Emerald Rain Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  5/6/2001

Running Time: 120 min.

Production Date: July 13 - 14, 2000

Director: Nicholas Steele

Cast: Ava Vincent, Evan Stone, Dale DaBone, Suzy Sweet, Isabella, Briana Banks, Rita Faltoyano, Alexa, John Decker, and Marty Romano

Initial Expectations: Ava Vincent and Briana Banks are really at the top of their game right now, so I have fairly high expectations for Emerald Rain .

Initial Reaction: It’s almost like if the Discovery Channel made a great porno.

Who Should Watch It : Although it’s a little heavy on the anal sex in the beginning, it’s a great couples movie. It’s also great for couples since there’s absolutely no girl / girl action. It’s a beautiful location and beautifully shot feature.

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody looking for hardcore sex.

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is very good and pretty well balanced. The video is extremely clear and does a great job of capturing the Amazon scenery. There are a few shadow problems, but they aren’t too common.

Music: Once again, Saint does the music for this Adam & Eve film which is a big plus to me. Saint’s style is perfect for the scenery here and I think it raises up the movie a little bit even though it’s a little overpowering in places.

Menus: As with most of their recent releases, Adam & Eve has a nice animated title screen. There’s also a nice menu to allow you to set up the DVD with both the audio and the hot shot icon. The menus have a nice Amazon background that fits the movie great.

Disc Problems: At the start of both chapter 15 and chapter 19, the movie automatically returned to the chapter menu. I checked this out on both my DVD player and DVD- ROM and had the same results both places.

The Feature: A little while ago I read something somewhere where somebody referred to VCA as the company where old porn stars went to die. I don’t know about that, but it made me think that if that person was even partially right, Adam & Eve is where a lot of them are born, or at least learn to spread their wings and fly. Emerald Rain is a great example of this with the star power of Ava Vincent and Briana Banks, both of whom are in nice contracts with other companies right now.

Almost three years ago, Tyler McCabe (Evan Stone) vanished into the Emerald Rain Forest, not to be heard from since. He was determined to find a way for the Earth to regenerate itself. Now, Eden James (Ava Vincent) and her fiancé William Benson (Dale DaBone) have come to try and find him and get him the funding he needs for his research. Of course, William is mostly the bellboy who’s stuck carrying all of Eden’s luggage through the rainforest. At first it seems like a concept that was used quite a few years ago in the mainstream movie Medicine Man , which had just as beautiful of scenery just not much sex. This wasn’t such a bad thing there because you didn’t really want to see somebody that old going after a woman that young (not that anything like that ever happens in pornos). Emerald Rain goes in a little different direction by having most of the movie about the search for Tyler rather than his research. To find Tyler, they’ve enlisted the help of Shady O’Grey (John Decker), who’s loyalty lies with whoever pays the best. The rest of the movie revolves around Tyler’s research and trying to solve his problem and save the rain forest.

John Decker and Rita Faltoyano open things up nicely with a soft and slow blowjob in John’s cabin. They move on to a fairly acrobatic pussy eating as John eats her while she holds herself up to the ceiling. She rides him reverse cowgirl a bit before laying back and letting him fuck her ass. I don’t know that I’ve seen Rita before, but she does a great job throughout the scene. She has nice sized natural tits and has some of the athletic abilities to pull off the aerial munch job without making it look too unreasonable. She doesn’t take a facial at the end, instead John lets go on her lovely ass. It’s a good start to the movie, and although it doesn’t generate a lot of heat, there’s enough there to get my hopes up for the rest of the movie. It also made me take a lot of notice of Rita. She shows a lot of potential here and I hope to see a lot more of her in the future.

The second scene shows us what Evan Stone’s character Tyler has been doing, the native women. In this case, Evan and Alexa, a nicely proportioned native girl, get busy in front of a waterfall. The waterfall is a beautiful backdrop to the scene, although you rarely hear any of the waterfall’s noise. You do, however, hear some of the sex sounds throughout the scene. Alexa has a very natural look, complete with natural tits, and wouldn’t stand out at all if you met her on a street. That’s not a bad thing, as it adds a lot of realism to the scene. She takes it both vaginally and anally before Evan blows on her chest. It’s another very warm scene that most couples will be happy with.

