Jenna Loves Kobe Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  3/20/2004

The Little Details

Running Time: 76 min.

Production Date: 12 / 04 / 2001

Director: Jim Enright

Cast: Jenna Jameson, Kobe Tai, April, Tommi Rose, Zana, Lee Stone, Randy Spears, and Steven St. Croix

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: I’ve never been as enamored with Jenna as many, but I’m curious to see how she does with Club Jenna.

Initial Reaction: It’s completely frustrating.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody who likes artistic effects more than sex

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody wanting to see well balanced scenes

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is surprisingly good. It’s clear and well balanced and I don’t think I heard any background noises. This isn’t too surprising because there’s very little audio from the performers in the feature. The video leaves a bit to be desired. It has some noticeable grain, and if it were anybody but Vivid I’d probably think that they were trying to get a little artistic and approximate film grain. I’ve seen too many shoddy looking Vivid DVDs to think this however, and instead ended up thinking that they didn’t put enough care into the video again. It’s normally nicely lit, although it tried to get artistic with some very mixed results.

Music: The music varies nicely. Some of it has a classical style while much of it has an electronic fuck feel. It’s a nice variation, but the balance is all over the place. Sometimes it blends nicely with the rest of the audio but more often it dominates things to the point that it holds back the action.

Disc Complaints: Before you get to the main menu you’re subjected to commercials for Vivid’s website and Vivid’s penis enlargement pills. You can’t skip them or even fast forward through them. There’s also commercials for phone sex and sex toys which you can fast forward through but you can’t skip. This really ticked me off, especially when I jotted down a few notes and didn’t have time to make a selection quick enough and the disc stopped playing so that I had to sit through all that crap again, so I’m deducting a full point from the overall rating because of it.

Menus: The main menu is okay. It’s simple but fits the boxcover design nicely. The chapter menu lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene and a title for the scene.

The Feature

Vivid goes with their compilation formula for this one. The scenes go from one to another without anything to set them up or let you know who’s next. In fact, if you didn’t know that this was Jenna and Kobe’s first scenes together you’d probably just think it was another Vivid compilation.

Scene 1 - Jenna Jameson and Kobe Tai

Jenna and Kobe start out in some high class outfits in an artistic room before getting it on on a white couch. Jenna starts things out working over Kobe’s bald beaver with her mouth and fingers before sitting on Kobe’s face to let her suck on her hood ornament. Jenna puts on a strap-on to give Kobe something else to suck on before fucking her with it in a couple positions. The girls finish things up diddling themselves for each other before kissing.

This is an okay scene. Jenna and Kobe have great chemistry together, which one would hope for in their first scene together after how long they’ve been in the business. They put some nice energy into it as well, and really do a nice job. The camera work and artistic effects, however, get in the way a bit and held the scene back a little. It often seemed more concerned with fancy effects and flashing lights than capturing the sex. In the end it’s an above average scene, but it felt like it could have been much more.

Scene 2 - Tommi Rose and Randy Spears

Tommi, who has her hair dyed bright pink here, starts things out giving Randy a little tease before moving down to mouth his manhood. Randy returns the favor with a bit of muff munching before fucking Tommi from behind and cowgirl style. They finish things up with a bit of pile driver before pulling out and popping on Tommi’s nicely natural tits.

This is another slightly above average scene. Once again there’s some very nice chemistry, and Tommy turns on some great eyes here. Once again the artistic effects interfere with the action, and are further burdened with some very heavy music which really interfered with things here. I could barely hear the performers at all here, and rarely felt like I was experiencing full on what was happening between Tommi and Randy.

Scene 3 - Zana and Steven St. Croix

Hot blonde Zana, who’s well known for her ability to imitate diesel engines starting during sex, starts things out giving Steven a little tease. She strips down and plays with herself before stroking and sucking his stick. Steven returns the favor by tonguing her holes from behind as well as giving her four fingers as far as they’ll go. Steven and Zana move on to fuck doggie, reverse cowgirl, and missionary styles before Zana takes a nice facial and possibly even swallows a bit down.

This is a pretty good scene that once again suffers due to some of the artistic effects. Sometimes it’s overlaying one image over another, which I guess covers the bases but also makes it look a little half assed. The audio also comes in and out to interfere with things, and as a sign of problems with a scene, the action is fast forwarded a few times to keep things moving. Once again the biggest tragedy here is that it feels like there’s some really hot action underneath everything else that just didn’t get captured well enough.

Scene 4 - April and Lee Stone

April, looking much more brunette than normal, starts out the penultimate scene diddling herself on a piano while the camera shows things in beergoggles-vision. Lee eventually shows up and carries her off the piano to a chair so that his tongue can give her fingers a break. April climbs up to bounce and gyrate on his boner reverse cowgirl style. They also bring in a bit of doggie style and missionary work before Lee decorates Aprils stomach.

