Dream Quest Review

Running Time: 127 min.

Production Date: 10 / 4 / 1999

Director: Brad Armstrong

Cast: Jenna Jameson, Stephanie Swift, Alexa, Temptress, Asia Carrera, Sydnee Steele, Amber Michaels, Johnni Black, Felicia, Inari Vachs, Jessica Drake, Teri Star, Bridgett Kerkove, Devin Wolf, Herschel Savage, Brad Armstrong, Randy Spears, Evan Stone, Dale DaBone, Anthony Crane, Veronica Hart, Dick Tracy, Napoleon, Steve Barker, and Frank Fortuna

Initial Expectations: An extremely well made adult film. I have yet to regret watching any Brad Armstrong movie, and from what I’ve heard I won’t regret this one either.

Initial Reaction: It’s very well done. The sex is very good and the cast and sets are beautiful. The story, however, seems a little hollow in places.

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is very good. It’s clear and you can hear almost everything you feel you should. The video, however, is lacking. Dream Quest appears to have been shot on film, as it has all the grain problems and limitations of film in adult movies. On the plus side, Dream Quest is in widescreen. It’s rare for Wicked to have a movie this grainy and I know that it bugs the people at Wicked also. They know that it’s the main fault of the movie and have done everything they can to make the movie look as good as possible. From what I understand, the DVD looks much better than the VHS does. It shows what a great company Wicked is to go to such effort after the original movie is released on VHS rather than making excuses for it and leaving it as is.

Music: The music reminds me a lot of Enigma. It’s dreamy, which fits the fantasy nature of the movie, yet stays current.

Review: By now you’ve heard of Dream Quest . I don’t think even being in a coma would save you from the hype around this movie. Of course, with the budget that Dream Quest had, there’s no way to avoid the hype. Luckily, one can’t consider Dream Quest to be the Waterworld of the adult film world.

Dream Quest’s production values raise it far above the average porno. There are a lot of outdoor shots, and many of them are combined with special effects for some of the images, such as Vladamir’s castle. When sets are used, they are elaborate and dark. Arachna’s lair is covered with spider webs and a few spiders. They feel like they should.

The make-up on the characters are amazing! The only way I knew that Randy Spears was Cronog was his voice and eyes. Even then I had to look a couple times. Veronica Hart is just as unrecognizable as the witch in her cameo. Then there’s Herschel Savage as Vladamir. Herschel’s voice is average enough that it took me over half the movie to figure out who he was. His make-up job reminds me a lot of the Narns on Babylon 5. I’m surprised he didn’t get more booty in the movie as a payback for sitting through the make- up sessions.

All this wouldn’t matter much if there wasn’t great sex and a decent plot. With production values like this, a plot is actually needed. It would seem half-assed without a fairly decent plot. Dream Quest revolves around Sarah (Jenna) and her quest to save fantasy. She’s been noticing that love and romance seem to be disappearing from her world (well, duh! You’re living in a porno!). She soon finds out from two fairies that the evil Vladamir (Herschel Savage with an excellent make-up job) has stolen fantasy. Sarah agrees to help them rescue fantasy from Vladamir and embarks on a journey through the looking glass. Her journey brings her in contact with a variety of beings from Arachna (Asia Carrera) the spider lady to Tundra (Alexa Rae) the ice warrior to fairies from all four seasons (Felicia, Stephanie Swift, Inari Vachs, and Teri Starr). Of course, Vladamir isn’t going to give up easily and has plenty of obstacles in front of Sarah from guards into different parts of Fantasy (Johnni Black and Amber Michaels) to assorted trolls, ogres, witches, and enchanted statues (Evan Stone).

Of course, all this doesn’t mean squat in a porno if the sex isn’t at least good. Well, with this cast that isn’t a worry. As well as being a good couples movie, there’s some fairly nasty sex including a lot of anal, some cum swapping, and a double vaginal. Jenna, as usual, does a great job. She’s very good here as her character changes from a fairly repressed and unsure woman into one confident in herself, which includes her sexuality. Fans of her male / female performances might be a little disappointed, however, as she only has one male / female scene with Devin Wolf. She does cover the entire range pretty well as she also has a one on one with Alexa Rae, an all girl threesome with Felicia and Stephanie Swift, and a threesome with Asia Carrera and Evan Stone.

There’s also a little variety with the sex scenes. Both Randy Spears and Brad Armstrong have threesomes. Randy takes on Johnni and Amber, valiantly sacrificing himself to their needs so that Sarah can continue her quest. Fairies Teri and Inari give themselves to knight Brad Armstrong as toll for the bridge he guards. Being a gentleman, Brad gives Sarah his horse so that Sarah’s quest can continue a little faster seeing how important it must be. Finally, there’s two blowjob only scenes. Anthony Crane, in full make-up gets a hummer from the lovely Jessica Drake before meeting Sarah and Herschel, getting the short end of the stick for his patience with the make-up, gets a sloppy blowjob from Bridgett Kerkove.

