Mirage (Wicked) Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  11/28/2001

Running Time: 79 min.

Production Date: 10 / 19 / 2001

Director: Brad Armstrong

Cast: Alexa, Sydnee Steele, Adriana Sage, Heather Lyn, Nakita Denise, Lee Stone, Mark Davis, Dillion Day, Mr. Marcus, Bobby Vitale, and Nick Manning

Initial Expectations: Alexa used to have a lot of potential before her ego stifled it. I’m hoping Brad Armstrong could bring a little out here.

Initial Reaction: It’s a very good all sex feature on an excellent DVD.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody looking for a lot of artistic and varied sex

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody looking for a plot

Audio /Video Quality: As usual with Wicked, the technical aspects are excellent. The audio varies quite a bit. In some area it’s very clear and well balanced, but there’s only music in other areas, which really hurts some of the scenes. The audio also seems dubbed in a few places. The video is also very clear, and done in a matted widescreen format. It’s great to see studios start to support the widescreen format, and it looks great here.

Music: The music has a kind of Moroccan feel to it, which goes a long way to setting the mood of the feature. It blends in with the scenes extremely well and is very well balanced with the rest of the audio when there is some.

Menus: As always, the menus are extremely well done. The chapter menu lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of the scene and a scene number.

The Feature: Mirage follows in the footsteps of some of Brad Armstrong’s other vignette features such as Sex Safari, Hell on Heels, Jenna Ink, and Jenna’s Built for Speed

. This time around, Brad Armstrong uses the backdrop of Morocco and its culture with leading lady Alexa.

Alexa starts things off on the beach with Mark Davis, who appears to be a guard lost in time, or as Brad Armstrong puts it, a genie in the sand. He starts out kissing Alexa all over her naughty parts and fingering her clam. She thanks him with a sensual cocksucking before riding his cock and letting him take her from behind. She does a great job of trying to suck him to the pop, but he has to take matters into his own hand to nicely decorate her face. It’s a hot scene and a great one to set the mood for the movie.

Nikita Denise, a very attractive Czech import with a great set of real funbags, loses out on getting some pussy when a black panther turns into Mr. Marcus. He comes down and laps and paws at her pussy before she demonstrates her amazing oral skills. After a deep oral workout, Nikita wraps her pussy around his cock reverse cowgirl and also lets Marcus take her from behind and in the ass. She finishes Mr. Marcus off orally and takes an impressive facial to end it. It’s another very hot scene with great chemistry.

Alexa takes care of herself in and around a Moroccan house, and looks very good throughout it. She softly works her fingers in and out of her pussy, and later puts a dildo to work on both her pussy and ass. It’s another very hot scene that’s edited together extremely well.

In the next scene, Lee Stone gets showered with women, namely Heather Lyn and Nikita Denise with Alexa watching and touching herself at the beginning. The threesome guides each others hands across their bodies before the ladies drop down to work on Lee’s cock, with Nikita continuing to impress by taking Lee’s cock all the way down her throat. They soon after start fucking, neglecting to take time to give the women a little tongue action. While Lee fucks Heather, Nakita concentrates on his cock and pulling it out to suck on. When it’s Nakita’s turn, Heather concentrates on Nakita, playing wither her pussy, sucking on her mouth and tits, and finally diving her face between Nakita’s mouth to eat both of them. In return, Heather gets to take Lee’s cock in her ass while he spanks her. Not one to be outdone, Nakita has Lee pile driver her ass before the girls share a nice facial. It’s another extremely hot scene that has some great chemistry.

After an artistic sepia toned intro, Adriana Sage and Alexa get to know each other much better. Adriana lets her fingers do the walking across Alexa, finally ending up in Alexa’s pussy along with some of Alexa’s own fingers. Alexa lets her fingers explore Adriana’s pussy as well, while Adriana busies her fingers in her own ass. Alexa also tries out Adriana’s ass while Adriana works a clear dildo in and out of her pussy. They also work Adriana’s ass over with the toy, which is a little weird since Adriana seems very into it and Alexa seems very apprehensive. It’s a pretty good scene, but Alexa’s apprehension brings it down some a the end.

Alexa stumbles in on Bobby Vitale and Nick Manning taking on current Wicked Girl Sydnee Steele, who many believe to be much more stable and unlikely to run off without fulfilling her contract (unlike some other contract girls in the scene). Alexa immediately starts goblin’ Bobby’s knob while Sydnee fucks Nick’s fingers and tongue and plays with Alexa’s pussy and then swallows Nick’s cock. The girls switch around so they can suck both cocks before Bobby starts fucking Alexa. Sydnee and Nick switch around some while Bobby and Alexa fuck, with Sydnee and Nick helping some and Nick getting sucked by both women. The girls switch things around nicely before each takes a facial. It’s a very hot scene, but could have been hotter if there was audio other than music.

Finally, Dillion Day gets to bang Alexa in a daybed on the beach. Alexa erotically sucks on Dillion’s fingers before working his cock into her mouth. Once again, they don’t bother with giving Alexa an oral warmup, and go straight to Alexa riding Dillion’s cock before letting him pound away on her pussy. They tend to stay fairly close to each other, which seems to be because it was a very cold day. They finish it off with a very nice facial to end things. It’s a very hot scene that’s nicely romantic.

