Hercules (Wicked) Review

Distributor: Wicked Pictures Edition Details: Collector's Edition DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Feature Film, Comedy Run Time: 144 minutes Rated: XXX Release Year: 2002 Director: Jonathan Morgan Written by: Jonathan Morgan, Rodger Jacobs (as Martin Brimmer) Cast: Julia Ann, Evan Stone, Randy Spears, Sydnee Steele, Stephanie Swift, Fujiko Kano, Lezley Zen, Joel Lawrence, Kristal Summers, Gina Ryder, Steve Hatcher, Mike Horner, Kaylynn, Holly Hollywood, Dee, Cherie, Zana, Flick Shagwell, Ashley Blue, Lee Stone, Ian Daniels, Billy Glide, Ron Jeremy, Alex Sanders, Pat Myne, Daniel Metcalf, Mark Verlaine, Shelby Stevens, Joe Gulles, Righty, Julian Patrick, Leigh, Julie, Steve Fisher, Mike Hunt, Tom Ran Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, English DTS 5.1 Surround Subtitles: none Video: Widescreen, 1.85:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 2 Disc: DVD 9 (SS, DL) Special Features: Audio Commentary, Jump From Script, Star Bios, Multi-Angled Orgasms, Multiple Story Lines/Sex Scenes, All Access: The Making of Hercules, Box Cover Shoot, Bloopers, Hercules Trailer, Photo Galleries, Multi-Version Scene, Alternate Ending, Interview With Julia Ann, Director's Diary, Girls of Hercules, Deleted Scenes, Pre-Production, Easter Eggs DVD-ROM Special Features: Wicked Casino, Wicked Web

Synopsis:
Zeus left Olympus and went slumming down on Earth and ended up, with the help of a mortal, creating half-god, half-moron son Hercules (Evan Stone). Hera (Julia Ann) despises Hercules's existence and tries to make his life as horrible as possible. Hercules is given the chance to atone for his past mistakes so along with his friend Theseus (Randy Spears) sets off to complete twelve tasks. Hera sees the opportunity in this and does her best to foul up the tasks for Hercules.

Audio/Video:
Wicked has gone all out on this edition and has included both English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround and English DTS audio tracks. As I don't have equipment that can decode the DTS track, only the Dolby Digital Surround track is covered in this review. The Dolby Digital Surround track is full of life and fills the room. This is by far one of the best, if not the best, audio tracks that I have heard for an adult film release. The dialog is clear and easy to hear at all times. Hopefully Wicked will continue to release films at this level and continue raising the bar for adult film releases. There is also an English 2.0 Commentary track included on the disc. Wicked hasn't included any foreign language tracks or any subtitle options for the feature film.

Hercules is presented in the widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and looks great. The only issue that I have with the transfer is that this isn't an anamorphic release. It's great to see Wicked embracing the widescreen format, but with the amount of consumers with 16x9 televisions, they should really go all the way and produce anamorphic releases. The picture itself looks beautiful with a pristine transfer bearing no artifacts, blemishes or any other issues at all with the quality. The color levels are correctly set.

Special Features:
Wicked has loaded this DVD set with quality features to the point where this set more resembles a special edition mainstream release than an adult release. There are a few extras contained on the first disc, but the second disc contains the bulk of them. On the first disc is a feature length audio commentary with Jonathan Morgan, Randy Spears, and Julia Ann, which makes for a good listen. There are star bios, which consist of audio and text information with pictures and a Wicked filmography for Julia Ann, Stephanie Swift, Sydnee Steele, Zana, Lezley Zen, Kristal Summers, Fujiko Kano, Evan Stone, Randy Spears, and Jonathan Morgan.

There is a Jump From Script feature where the screenplay is included in text form on the disc and you can also jump from the script pages to that scene in the film. There is an alternate pop shot angle for all of the main story line sex scenes, which feature one additional angle for just the cum shots and an option to turn on an indicator for when the second angle becomes available. There are multiple story lines/sex scenes in two places during the film and an option to turn on an indicator for when the alternate scenes are available. That covers all of the extras on the first disc.