After Ava plays in the ocean a little, she and brings Dale down to play with her and they make mad passionate love on the beach. Luckily they could get a blanket out from under the kitchen sink I was pretty sure Dale was lugging around in Ava’s bags. It’s one of those scenes that almost everybody can relate to. Almost everybody has dreamt about fucking on a beach next to the ocean, and quite a few have. There isn’t a lot of oral sex, and things move quickly into watching Dale pound in and out of Ava’s willing pussy. It’s a beautiful scene with some nice heat to it and a surprising number of positions. Ava finishes it off by taking a great facial, most of which ends up falling on her chest.

Evan joins married couple Briana Banks and Marty Romano for a celebration after he joins them as children of the water and the Earth. Since they’re children of water and the Earth, the scene takes place in the middle of a small creek. Briana’s implants are a little gross, but the rest of the package is amazing! She’s a gorgeous blonde with a definite sexuality about her. She does a great job of taking care of both guys at the same time and even manages the amazing feat of taking almost all of Evan’s dick down her throat. I think the only thing that stopped her from going the last inch was if she did, she’d start digesting it. She rides Evan reverse cowgirl next, allowing her to keep sucking Marty’s cock. Evan has to continually scoop water out of the river to cool himself off and I can see why! Not wanting to be completely left out, they turn around so Marty can fuck Briana from behind while she sucks Evan’s cock as he lays in the stream. She takes a great doble cum shot across her tits and in her mouth that gives this very hot scene a great finish.

After Ava runs off with Evan, Dale gets some action from Isabella outside his hut. Although it gives a nice native feel, but Isabella has a huge painting (I don’t think it’s a tattoo) of a branch across her entire front and another large one on her lower back that really kind of turned me off. Other than that, she’s cute with a very nice natural body. The scene begins very female friendly, with a lot of kissing and caressing leading up to Dale’s blowjob. It’s a nice slow and soft blowjob keeps the couples feel going into Dale eating her pussy as she half- hangs from a ladder. She continues to support herself with the ladder as Dale fucks her standing up. Isabella turns around and he fucks her a little longer before letting loose with an impressive love loogie across her ass. This was one of the hottest extremely couples sex scenes I’ve seen in quite a while.

Finally, after a celebration, Ava blows Evan while John eats out Suzy Sweet wearing a little face paint. The oral sex changes around after a bit, but neither lasts very long before getting into some good fucking. This scene seemed a little more obviously dubbed. Either that or a little less attention was paid to the audio as there were a couple times where you’d hear the girl off screen rather than on screen. It’s a warm scene and a little bit of a let down for the final scene.

There are a few faults in Emerald Rain . Although beautiful, it also feels shallow. The plot doesn’t really feel like much of anything other than an excuse to fuck in the rain forest. There were quite a few times that I just kind of scratched my head trying to follow the plot. Also, Ava seems really ridiculous throughout the movie. I normally enjoy her performances, and I do here too, but she walks through the rainforest in a white dress and sandals carrying a white umbrella while Dale carries a load of luggage. Anybody who’s even went backpacking for half a day will realize how ridiculous this looks. Yes, it’s pretty, but it’s so far out of reality that I couldn’t help but laugh at her whenever she came on the screen. Finally, it gets a little preachy at times. If you’re a member of the Green Party or another rabid environmentalist, it’s probably great, but it really turns me off.

On the plus side, Emerald Rain makes a great couples movie. Although not that well developed, it is a decent plot. The sex is a little heavy on anal sex in the first couple scenes, but it’s done tastefully so many couples will probably still enjoy it. Although there is a bit of weak acting, especially Ava’s narration, there is quite a bit of decent acting as well. I may not agree with some of the politics in Emerald Rain , but it’s still an enjoyable adult film.

Extras: Adam & Eve has done a very nice job with their extras for Emerald Rain . Of course, there’s the usual web links, as well as the other standard extras, but there’s plenty more this time as well. The cast bios include Alexa, Ava Vincent, Briana Banks, Dale DaBone, Evan Stone, John Decker, and Suzy Sweet, They’re a nice one screen layout with a photo, some personal information, a list of some of the star’s other Adam & Eve titles, and a link to their scene.