Alas, Dream Quest isn’t perfect. After all is said and done, Dream Quest seems a little hollow. The plot is okay, but the non-sex scenes are mostly dominated by Jenna walking or riding a horse. There isn’t a lot showing how Fantasy is dying, which we hear about quite a bit. Also, as I mentioned before (and most everybody else who’s seen it also), the picture is a little grainy. Dream Quest was shot on film and grain seems to plague every shot-on-film feature just like ass zits do on a low budget feature. Wicked puts a lot of effort into their features and they claim that they have done everything possible to get the best possible picture. I have no reason to doubt them, but it’s still noticeable. For many, you won’t care. Hopefully you can get past it to fully enjoy Dream Quest .

Extras: Wicked really went all out with extras on Dream Quest . Not only do they have their standard extras, there’s a commentary with Brad Armstrong and Ezra, deleted scenes, a behind the scenes featurette, and deleted scenes. The extras alone are enough for some companies to release on a DVD by themselves.

The deleted scenes are good and bad. The sex scenes are very good, and the plot scenes were justifiably cut. The non-sex scenes are mostly Jenna walking. Granted, Jenna even makes this look good, but these four minutes don’t add anything to the movie. If anything, they’d make it seem much longer than four minutes.

The sex scenes, however, really belong in the movie. I guess we can blame it on VHS, since Dream Quest comes in just short of the normal VHS length. These scenes added something to the movie. The first scene has Alexa’s battle with the statue (played by Evan Stone). It’s a shame when anything with Alexa gets cut. It’s an okay scene, but nothing spectacular. I really would have liked it included in the movie just to plug the plot hole. No, that isn’t some new expression the kids are using now days. I really mean a loose end in the plot. After watching the behind the scenes, I have to give a lot of credit to Evan Stone as a true professional.

The second deleted sex scene is a group scene between Temptress, Sydnee, Dale, and Brad. It takes place in Vladamir’s lair and lasts about ten minutes. Cutting this scene shows how desperate Wicked and Mr. Armstrong were to cut time. It’s got Temptress! Men have dies for lesser sins than cutting a Temptress scene. Since the only people being punished are those who watch the VHS version, we’ll let everybody live here. It’s a very good group scene but doesn’t add a lot to the movie. It adds a little, but not really to the plot.

The behind the scenes is done by Red Ezra (who also goes bu just Ezra and edited the film). It lasts an amazing forty minutes and covers the movie day by day. There’s a lot of interviews with the cast as well as some of the problems and fun that happen back stage. You get a really good feel for the cast as people, both good and bad. As I said earlier, I gained a lot of respect for Evan Stone due to this featurette.

The commentary on Dream Quest combines Brad Armstrong, one of the stars and the director, and Ezra, the editor. As usual, Brad does a very good commentary and adds quite a bit to the movie. You get a lot of behind the scenes stories as well as what he was shooting for in the movie. Adding Ezra to the commentary was a great idea. He’s got a lot of information on the technical side of things, which also adds to the commentary. Unfortunately, he’s very hard to hear through most of the commentary. He’s soft enough that in places it’s easier to hear the movie in the background than to hear Ezra.

As with many of Wicked’s recent releases, Dream Quest has two photo galleries. As with all of Wicked’s photo galleries (or at least all of them that I’ve seen) it’s the automated style. Although I personally don’t care for this style as much as the manual style, Wicked keeps it moving quickly. The first is the standard photo gallery from the movie. It lasts about two and a half minutes with five seconds per still. The stills are framed and very clear. The behind the scenes photo gallery is only a few seconds shorter and has the same quality and format.

Surprisingly, the only trailer here is for Dream Quest . I guess if something had to get dropped from the DVD the other trailers is a pretty good choice. The Dream Quest trailer is very well done and shows the movie without giving away too much. It would definitely make me want to watch the movie itself if I saw it elsewhere.

As always, there’s the Wicked Web, Wicked Casino (for DVD-ROM), company profile, and AVN Awards and Nominations. There’s also the cast listing which covers Jenna, Asia, Brad, Randy, Sydney, Herschel, Temptress, Inari, Felicia, Stephanie, Teri, and Alexa. Wicked does a great job of letting you know who everybody is. You get a little information about the star, a few stills, and a link to one of their scenes.

Themes: Straight, lesbian, group, anal, toys, masturbation, spanking, DP (with finger and toy), and DV (with toys)

Raincoat Factor: Medium. There’s a lot of sex, and with this cast you know it’s going to be well done. There’s also enough plot and storytelling to the movie that it isn’t just a spank movie.

Overall: Currently, Dream Quest can be found online for between $20 and $30 with most stores offering it for under $25 . Pick it up. Even if you’re not into Jenna, at least rent it. Wicked really went all out on the DVD and it deserves to be seen.

Note to Wicked: Great job on the DVD as a whole. In the future, please keep away from film. The grain of the picture is the main thing that held Dream Quest back.

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