Now onto all of the extras on the second disc. There is an expansive 53 minute feature called All Access: The Making of Hercules, which covers the entire creation of the film. There are pre-production features on the topics of The Make-up, The Auditions, The Rehearsals, The Locations and The Art Direction that run between four to seven minutes each. There is a new to Wicked DVDs extra titled, Director's Diary, which runs for 11 minutes and features Jonathan Morgan talking into a camera about the filming, the good parts and the bad parts. This is a great new addition and I hope Wicked uses it more in the future.

There is a 13 minute Interview with Julia Ann where she talks about her and her acting. There is a four minute feature on the Box Cover Shoot for Hercules. There is a bloopers reel from mostly non-sex portions of the film that runs for around ten minutes. There is a six minute montage of the female cast that appears in the film called Girls of Hercules. There are seven deleted scenes on the disc, each one with an introduction by Jonathan Morgan explaining why they didn't make the final cut. There is an alternate ending for the film and an almost four minute piece called Multi-Version Scene, which shows the various improvised versions of a scene with Randy Spears and Evan Stone. Also, presented in non-anamorphic widescreen is the trailer for Hercules.

Wicked has included a collection of photo galleries on the disc. There is the movie gallery with stills from the film. There is the behind the scenes gallery with shots involving the production crew. There are also star galleries for Julia Ann, Stephanie Swift, Sydnee Steele, Dee, Kaylynn, Gina Ryder, Zana, Lezley Zen, Kristal Summers, Holly Hollywood, Flick Shagwell, Ashley Blue, Fujiko Kano, and Cherie. There are also two easter eggs that I could find on the second disc. One is a five minute collection of bloopers, gags and out takes and the other is a minute piece on the original box cover shoot with Devinn Lane, who was originally set to play the part of Hera.

DVD-ROM Special Features:
Wicked has included their standard DVD-ROM extras on the first disc in the set. There is the Wicked Web, which is a gateway link to Wicked's website. Also included is the Wicked Casino, which is a free casino program that you have to install on your computer that allows you to play casino style games online against opponents for Wicked Cash or just by yourself for fun. The available casino games are Black Jack, Roulette, Baccarat, Slots, and Poker.

Navigation:
Hercules features the aesthetically pleasing menus I've ever seen on an adult DVD, although the transition time between the menus might annoy some viewers. There are twelve chapters available from the main menu for the feature film. Each one is identified by a video clip. Given the nature of the film, more chapters would have been preferable. There are 60 chapter stops within the film itself. There is a time code for the feature film encoded on the disc.

General Review:
If you ever wondered what it would have been like if Monty Python had made adult films, Jonathan Morgan's Hercules will answer that question for you. This is Jonathan Morgan's best film to date and shows how much he has grown as a director and writer. I hope in the future Wicked Pictures gives Jonathan bigger budgets for his larger scale films and allows him to continue to grow as a director.

The plot alone is worth watching this movie for as, if you remove the sex scenes, this film would still be very enjoyable to watch. The film is a well crafted comedy with strains of Monty Python and the Holy Grail included. Jonathan Morgan and co-writer Martin Brimmer obviously put a lot of work into the script for the film. The film never takes itself seriously which works in the favor of the film. The seemingly long run time of the film, two hours and twenty-four minutes, goes by fast and leaves you wishing for more. This is one of those films that the plot doesn't exist just to connect the sex scenes and many of the sex scenes fit in nicely with the plot.

A great aspect to this film that raises the replay value of it is there are some alternate branches to the story and sex scenes. To view the alternate branches you have to turn on the feature at the main menu and click on the icon when it comes up during the film. I wish that Wicked had made this disc with branching versions where you pick at the menu which one you wanted to view and let the DVD player do the work for which lines the film follows, but this way works as well. For some reason, the alternate footage is only presented in 2.0 Stereo instead of 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround. The difference in the audio is noticeable when watching making the alternate footage stand out. I'm not sure as to why it wasn't put in with a 5.1 mix but this concept is a great aspect to the disc and one I hope that Wicked plays with more in the future.

The cast for the film was well picked, not only for their looks, but for their ability to handle the non-sex material in the film. Evan Stone and Randy Spears make a great set of leads and play perfectly off of each other. I've known for a while that Randy Spears had the ability to handle non-sex portions well, but this film also raised my opinion of Evan Stone as an actor. Joel Lawrence also puts in an excellent performance as Hades. Some of the cast members use different voice tones and accents instead of their standard speaking voices, so instead of just watching a porn star portray a character, you get to see the character. A great aspect to the film is that for the most part, the cast stays in character for the sex scenes, a detail often forgotten in plot-based adult films.

