get brushed off again. She doesn't go out with guys who try to meet women while cruising the streets of L.A. You also get a couple of chances to ask her out at the coffee shop but if you do you'll also miss out on the strip tease in the next scene. (Did you hear her cell phone ring? That's the strangest ring I've ever heard from a cell phone. Sounds more like one of the desktop phones in the editing offices at VCA to me, )

You're now 45 viewing minutes into the chase and you find yourself shopping in the same women's clothing store as Stacy. (How do you look in women's clothing?) Stacy grabs a few items off the rack and walks into what appears to be a small fitting room. It turns out to be a lot bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside. You must be friends with the pervert security guard watching the monitors in the back room, because you are soon busy watching Stacy do a great strip tease in the fitting room. She goes through an assortment of outfits ranging from the conservative Catholic school girl look to a full-on dominatrix complete with spiked heels and leather whip. The camera work and picture quality in this scene are stunning.

Feeling like a stalker yet? Well you must be because you now are watching Stacy walk up into her house where you soon find her sitting beside the pool catching some rays. She grabs the sunscreen and goes through the motions of applying a small amount (very) unevenly to about 2 of her body. I wonder if she burned that day? She soon drifts off to a flashback...

This flashback is the steaming pool scene with Jon Decker from Michael Ninn's Forever Night. It's a great condom-less scene, even better if you like Ninn's style. You'll recognize Jon's dick as your surrogate penis in the Fantasex segment later in the DVD.

When she's done sunning herself you coincidentally bump into her on the sidewalk in front of her house. Instead of calling you a stalker and screaming for help Stacy says she's surprised how many times she has seen you today and that she was hoping you would ask her out. It's OK to be shy. She asks you out instead and you move on to the Virtual Date.

Virtual Date:
In the 'Virtual Date' segment you have a first-person perspective of what it's like to be on a date with Stacy. She looks great in the candle lit, romantic setting. She rambles on as many people do on their first date getting to know each other. The difference with this first date is that you are quickly given close-up shots of her assets. (It's not like you're really paying attention to what she has to say anyway.) At a couple of points the conversation gets interesting and you are wisked away to flashbacks from her sexual past.

The first flashback is to a scene from Eternal Lust with Peter North and Holly Hunter. It's a full-length, condom-less scene that doesn't appear to be edited for its appearance in Chasing Stacy. You can tell that this segment is taken from an older master because the video quality isn't as stunning as the rest of this DVD. Holly and Stacy take turns having their way with Peter before he delivers his calling card to Stacy's right eye and forehead. I wonder if Peter has ever taken out an eye with that thing?

The flashback's over....cut back to your date and she's still rambling. (You get the impression she could talk the balls off a brontosaurus. You don't seem to mind. It's not like you get a date with Stacy Valentine every day.) The conversation is mildly interesting and doesn't appear to be scripted. What she has to say may actually be...wait... another flashback to something more interesting...

The second flashback scene is taken from L.A. Lust and features a scene with Stacy and Nick East on a secluded beach. Stacy is gorgeous in this scene and Nick looks like he's taking time off from a gig with Soundgarden. The sans-condom scene appears to have been edited down a bit from it's original form but covers all of the action in series of lick, suck, vaginal, anal, facial. (No ATM, there's a cut in the action.)...

...Did I just here you say "take me home and fuck me really, really hard?" Yeah! It's time for the Fantasex.

Fantasex:
This is VCA's version of a virtual sex simulator. I'm impressed. I'm still not a fan of virtual sex but their use of DVD technology in this segment is certainly better than anything I have seen to date. Wit Maverick and his crew created a menu and navigation system that's easy to use in your first Fantasex session and has optional control mechanisms for the experienced viewer.

When you first start Fantasex you pick one of three settings for the action: Stacy's Place, The Office or In Public. The significance of the setting is minimal. The action is the same regardless of the setting. It was filmed against a green screen and the background was edited in. However, I do find the oblivious shoppers entertaining on the escalator in the public setting.

After you pick a setting the menu guides you to pick a music theme. There are four to choose from: Slow & Easy, Quick and Dirty, Long & Hard or no music. Each of the three music tracks are well done. You can change the music selection at any point during the action by pressing the Audio button on your remote. I think this is an intelligent implementation of alternate audio tracks.

After choosing the soundtrack you pick the starting point: foreplay, oral or sex. Then it's time to get started. (Jon Decker is your surrogate penis in the first-person perspective camera shots.) The on-screen interface is intuitive and easy to use. You can set the heat of the action to one of three options, and choose one of three positions. See the chart below for more info. Most of the segments have multiple angles available as well. On my player the Toshiba on-screen multi-angle icon appeared when angles were available. I didn't see any other multi-angle indicators. You can turn off the on-screen sex control interface by pressing the Subtitle button on your remote. Pressing it again doesn't turn the menu back on. You have to go to the playback options menu to re-enable the interface.

Each of the loops in the Fantasex segment are well done but fairly short. I didn't time them but my guess is that they are 30 - 45 seconds each. There was an annoying pause of 2-3 seconds at the end of each loop on my Toshiba 2109.

You have two cum options. You cum or she cums. The male and female cum segments are the same no matter which scene you select them from. They guy's cumshot is real. There's no easy way to do cumshots in a virtual sex title. I like the approach VCA used in tackling the issue.

Virtual sex scene options:

4 Play	Oral	Sex
Breast Finger Toy*	Her You	Top Bottom Doggy*
* no multi-angle option

Fantasex playback options:
VCA has appearantly been listening to what consumers want. They have added some new ways to enjoy the virtual sex experience. There is a "hands free" automatic playback mode that randomly chooses the sequence of segments. There's also a Quick Start option which jumps to a randomly selected a scene, sound track and sex position. They have also created a unique advanced control option which turns the numeric section of your remote control's keypad into a quick way to control the action. You can turn off the on-screen interface and use the advanced control options if you are distracted by the on-screen menu.

There is a Jump to Scene option which is a quick way to get to one of eight scene on the disc. The selection here is 1) Chasing Stacy, 2) Virtual Date, 3) Fantasex, 4) Hot shower scene, 5) Strip tease scene, 6) Forever night scene, 7) Eternal Lust scene, 8) L.A. Lust scene. The jump to scene option is very handy to get to the sex scenes since you can't fast forward to them during the chase or virtual date segments.

The Eye Candy photo gallery is OK for a one- time viewing. It features some nice shots of Stacy done in an animated pan-and-zoom fashion. A few of the shots are taken from the set where they filmed the Fantasex segment. You can see the green screen backdrop behind her.

The About this DVD menu option leads to an informative series of instructions and a comprehensive scrolling list of everyone involved in making Chasing Stacy. Very nice for those of us that are curious about who's who in each scenes and also which people are responsible for raising the bar for virtual sex titles.

VCA did a phenomenal job creating this DVD. There are only a few additional minor quirks that I encountered. During the Fantasex segment pressing the Menu button on my remote re-started the current segment instead of taking me back to the menu. I discovered that pressing the Title button took me back to the menu. I didn't see this mentioned in the help screens. I also found it a little annoying that I had my virtual hand on the base of my surrogate penis during all of the sex action. I suppose this was to de-emphasize the presence of a condom.

Bottom Line:
If you are a fan of Miss Valentine then you won't want to be without this disk. If you are a fan of virtual sex titles you will love Chasing Stacy. It's a definite step in the right direction for interactive sex DVDs. Even if you don't fall into the previous two groups you will enjoy Chasing Stacy simply because it's one of the best DVDs available. It's like getting two DVDs in one. You get a few full-length sex scenes and a well implemented sex simulator.