Mood Ring Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  6/23/2005

The Little Details

Running Time: 85 min.

Production Date: 6 / 17 / 2004

Director: Michael Raven

Cast: Jessica Drake, Kaylani Lei, Kelly Kline, Silky Thumper, Violet Rose, Barrett Blade, Chris Cannon, Evan Stone, Jean Valjean, and Steven St. Croix

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: Michael Raven, Jessica Drake, and Kaylani Lei sound like a combination that should be able to please with all their hands tied behind their back!

Initial Reaction: It’s not bad, but it’s far from really good.

Who Should Watch It : Couples wanting a more serious adult movie or Jessica Drake fans

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody wanting plenty of passionate sex or a fun plot

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is nicely done. It’s clear and nicely balanced without any background noises. The video is presented in non-anamorphic widescreen. As usual, I’m a little disappointed seeing one of the leading adult companies taking the Mal-Wart way out rather than giving it the anamorphic transfer it deserves. Other than that, it’s pretty good. There’s just a hint of grain, which I think is probably there on purpose to give the movie a slightly more artistic feel, as well as some very nice use of lighting.

Music: The music is pretty good. It’s nicely balanced with the rest of the audio, but gets a little repetitive.

Menus: The main menu blends the boxcover with a bit of the movie for an okay first impression. The chapter menu lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene and a scene number.

The Feature

Jessica is a sick of settling. She’s a top notch reporter wanting to do hard-edged pieces that matter rather than the fluff pieces she’s been assigned. She also wants to fall in love, but plain old love isn’t going to do it. She wants a man that will put her on edge and make her so in love that she’s nervous. She knows she loved her last boyfriend and that he loved her, but he was just too softly romantic doing things like giving her a plastic mood ring. She thinks things might change when she gets the chance to do a story on an underground sex club.

Scene 1 - Kelly Kline and Jean Valjean

Kelly, a cute brunette, starts things out in a leopard print outfit at the top of a staircase kissing a well dressed Jean. She strips off her top so he can orally attack her nipples and lets him continue to move south to eat her pussy. Kelly reciprocates with some long licks on Jean’s cock before taking his cock into her mouth and then slides her bald beaver over his bone reverse cowgirl style. Jean also takes Kelly from behind and lets her ride him cowgirl style before shooting a nice load across her face.

This is a pretty good scene. It has a nicely artistic feel to it, and the camera work definitely seems to make a good effort to capture things as beautiful as possible. Kelly seems to really be into Jean, and puts in some very nice effort. Unfortunately, Jean seems to phone in almost all of his performance, and looks like he might have been busy doing multiplication tables in his head through most of the scene. This is a pretty good scene, but Jean holds it back a little.

Scene 2 - Jessica Drake and Chris Cannon

Jessica flashes back to some of her time with Chris. After a day running around, they come back to the apartment and Jessica leads Chris into the bedroom. They start to strip each other down and Chris goes right to work tonguing Jessica’s pussy. She takes him into her throat to thank him before lying back and letting Chris fuck her missionary style. Jessica moves up to ride him cowgirl style before getting on all fours and letting him take her from behind while spanking her ass. Finally, Jessica collects Chris’s cum on her ass.

This is an above average scene. It has a nice and romantic start, but there’s something that just didn’t work for me. Maybe it was because the camera work was a little too glamorous and maybe it’s because the chemistry seemed a little weak. Whatever the reason, I had a bit of a hard time getting into this scene.

Scene 3 - Silky Thumper, Violet Rose, and Evan Stone

At the underground sex club, Even takes on Silky and Violet on a couch with a table full of candles in front of it. He reaches over to play with Silky’s slit while Violet strokes his cock and then steps off for a moment to lets Silky sit on her face while she plays with Violet. The girls team up on him orally with Silky leading the way and with Evan having each of them take a break to ride his tongue. Not surprisingly, Silky gets the first fuck cowgirl style as Violet lies back and watches while diddling herself. When Silky moves up so Evan can have another taste of her pussy, Violet takes the chance to ride Evan’s baloney pony, and then gets treated with Silky’s tongue when Evan fucks Silky from behind. Finally the girls share a decent pop between their tongues.

This is an above average scene, but I’m not sure if it makes it all the way to good. The chemistry is normally pretty good, but it falters in a few places. Violet seems a bit unsure of herself a few times, and the camera work put me off a bit by focusing in too close. Evan’s cock and balls are big enough as is without focusing on them so closely during the blowjob that you can’t really see all of the face of the girl sucking it.

Scene 4 - Kaylani Lei and Steven St. Croix

When she comes into work looking for the cell phone she left, Kaylani finds boss Steven working late. After a little verbal sparring, Steven makes his move and kisses Kaylani while puling her into him onto his lap. Kaylani strips down to let Steven at her great nipples before sliding down to mouth his manhood. He repays her with a tongue on her clit, fingers in her pussy and ass, and a little toe sucking before boning her missionary style. Kaylani rolls over so Steven can take her from behind, and then rolls back to her back for a few more pumps from Steven before he unleashes a load onto her stomach and gives her a passionate kiss to finish things up.

