Heroin Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  12/20/2002

Running Time: 104 min.

Production Date: 12 / 30 / 2001

Director: Michael Raven

Cast: Sydnee Steele, Brad Armstrong, Keri Windsor, Sunrise Adams, Violet Blue, Lezley Zen, Avy Scott, Randy Spears, Cheyne Collins, and Dillion Day, in sexual roles and Jonathan Morgan, Anthony Skordi, Jezebelle Bond, T. J. Hart, Chennin Blanc, Summer Storm, David Crawford, and many more in non-sex roles

Initial Expectations: In my opinion, Michael Raven is one of the best directors out there, if not the best. Combining him with Wicked and a cast like this should be one heck of a winning combination.

Initial Reaction: As usual with Michael Raven, it’s damn good. It’s also one of the best DVDs I’ve seen all year.

Who Should Watch It : Couples and anybody wanting plot and good acting with their porn

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody wanting a lot of nastier sex

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is clear and well balanced without even a hint of a background noise. The video is nicely presented in the widescreen format, but unfortunately isn’t in anamorphic widescreen. It has a slightly soft feel that’s similar to shooting the movie on film and treating it right, which is fairly standard for Michael Raven’s features. It’s very realistically lit, and any shadows that appear seem very natural.

Music: The music varies quite a bit in style throughout the movie, but is always very well balanced with the rest of the audio. In addition to the standard porn music, there’s some with a harder rock feel, some moody, and some piano background music, just to name a few. It enhances the scenes, as well as the overall movie, and helps give the feature the feeling that it’s bridging the gap between mainstream movies and porn.

Disc Problems / Complaints: Roughly the first minute and three quarters of Michael Raven’s interview is repeated in his interview section in the extras. There’s also no time stamp during the interviews, which is fairly minor with the length of the interviews.

Menus: The main menu works together the boxcover, a bit of the movie, and some other animation to give the DVD a great first impression. The chapter menu is pretty standard, and lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene.

The Feature: Brad Armstrong feels like he has everything going for him, except his marriage which seems to be sinking into a bog. After nearly eight years, his wife (Keri Windsor) wants things like flannel pajamas, and missionary sex has become the routine. He’s finally making the big money as an ad exec, but rather than living a little with it, Keri wants to do things like take care of bills. Everything changes for him when he meets Heroin (Sydnee Steele). She’s impulsive, sexy, and as he soon finds out, addictive and dangerous.

Randy Spears takes on Violet Blue and Sunrise Adams while Avy Scott works on Dillion Day in the first full scene. Avy diligently sucks Dillion’s cock before turning around for him to fuck her, while Avy and Violet playfully suck Randy’s and then ride his cock and face. The girls stay with their man throughout the scene, and after one position change, Sunrise takes a great facial from Randy, and Avy takes Dillion’s dick droppings on her great natural tits. It’s a pretty good scene with great chemistry, but felt a little short. There’s absolutely no interaction between the two groups, other than Violet going over to jerk Dillion onto Avy’s tits, which disappointed me a little even though the action is good inside the two groups.

Sydnee Steele gives Brad Armstrong a little rooftop loving after making him work for it a minute. He licks and fingers her twat before Sydnee drops down to suck and stroke his cock. She ties Brad’s tie around his cock as she sucks him, slides a rubber on him, and then turns around for him to fuck her. They only fuck in the one position before Sydnee sucks and strokes Brad onto her tongue. It’s a great scene with excellent chemistry and energy. I know I was paying attention to the wrong thing here, but the lighting really blew me away in this scene. It has a nice nightly blue tint to it that really enhances the feeling of night, yet you can see everything just fine. Details like this, which permeate Michael Raven’s features, are a bit part of why I consider him one of the best directors out there. Not many directors seem to be able to pay that much attention to the little things while still managing to capture great sex.

After pissing in the men’s room, Sydnee Steele has Brad Armstrong jack off while watching Cheyne Collins and Lezley Zen go at it in one of the stalls. Lezley puts her amazing oral skills to work before turning around for Cheyne to fuck her. She moves around to ride Cheyne and lays back on the toilet for him to fuck her. Cheyne finally finishes Lezley off with a jism baptism that Lezley opens wide for. It’s a hot scene that’s shot amazingly well. You get a feeling of the claustrophobia of fucking in a tight space while still having great chemistry and heat between Lezley and Cheyne fucking and Brad and Sydnee watching.

When Brad Armstrong gets home he immediately feels the need to ravish Keri Windsor, which seems like a perfectly normal feeling. He kisses her hard before moving down to much and finger her muff. Keri returns the favor with a deep blowjob while Brad continues to play with her pussy before she rolls around and lets Brad bone her from behind. They also spoon and fuck missionary style before Keri has a rocking orgasm and finally takes Brad’s dick droppings on her stomach. Brad even wipes his jiz off Keri’s stomach and lets her lick it off his fingers. It’s an extremely hot scene with great chemistry and energy that seems near perfect.

