Mobster's Wife Review

Distributor: Vivid Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Golden Age Classic, Feature Film, Barely Legal Run Time: 84 minutes Rated: XXX Release Year: 1998 Director: Paul Thomas Written by: A.J. Barber Cast: Lexus Locklear (as Lexus), Vince Vouyer, Alexandra Silk, Tony Tedeschi (as Tony Tedeshi), Stephanie Swift, Katie Gold, Mr. Marcus, Kelly Jean, Summer Daze (as Sommer Daze), Shay Sweet, Derrick Lane, Ariana, Paul Thomas, Sonny Montoya, Midnight Maxim, T.T. Boy Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1 Disc: DVD 10 (DS, SL) Special Features: Multiple Angles, Multiple Screens (Stills, Live Action and Bios), Chapters, Int. Tel. Sex., Interactive Menus, Interactive 3-D-DVD Navigational Fantasy Rooms, Web, Previews, AVN Awards - Live Footage, Behind the Scenes DVD-ROM Special Features: none

Synopsis:
Mobster Vincent LaBrea (Vince Vouyer) is having an affair with Madelyn (Lexus Locklear), but his wife Barbara LaBrea (Alexandra Silk) keeps getting in the way. Vincent sends Barbara with hood Jimmy Rubio (Tony Tedeschi) on vacation to Malibu. While she is gone, Vincent ends up getting in trouble with the mob.

Video/Audio:
Mobsters' Wife is presented in the 1.33:1, full screen, aspect ratio, which appears to be the original aspect ratio for the film. The picture is grainy with occasional artifacts and drop out. The color levels are decent, in some areas though, the full color range appears to be missing and colors shift into different ones instead of naturally blending. There is a pixilization problem in one short scene. Mobsters' Wife appears to have been originally filmed on video and not on film.

The 2.0 Dolby Stereo English track doesn't offer much. The dialog appears to be in mono with only the music in stereo. The music doesn't overpower the dialog at any point. No other language tracks and no subtitle options are available.

Cut Warning:
Due to scenes in the behind the scenes feature, it appears that this film was cut. These may also have been scenes that were originally filmed and never included in the film as I don't know the run time for the original video cassette version.

Chapters/Time Code:
There are nine chapters available from the main menu, which don't do too much to break up the film. There are 20 chapter stops available when watching the film, which makes the film much easier to navigate. There is a time code for the film.

Special Features:
There are multiple angles for portions of the sex scenes, Meet the Girls is a girls of Vivid feature that contains video clips, stills and text information about the contract girls. Screens are available for: Heather Hunter, Kobe Tai, Lexus Locklear, Chasey Lain, Tia Bella, Dyanna Lauren, Jenteal, Janine, and Raquel Darrian. This feature is not of much use. Int. Tel. Sex. shows you one scene from the following two films, Queen of the Court and Alleycats. Interactive 3D-DVD Navigational Fantasy Rooms is a nice looking feature but isn't a very practical feature. There is a 3D room option instead of the main menu to use for the main options. There is also a 3D room option called Bad Girls which gives you four scenes from Vivid's Bad Girls series. The web is an advert for the Vivid web site. There are two previews available on the disc, one for Beautiful and one for The Sex Player. AVN Awards, called Award Winning Sex on the disc, is a very short feature with a heavily edited scene from a Vivid film. On the “B” side of the disc there is a 30 minute Behind the Scenes feature that is rather well done.

Although this disc sports many special features, most have nothing to do with the feature film and do nothing but waste disc space. The interactive rooms are a complete waste, the Bad Girls section looks cool when you first use it, but after that it gets repetitious and becomes a waste of time. It would have been better just to have used standard menus. The only feature that has anything to do with the feature film is the Behind the Scenes feature that is worth the time to watch.

Review:
Mobsters' Wife starts out with a Pulp Fiction scene rip-off with Pulp Fiction style music. Thankfully after that, it goes onto it's own story. The plot is decent for adult cinema. The story is interesting but not too complex. Some parts of the film are very cheesy, especially Paul Thomas's priest. The very end of the film is awful. They went for the cheesiest, happiest ending possible.

The cast is relatively attractive, some far more so than others. The sex scenes are your standard adult fare. Nothing new or extremely interesting is here. The same with the camera work. None is amazing or particularly stands out. The sets are decent, they are rather simplistic but fit the scenes. Not too much work went into them, but they don't distract you or take away from the film. The music used is a combination of Pulp Fiction rip-off music and California Beach music.

The multiple angles are very poorly done. Three angles are available for portions of the sex scenes, in some incredibly briefly. They are true multiple angles as they have different camera shots of the same scene but they are definately nothing to base purchasing the movie on.

The Money Shot:
Mobsters' Wife is an average couples film with a gangster theme, it's nothing spectacular but fans of couples style films probably won't be disappointed. It's too bad that it appears that Vivid cut this film to be able to fit on all the special features, the only one of which that is worth the space is the Behind the Scenes feature. This film is not for people who don't like plot based or couples friendly adult entertainment.

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