This is easily my favorite scene in the movie. I love the opening with Steven and Kaylani trying to establish verbal dominance at the start, and Kaylani’s just hotter than fuck here whether she has her clothes on or off. I honestly think she has to be one of the most beautiful women working in the adult industry right now. There’s some very nice chemistry between she and Steven, and plenty of energy. This is a great scene and definitely has me needing to see more of Kaylani!

Scene 5 - Jessica Drake and Barrett Blade

After talking in a bar, Jessica and Barrett head back to where they can be alone. They kiss passionately on a couch and Barrett plays with her pussy before eating and fingering it. Jessica sucks his cock in return before climbing up to ride him cowgirl style. She lays on her side for Barrett to continue fucking her and even lets him take her from behind before sucking him to a nice pop in her mouth.

This is a pretty hot scene. The setup does a nice job of building chemistry between Jessica and Barrett, and makes the sex feel natural rather than forced into the story. Barrett and Jessica have very nice energy and plenty of chemistry and keep things moving throughout the scene. It’s one of the best scenes in the movie, and helps to finish the movie on a high note.

Mood Ring didn’t do a lot for me, partially because it wasn’t anything like I expected. With a tag line like “Unlike her men, this ring never lies”, I expected a light comedy set around Jessica’s mood ring. Instead, the mood ring maybe got three mentions in the entire movie and it was about somebody who wasn’t satisfied with their life and who was normally afraid of grabbing onto the good things when they were presented to her. Because of this, Jessica came off as rather unlikeable and whiny, and since I really didn’t care about Jessica’s character it held back the entire movie for me. In a successful feature, I think the plot should mean something, and if the viewer doesn’t care about the plot that holds back much of the movie. It also started off feeling thrown together with the opening scene having nothing to do with the rest of the movie and making the story look like it didn’t have enough to go the entire movie. Also, the only people I really ended up liking in the movie were Kaylani and Steven, who I wished were in the movie much more and which might be part of why I enjoyed their scene the best too. That isn’t to say that Jessica did a bad job. She does a nice job acting throughout the movie and turns out a couple nice sexual performances as well, with the final scene between her and Barrett being the better of the two. Mood Ring isn’t a bad movie, but it didn’t come close to my expectations for either Michael Raven or Jessica Drake.

The Extra Stuff

Wicked put plenty of effort into their extras here. Star states are included for Jessica Drake, Kaylani Lei, and Silky Thumper, each of which gives a few photos of the star, a little personal information, a Wicked filmography, and a link to the star’s scene. Trailers are included for Mood Ring, Beautiful, Killer Sex & Suicide Blondes, Eye of the Beholder, Fluff & Fold, and Space Nuts. There’s also a bonus sex scene, several featurettes, promotional materials, and website information.

There are several photo galleries included on the DVD. The main photo gallery lasts nearly four minutes with about seven seconds per very good full screen photo of snapshot. Star galleries are included for the entire female cast, and last between about two and two and three quarter minutes. As usual, the photos look very nice in all of the galleries.

The box cover shoot lasts almost two and a half minutes. After a little time in the makeup chair, Jessica gives a few words about the movie and the people she got to make sweet love with. She shows off the ring talking about the boxcover and then poses for a few stills. It’s a nice little featurette, and Jessica’s fun spirit raises it a notch over where this type of featurette normally seems to land.

All Access: The Making of Mood Ring lasts about twenty minutes. As usual, it nicely moves from location to location while identifying all of the players. With Mark Stone behind the camera there are plenty of nice chats with the stars and you also get a few words with Michael Raven. You get to see the scenes being shot as well as Raven working with the cast to get things how he wants. It’s a nice look at the making of Mood Ring that’s worth checking out.

Bonus Scene - Jessica Drake, Voodoo, Cheyne Collins, and Chris Cannon

The bonus scene comes from The Collector. Chris, Cheyne, and Voodoo wear Mike’s African fertility masks as Jessica goes down on them and lightning flashes outside the room. She works her way around them, sucking and stroking until Chris and Cheyne pop on her face. Finally, Voodoo pops on one of the masks as Jessica holds it in front of him before she licks it and plays with it.

This is an okay scene. It’s fairly short and the camera focuses nicely on Jessica. She looks like she’s having a good time, but more than anything it seems like it’s just there to mix things up while looking gorgeous.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Straight, group, lesbian, voyeurism, masturbation, interracial, anal (finger), and toe-ing

Raincoat Factor: Medium

Condom Usage: 100%

The Bottom Line:

Currently, many of Wicked’s DVDs can be found online for between $15 and $30 with many stores offering them for around $21. Unless you’re a big Jessica Drake fan, rent this one first, as it didn’t seem to have a lot of replay value for me. The movie didn’t grab me, but the techncial aspects were pretty good. There’s even a bit of effort put into the extras to help things out. This is an okay movie on a pretty well done DVD.

Note to Wicked: A little work on your overall DVDs would be very nice. To start with, if you’re going to go widescreen, give it the anamorphic transfer it deserves like your competition does. Also, a few more chapter breaks would be great. At the very least, one for the non-sex portions and three for each scene (foreplay, fucking, and cumshot).

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

Other reviews by Astroknight