Jenna's Playhouse Review

Running Time: approx. 62 min.

Production Date: 3 / 30 / 2002

Director: Uncredited

Cast: Jenna Jameson, Raelynn, Monica, Zana, Molly, Mason, Jewel, and Jana

Initial Expectations: I’ve had mixed reactions to both Jenna and Vivid, so I’m going to keep an open mind going into this one.

Initial Reaction: It’s very well done, and does a great job of showing why Vivid and Jenna are considered by many to be leaders in the adult industry.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody who wants to admire the female form

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody wanting actual sex

Audio /Video Quality: The intro to each scene is very clear, but the music is the only audio in each scene. The video is very clear throughout the entire feature, although some of the extras lack a bit for video quality.

Music: The music has a techno style throughout the entire feature, which works pretty well.

Disc Problems / Complaints: Unlike most of Vivid’s recent releases, there isn’t an option to turn off the multi-angle icon.

Menus: The main menu is hosted by Jenna, who does a nice job of explaining each of the options. There isn’t an actual chapter menu, but each section is nicely broken down by the lady in each one. Overall, it makes the entire DVD very easy to navigate and shows quite a bit of care.

The Feature: Jenna’s Playhouse is a softcore feature led by adult superstar Jenna Jameson along with seven other women, namely Raelynn, Monica, Zana, Molly, Mason, Jewel, and Jana. Jenna introduces each woman, along with most everything else on the DVD, in addition to putting on a show herself. Jenna proclaims that this is going to be one of the most advanced DVDs you’ll ever see, which I thought gave the feature a very egotistical start. Once I got past that, however, there was a very well made DVD.

The scenes are all done very well, and last between about five minutes and seven and a half minutes with a nice balance of styles. The scenes also work partially due to the multiple angles. Rather than give several different camera angles throughout each scene, the scenes feel like they’re one long shot and let you give yourself the variety with two other true multiple angles (one’s from above and the other provides close-ups). The girls play to the camera quite a bit, but in a situation like this it works pretty well. The main idea is that the girls are performing for you, so to have them play to the camera actually works very well. Part of it working might be that none of the girls play to the camera too much, but they never ignore it either.

The biggest problem with the scenes are that many of the girls seem to feel limited by the softcore aspect of the feature. Many seem a bit unsure of what to do, and since they’re the only thing to watch in the scene it becomes readily noticeable. Not surprisingly, Zana, who’s well known for wild, energetic, and often nasty sex scenes is one of these with her bathtub scene. She looks great, but just seems a bit out of her environment here. Molly, an implanted blonde who does her scene outside, feels much the same way and gives a fairly forgettable performance.

At the other end are girls like Monica and Jana. Monica seems completely natural and even shows a bit of beaver. She’s done quite a bit of magazine work, which I’m guessing made a lot of difference here and appears to really be loving to give her tease. Jana also does a great job, but keeps things extremely tame. She barely shows any more than a little trim, but looks cute enough and uses it so that her scene also came out as one of my favorites.

Of course, most people are going to want to see Jenna, and there’s plenty of her there to watch. Unlike the other girls, Jenna does three scenes for a total of twenty minutes. Jenna looks great here, and has dropped most of the piercings that gave her the human pawn shop appearance from when I last watched her. She still has a few too many tattoos for my tastes, but I realize this is a completely personal thing. Jenna does a great job throughout her scenes, and never seems at all limited by the mature nature of the feature. It’s almost like a twenty minute video of Jenna doing a magazine spread, and is something that should please almost all of her fans.

Jenna’s Playhouse is a nicely done softcore feature. I don’t for a minute think that it’s going to be one of the most advanced DVDs I’ll ever see, since I’ve already seen quite a few that surpass it, but it’s definitely a very well done DVD that shows a lot of care and consideration. There’s a nice range of looks and styles to the girls, which should make most people happy, as well as a great performance from Jenna that should please most of her fans. Jenna’s Playhouse should go on every Jenna Jameson and softcore porn fan’s wish list.

Extras: Vivid put some very nice effort into the extras on Jenna’s Playhouse, starting with the multiple angles which all appear to be true multiple angles rather than the hack job Vivid used to be well known for. The behind the scenes section consists of about seven minutes of behind the scenes footage of making the feature and about two and a half minutes of bloopers. The behind the scenes footage mostly revolves around Jenna, with a little bit of footage of Monica, Zana, Jewel, and Jana. The bloopers, however, are all Jenna. Although this should really please Jenna fans, I would have liked to have seen things a little better balanced. The bigger problem was that there were several soft focus problems and graininess which looked like it might have been water or dust on the camera lens which really brought down the section.

The interviews are much the same way. While Jenna’s interview lasts fourteen minutes, all the others last between a minute and a minute and a half. Jenna’s interview works very well, with Jenna coming off like a very real person rather than looking at all egotistical. She talks about her dogs, lingerie, different cities, and odd fetishes. Unfortunately, the other interviews don’t add too much, which is probably because they don’t have time to. Each of the girls talks briefly about one or two things and normally flashes the camera. I couldn’t help but think that there was a lot more here that landed on the floor, which unfortunately held back the interview section despite Jenna’s interview.

The photo gallery lasts about two and three quarter minutes with about five seconds per photo. Unlike the standard photo gallery, here one picture morphs into the next. This gave the photo gallery a really unique feel, which made me really kind of like it due to its inventiveness.

There are also a few other minor extras. Trailers are included for Naked and Naughty, Jenna Jameson Expose, Hollywood Stripper Championship, and Jenna From All Angles. There’s also web information and a help section to guide you through DVD and its features.

Themes: Softcore

Raincoat Factor: Very high if seeing a naked woman is enough for you. If you need to see her do more than just show herself off, it’s not going to do much for you.

Overall: Currently, Jenna’s Playhouse can be found online for between $15 and $25 with most stores offering it for around $20. If you’re a fan of softcore action or like more artistic stuff, this should be money well spent even at the upper level. The transfer for the feature is very good and there are some nice extras.

Note to Vivid: Nice job here. Although the opening seemed a little egotistical, it’s great to see you putting the effort in to try to make the claims stick.

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

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