Matador 1, The (Private) Review

Reviewed by Saki  on  3/6/2000

The Matador 1 (1999)
Studio: Private
Directed by: Jean Yves Le Castel
Starring: Clarissa, Vlasta, Helen Birne, Christine, Atlantis, Cassandra Wilde, Nicol, Jean Yves Le Castel, Jean Pierre Armand, Remigio Zampa, Yves Le Prince
Running Time: 1:29
Format: Single Sided, Single Layer
DVD Features: Animated menus with full motion video; 32-picture photo gallery; cast biographies; film notes; 5-minute making-of report; English, German, Spanish, French and Italian language audio tracks; Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Portuguese subtitles; and trailers for Fatal Orchid, Tania Russof (The Story), Indecency, Tanya Hyde's Twisted Dreams, and Millennium

The First Word: Ugh, are we sure that Private made this gonzo? Homely girls, ugly guys, tons of graphic anal gapes, and some really disgusting bits that will send some people running for the bathroom are what The Matador is serving up in first volume of Private's new gonzo anal series.

Plot Synopsis: To quote the production notes on the DVD: "'The Matador Series' is dedicated to people who don't care about dialogues and long introductions. It's a wall-to-wall sex video flick..." That's a pretty accurate description for this 2-hour anal sex themed video from Private, who claims to follow in the footsteps of John "Buttman" Stagliano and Rocco Siffredi. The series revolves around four friends, all lovers of anal sex, who know a "special technique" called "The Matador," where they shout "1-2-3...Ole!" as the pull their dicks out of a girl's ass and display her gaping asshole to the camera. I could go further and describe the four characters or detail the scenes, but it really doesn't matter. All you need to know is that this video is about anal sex and anal gapes (i.e. seeing the inside of girls' rectums).

Notable Performances: None. Well, that's probably not 100% true, since there was a pretty decent facial delivered by Jean Yves Le Castel in the second scene, as well as a potentially good last scene, a mini-gangbang of the pretty Cassandra Wilde. However, the rest of that second scene is forgettable, and the four on one didn't realize its potential because of many flaws, including harsh videography (that destroys Cassandra's natural beauty), extremely quick position swapping, and that stupid obsession of showing multiple anal gapes. Plus, am I the only one who hates watching guys fuck when they are naked but still wearing their socks and shoes? Those negatives totally ruined that scene, one that I would have liked otherwise.

Dislikes: It should be obvious by now that I have no idea why anal gaping is so popular. I have a much easier time understanding the appeal of anal sex than I do about seeing the insides of someone's ass or having a girl suck a guy's dick after it's been there. Having said that, I don't mind seeing it every once and a while. However, that's pretty much the entire theme of The Matador, and the gapes happen early and often. It's pretty disgusting to see rectal tissue in great detail, and, unfortunately, we see things in a little too much detail. Unless they make brown colored lube, the girl in the first scene didn't get an enema before the shoot. That's just going too far...

Next, the performers are, well, not up to Private standards. I doubt Anabolic would even touch the Eastern European girls that they picked for this movie. The girls, except for Cassandra Wilde, are not at all attractive to me and several are everything that Private women are not: tattooed, overweight, and bleached blonde. And then there's the screeching one known as Vlasta, who does a good imitation of a police siren when she has sex. The guys aren't any better--the only things they have going for them are big cocks. Unfortunately, they don't know how to use them and their size makes the anal shots about as feasible as putting a square peg in a round hole (especially with no lube in sight). Hey, and there's Ron Jeremy's French counterpart in this film, Jean Pierre Armand, who is over the hill and overweight. I want to see him fuck a girl in the ass about as much as I want to see Ronnie fuck a girl in the ass.

DVD Notes: As I've come to expect from Private DVD, the production value of the disc itself is great. The menus and extras are nice additions, especially the production notes and the making-of video report. I'm especially appreciative of the nice still photo gallery on Private discs. After all, Private has a 30+ year tradition of high quality magazines, so their still photographers know how to capture hardcore very well, even in the midst of a video shoot. It's pretty amazing that they manage to cram everything on a single sided, single layered disc. Although there's a little bit of graininess and pixelation in the video image, in general, both the audio and the video quality are much better than most US studios can muster.

The Last Word: This one was saved from getting my first 1/5 overall rating only because of the high quality of the DVD materials and mastering, but otherwise I don't find any redeeming qualities. It's funny to hear the marketing pitch in the "making of" trailer, as the narrator advises that this video is for lovers of "hard, unbridled sex and good humor." Yes, indeed, it would take someone with a very good sense of humor to find anything funny in light of the rather disgusting and boring nature of this gonzo video. It was total fast forward material for me. Save your money and go buy an Evil Angel or Anabolic/Diabolic video--I guarantee that you'll be happier with the results.