Finally, Brad Armstrong masturbates in the shower thinking about Sydnee Steele getting down and dirty with Keri Windsor. Sydnee starts out eating at the “Y” before letting Keri kiss her way up, down, and between her legs. Keri moves on to fuck Sydnee with a dildo before laying back and letting Sydnee return the favor. They finish things up with a deep kiss as Brad finishes his shower. It’s another extremely hot scene that has both great chemistry and energy. It nicely blends the action between Sydnee and Keri with Brad’s shower, and the girls play to the camera just as if they know he’s watching them. It’s a great scene to end the movie with, and blends together most of the characters in a great way.

Michael Raven arrives at Wicked in grand style with Heroin. Everything clicks here. The story’s well written, and the cast does a fantastic job bringing it to life. The sex has great chemistry and energy, and fits in with the movie perfectly. Heck, even the lighting seems perfect throughout the movie. It’s just what I hoped for with a combination of Wicked, Michael Raven, and this talented of a cast. Michael Raven has shown more than once that he has the ability to bridge mainstream and adult movies. He does it again with Heroin, which exceeded even my high expectations.

For another view of this DVD, please check out Flash’s review.

Extras: Wicked’s standard extras are here, along with a heck of a lot more. Of course there’s the Wicked Web, Wicked Casino, promotional material, company profile, a listing of Wicked’s DVD award winners and nominees, and a commercial for the Free Speech Coalition. The photo gallery lasts about three and a quarter minutes for the production and about a minute and a quarter for the behind the scenes, with about six seconds per very nice looking snapshot. There’s also star galleries for Sydnee Steele, who’s lasts just over three minutes, and Avy Scott, Keri Windsor, Lezley Zen, and Violet Blue that last two minutes. The Girls of Heroin featurette lasts about six and a quarter minutes, and captures the girls posing for their photo galleries as some soft and sexy music plays in the background. Each girl is identified as she takes the screen, and it’s every bit if not better than most of the softcore features out there. The Heroin Boxcover Shoot lasts about two minutes, and blends a little behind the scenes action and with some of the style of the Girls of Heroin featurette. Trailers are included for Crazed, The Kissing Game, Hell on Heels, Flashpoint, Double Feature!, The Bride of Double Feature, Dream Quest, Knockout, Pornogothic, Satyr, Sex Safari, Vengeance, and Working Girl. Audio bios are included for Sydnee Steele, Keri Windsor, Lezley Zen, Violet Blue, Brad Armstrong, Cheyne Collins, Dillon Day, and Randy Spears. As usual, the bios are all tailored to fit the overall feel of the menus, and includes some decent personal information, several photos, and a link to the star’s scene.

Interviews are included with Sydnee Steele, Michael Raven, Lezley Zen, Chennin Blanc, and Avy Scott. Most of the interviews are handled by David Crawford, who does a great job and nicely keeps things moving throughout each of his interviews. Sydnee’s interview lasts about thirteen and a half minutes, where she talks about the movie itself, working on the movie, her toys, the difference in what you might see before and after her Wicked contract, and how Wicked’s supported her. Michael Raven’s interview from Adult Television Entertainment is also included, which lasts about six and a half minutes. It’s mostly Michael talking, but there’s also a fair amount of banter with Keri Windsor. He talks about the movie, writing, directing, and his tastes. Lezley Zen talks about a minute about who she is and why she’s in the business. Chennin Blanc talks about a minute and a quarter about stripping and her website. Finally, Avy Scott talks a couple minutes about getting into the business and her boobs, and even gives a little show at the end. It’s a nice range of interviews, and definitely adds to the overall DVD.

Michael Raven and Sydnee Steele team up to give an audio commentary for the entire movie. Michael and Sydnee pass the baton back and forth to lead the commentary, and work together great throughout it all. They talk about the making of the movie and the people in the movie, as well as sex and things like lobbying for free speech. It’s a very good commentary, with Michael and Sydnee showing great chemistry together.

Finally, there’s All Access: The Making of Heroin, which lasts about twenty minutes. As usual, everybody’s nicely identified so you know who everybody in the movie is by the end of the featurette. It’s nicely organized day by day, and has Michael Raven introducing most of the sequences that are shot. There’s also a few shots of what’s happening between scenes, which gives the performers a great deal of humanity. Michael Raven seems a bit more active in the featurette than some of the other directors I’ve seen in Wicked’s behind the scenes featurettes. This ends up as a great thing as you get a great feel for him as a person, and he gives things a very realistic feel. As usual, it’s a great behind the scenes featurette that adds a lot to the overall package.

Themes: Straight, group, voyeurism, lesbian, masturbation (both male and female), spanking, lesbian, and toys

Raincoat Factor: Medium high

Overall: Currently, most of Wicked’s DVDs can be found online for between $20 and $30 with most stores offering them for around $25. This is about as close to perfect as a one disc feature can get. With the exception of one sex scene being just very good rather than great, the movie’s damn near perfect. The transfer’s great and the DVD’s packed with extras. This is one of the best DVDs I’ve seen this year.

Note to Wicked: What can I saw besides “Wow!”? The only way I think you could have improved here would have been going to anamorphic widescreen.

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

Other reviews by Astroknight