Although it does have a few flaws, the artistic style helps Mirage succeed. It has a wide range of sex styles, from soft and romantic to pounding butt busting anal, yet it’s all nicely connected with the Moroccan theme. The chemistry is also normally very good in the scenes, which also helps them to succeed even though many of the scenes are missing the actual audio and only have music. In addition to pleasing old Wicked fans, Mirage should please many who think Wicked is just about tender couples scenes.

Extras: Wicked’s normal extras are here, as well as many others. Audio bios are included for Alexa, Adrianna Sage, Heather Lyn, Nikita Denise, Sydnee Steele, Mark Davis, Mr. Marcus, and Brad Armstrong. As Wicked has been often doing lately, each star’s screen is done to fit the feel of the feature. Each bio includes a nice bit of personal information, a few stills, and a link to the star’s scene. Trailers are included for Crazed, Dream Quest , Knockout, Working Girl, The Bride of Double Feature, Flashpoint, Satyr, and Vengeance. There’s also the standard Wicked Casino, the list of Wicked award winning and nominated DVDs, a commercial for the Free Speech Coalition, the Wicked Web, a company profile, and promotional materials.

Fans of photo galleries are going to be very happy with Wicked, since there’s over twenty minutes of photo galleries included, all of which are automated with about five seconds per nice looking framed photo. The production gallery lasts just over three and a half minutes, the behind the scenes lasts a little over five minutes, and the star galleries, which include photos for Alexa, Sydnee Steele, Adriana Sage, Heather Lyn, and Nikita Denise, last a little over fourteen minutes.

A featurette on the box cover shoot and an interview with Alexa lasts about eight and a half minutes. As usual, it’s almost like a music video of the box cover shoot. You get to see things like Alexa getting made up and posing for the camera, as well as a few of the final photos. The shoot takes about three and a half minutes, with the remaining time being Alexa’s interview. In her interview Alexa talks about dealing with some of the animals and other aspects of shooting the movie. She also talks about piercings such as the one under her tongue, her favorite position, color, and food, passion and sex, and why she got into the industry. As usual, she comes across as kind of an airhead, and a lot of it is kind of amusing after how she left the industry.

Interviews are also included with Brad Armstrong, Mark Davis, and Adrianna Sage, as well as another interview with Alexa. Alexa’s other interview lasts about three minutes, starting out with her showing how professional she is by talking about showing up forty five minutes late and is still waiting for a horse. She also talks a little about riding horses and some of her scenes. Brad Armstrong’s interview lasts about a minute and three quarters, and he talks about how he came up with the idea and about some of the details about the movie and its style. Mark Davis talks for about a minute about working on Alexa and his shaved head look. Finally, Adrianna Sage talks for about a minute about working with Alexa and Brad, her favorite part of making adult movies, and what her dream role would be.

All Access: The Making of Mirage lasts about thirty seven minutes. As usual, each scene is covered in the featurette, and Brad Armstrong gives some nice commentary throughout. All of the stars are also nicely identified in the featurette so you can know who they are. Mark Davis really shows why he’s considered one of porn’s top studs here. As soon as the camera stops during his scene, he’s checking to make sure Alexa’s alright since a bit of his pop made it into her eye. He also goes the extra mile by using sharp objects around his manhood to trim the condom donut to make for a better looking scene. You also get a nice little taste of many of the other stars as well. There’s a lot more sex here than in some of Wicked’s other behind the scenes, which is kind of a blessing and a curse. It makes it a lot more fun to watch, but also drags a little if you’re interested a little more in the behind the scenes. It’s very nicely done, and it’s obvious Wicked put quite a bit of effort into it with some of the things they added onto the screen, as well as having music throughout most of the featurette. If you enjoyed the movie, odds are you’ll enjoy the featurette as well.

Brad Armstrong and Alexa team up to give Mirage an audio commentary. As usual, David Crawford also pops in, mostly to be a smartass, but also to give some well deserved credit. As usual, Brad is very good about pointing out lots of details about the locations, as well as adding plenty of things about the shoots. Also as usual, Alexa comes off as very full of herself and never shies away from a moment to pat herself on the back. She also comes off as a miracle of science from her head not collapsing from the vacuum. While Brad frequently added interesting things about the feature, most of the time Alexa just opened her mouth to make stupid comments and promote herself. It doesn’t do anything to tone down Alexa’s prima donna reputation. There are quite a few dead spots, but I don’t think I can blame them for not being able to speak during some of the scenes. It’s a very good commentary that’s both informative and fun, almost all thanks to Brad Armstrong.

Themes: Straight, inter-racial, anal, masturbation, toys, group, lesbian, and spanking

Raincoat Factor: Very high

Overall: Currently, Mirage can be found online for between $22 and $30 with only a few stores offering it for under $25. Wicked really went all out on this DVD, so it’s well worth the price. The sex is very hot and nicely artistic. The transfer is very good, but the extras are excellent.

Note to Wicked: Very nice job here. It’s great to see you supporting the widescreen format, but I hope that in the future you’ll take your support all the way to anamorphic widescreen.

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

Other reviews by Astroknight