This is another decent scene that the art direction messed up. It went on so long with the tease at the start that I really had a hard time caring about the action once it began. April didn’t seem to be quite up to her normal level, and I never really got into the scene.

Scene 5 - Jenna Jameson and Kobe Tai

Jenna and Kobe finish things up in a pair of nightgowns by a bubble bath. Kobe softly sucks Jenna’s tits before they grind gashes in the tub. Jenna kisses Kobe’s coochie and mouth before letting Kobe eat her from behind. Finally the girls finish things up with a passionate kiss.

This is a lackluster scene to end things with. It starts off nicely, and the segments in it are nice, but the editing nearly ruins it. Every sequence feels like it’s chopped up, and the ending before the kiss feels like it’s nowhere near a kiss. It’s also hurt quite a bit by Jenna’s mugging the camera, which I think she does here worse than I’ve ever seen her. This scene feels like it could have actually been pretty hot if it had went on for another five minutes or so.

Jenna Loves Kobe does a great job at showing how somebody can apparently start with some great, passionate sex and end up with a lackluster movie. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as whether you like her or not you can’t deny that Jenna is the biggest force the adult industry has known. Kobe isn’t as strong, but still has a devoted following and is known for doing a good job. With these two teaming up this feature had the potential to be one of the best movies Vivid has done in a long, long time. In some ways, it is. Every scene here but one has excellent chemistry and the passion seems to overflow. I never had a doubt that anybody here was in it just for the paycheck, and frequently felt that Jenna Loves Kobe had the potential to be a five star movie sexually. Sadly, somebody screwed the pooch in every scene. Very little of the movie lets you actually hear the performers, and often if seems like somebody doesn’t really want to let you see the video either as the artistic effects came close to completely ruining every scene in the movie. There’s tons of effects here, and almost all of them interfere with the action. It’s kind of like adding sugar to your tea. A spoonful or two is good, but when you dump in the entire sugar jar you ruin the tea. Just as bad here is the overall design of the feature. More than anything it feels like a compilation. I don’t mind not having a plot, but when a movie’s draw is Jenna and Kobe I’d think the scenes should somehow revolve around one of them. Instead there’s a Kobe and Jenna scene at the start and end of the movie, and then three other scenes just crammed in the middle like they’re filler. Unless you’re an extreme Jenna or Kobe fan, rent Jenna Loves Kobe first, and even then make sure you keep your remote handy.

The Extra Stuff

The positions room rips off Evil Angel’s Fetish Menu and lets you jump to specific sex acts such as blowjobs, cowgirl, or cumshots. Trailers are included for Garage Opener, Girligan’s Island, Udeerly Ridiculous (it’s actually yet another Vivid compilation rather than a documentary on Vivid’s DVD department), and something else which I didn’t catch the title of. There’s also phone sex, web commercials, and a setup screen which lets you turn off Vivid’s Multi-Angel Indicator.

The bonus room includes a two minute photo gallery each for Jenna and Kobe with about ten seconds per okay snapshot. It also includes a behind the scenes featurette lasting over eight minutes which seems more like a music video than anything because the audio is 100% music, and just above 0% anything else. You can almost hear a couple comments from the cast, but the music is so loud that if you try turning the volume up high enough to tell what they’re saying your ears might start bleeding.

Vivid Girls Extra gives you several bonus scenes. First is a scene from Photoplay with Jenna, Felecia, and Bobby Vitale. Next is Jenna and Janine in Where the Boys Aren’t 7. Third is Jenna and Dascha’s pairing from Where the Boys Aren’t 14. Kobe also checks in with a scene from Haunted with Julian and a scene from Hawaiian Blast with Heather Hunter. There’s also a solo scene for both Jenna, with Jenna in some nice lingerie in the bedroom, and Kobe, wearing a bikini and a flower in her hair on the beach. The two boy girl scenes and the solo scenes feel like complete scenes, but the all girl scenes all felt like they were chopped off. They’re okay scenes, but nothing special. Perhaps the thing which stuck out most to me was that the bonus scenes run about as long as the feature does. I’m all for a bonus scene or two, but this just seems like overkill and makes me wonder if Vivid didn’t want to just turn this into yet another compilation.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Straight, interracial, tease, masturbation, lesbian, toys, rimming (male > female), and spanking

Raincoat Factor: High

Condom Usage: 100%

The Bottom Line:

Currently, many Vivid releases can be found online for between $16 and $28 with several stores offering them for under $20. Rent this one before you spend that much unless you’re an extreme Jenna fan. The movie falls short, as do the technical aspects. There’s plenty of extras, but none of them seem particularly well done.

Note to Vivid: There’s nothing wrong with being artistic as long as you can do it right. This wasn’t right. Also, if you wouldn’t have so openly blown off what people criticized you for technically (that means the people who make complaints about you other than your being not their taste sexually) they might give you the benefit of the doubt once in a while. As is it seems like you’ve made it clear that you really don’t care what the people who buy your products think as long as they buy them.

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

Other reviews by Astroknight