The sets for the film look great and add to the feel of the film. Obviously some work went into the set design and location picking. The film also sports some excellent make-up work. For instance, the work that went into the creation of Hades, played by Joel Lawrence, is amazing. The film also features some decent special effects. There is nothing that will knock your socks off, but it helps with the suspension of disbelief while watching the film. It's these little details that add to the film and make it the excellent finished product that it is. Not everything is perfect in the film. For instance, the bear costume looks horrible but the imperfections are easily overlooked when the film is looked at as a whole.

As far as the sex scenes go, the scenes are tame in nature, but that doesn't mean that they aren't good. Given the design of the film, this is an excellent choice for couples and new to adult film couples as there is enough non-sexual portions and the sex scenes are tame enough that no one should get too upset by the film. Fans of films from the Golden Age should give this film a try as well as, although it is not the same as the product coming out then, it is very similar in design. The sexual themes in the film are vaginal and anal sex with pussy eating (male to female and female to female), blow jobs, lesbianism, an orgy, and female masturbation. For viewers that care about condom use, condoms are used in all of the scenes.

The Scenes:
There are two versions of the film on the disc. There is the main story and there is an alternate story. Most of the two films are the same, but there are some scenes that are only available in one or the other version. When going through the scene synopsis, any scene marked as an “a” scene is only available in the main story and any scene marked with a “b” is only available in the alternate story.

In the first scene Julia Anna and Ian Daniels start out with some pussy eating before going into a blow job. The scene concludes with some vaginal sex. The second scene features Dee and Randy Spears and starts out with a blow job before some vaginal sex. The scene concludes with a reprise of the blow job.

The third scene is one of the scenes with two versions. The “a” scene features Gina Ryder, Cherie, and Evan Stone and starts out with blow job before going into some vaginal sex. The scene then goes into a pussy eating (male to female) and vaginal sex combo before going back to the vaginal sex to conclude the scene. The “b” scene features Lezley Zen and Randy Spears and starts out with a blow job. The scene concludes with some vaginal sex.

The fourth scene brings us Fujiko Kano, Pat Myne and Steve Hatcher and starts out with a blow job. The scene concludes with a blow job and anal sex combo. In the fifth scene Sydnee Steele pairs up with Evan Stone for a scene that starts out with some pussy eating before going into the blow job. The scene concludes with some vaginal sex.

The sixth scene features Flick Shagwell, Zana, Ashley Blue, Lezley Zen, Randy Spears, Steve Hatcher, Lee Stone and Alex Sanders, and is a group scene. In the beginning of the scene the various couplings are involved in blow jobs and pussy eating (male to female and female to female), then all the couplings go into some vaginal sex. Before the finale of the scene the various couplings go into vaginal sex, blow jobs and pussy eating (male to female and female to female). For the finale of the scene, all the couplings go back to some vaginal sex. In the seventh scene Kristal Summers, Julia Ann, and Joel Lawrence start out with a blow job. Then they go into some vaginal sex before going back to the blow job to finish the scene.

The eighth scene is the other scene with two versions. The “a” scene features Stephanie Swift, Holly Hollywood, and Kaylynn in a lesbian scene that features pussy eating and a little female masturbation. The “b” scene features Julia Ann, Sydnee Steele, and Billy Glide and starts out with a blow job before going into the vaginal sex. The scene then goes into a vaginal sex and pussy eating (female to female) combo before going back to the vaginal sex for the conclusion.

Parting Thoughts:
Hercules is worth buying for the non-sex portions alone, this is not only one of the best adult releases to come out this year, but is one of the best adult releases that I have seen in the last decade. Not only is this an excellent DVD set for an adult release, but this is an excellent DVD set by mainstream standards due to the quality of the extras. Normally I'd only recommend a film of this nature to viewers that like tamer sex, but since the comedic aspects of the film stand alone so well, I have to recommend that any fan of a good comedy pick this film up. You won't be disappointed.

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