Emerald Rain contains two photo galleries. The main photo gallery contains 26 snapshots. It’s one of the nicest laid out photo galleries I’ve seen. Rather than having to go through the entire thing to see them all, there are two screens with thumbnails of each photo. From there you can select which photo you want to see. Each photo has a caption so you know who you’re looking at and also has the controls to allow you to scan through the photos from there. The extra attention to detail wasn’t wasted either because the pictures look great! The bonus photo gallery contains 28 snapshots and looks just as good. It also uses the same thumbnail interface. It’s one of the best designed photo galleries I’ve seen.

The behind the scenes featurette lasts twenty minutes. Evan and Dale both give a little introduction on the trip out to the jungle and Nicholas Steele has a comment or two later on. Some of the comments are a little harder to make out, but they’re not always done in the easiest of conditions. A lot of the featurette shows the actual movie being made rather than a lot of interviews. Almost every scene is included. You see the equipment and how it’s set up as well as the stars being made up for their shoots. A lot of the traveling is also shown in the featurette since the locations used in Emerald Rain aren’t always simple drive up locations. It’s a seriously done behind the scenes, but it’s also done pretty well and gives a nice taste for the entire feature.

The bonus scene lasts almost a half hour and actually includes two scenes. Evan Stone introduces the first scene and takes some about Dinner Party 3 , which he’s currently filming. Briana Banks stops in to get a soda and ends up talking about her part in Dinner Party 3 . Of course, everybody has problems looking Briana in the eye, and it turns into a fun sex scene. Once again, Briana shows the ease at which she can deep throat Evan Stone. They kiss a little and then move right into the main event. It’s a little rougher than normal for an Adam & Eve scene, as Evan pins Briana’s arms behind her while fucking and also chokes her a little. Technically, it isn’t as good as a normal scene, but you normally don’t expect the bonus scenes to be that good. It’s not bad, but the light is very uneven and the audio is a little off balance at times. She does a great job of sucking the cum out of Evan’s cock for a nice ending to the scene.

Evan Stone introduces the second scene as well, and talks some about making Emerald Rain , or Tears of Eden as it was called at the time. This time, Evan’s interview is interrupted by Isabella stopping by. Evan demonstrates the international art of kissing, and then blows off learning his lines to kiss her some more. Isabella does a great job of working over Evan’s cock and I’m not sure how he ever made it to fucking her. The guy’s a true professional to take that licking and keep on ticking. They fuck on a table in the corner of the room as well as on a rickety chair that I’m surprised didn’t collapse. She takes a nice pop from Evan on her chin and then sucks out what’s left. The uneven lighting was present in this scene also in addition to a few other minor background noises. It’s a very hot scene despite the lighting and faint noises and makes me hope we see more of Isabella in the future.

Since these bonus scenes aren’t part of the actual movie, I didn’t rate them on the sex rating. Normally I would have given this DVD a 3 ½ overall, but with the extra sex here I felt it would have raised the sex rating up about a half a point and I raised the overall DVD another half point to a 4 as well.

There’s a very impressive selection of trailers as well. All told, there are forty minutes of trailers included here. Trailers are included for the first three Sex Across America features, Adam & Eve’s new gonzo sex series. There are also trailers for Adam & Eve’s feature films, both yet to come and already released. Upcoming features include Crystal Dreams, Dinner Party 3, Sex Spell, and A Wolf’s Tale . Already released trailers include A Midsummer Night’s Cream , Caribbean Undercover, Carnal Witness , Devoured , The Collector , A Witch’s Tail . There is a menu for the trailers, but you have to scan to the end of the trailers to get to it. It’s a weird set-up and the only fault I can find with the trailers.

Themes: Straight, anal, group, and spanking

Raincoat Factor: Medium

Overall: Currently, Emerald Rain can be found online for between $17 and $25 with only a few offering it so far and most of them offering it for over $21. The total DVD runs over three and a half hours, so it’s a great price for what you get. The movie is a little above average, although great for couples, but the extras are exceptional. Technically, it’s pretty good, although there are a few small problems.

Note to Adam & Eve: Great job on the extras. The bonus scenes and the behind the scenes were all great and added a lot to the overall DVD.

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