Night Trips: A Dark Odyssey Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  3/7/2009

The Little Details

Running Time: 62 min.

Production Date: 8 / 27 / 2008

Director: Andrew Blake

Cast: Charlotte Stokely, Essi-X, Kelly Summer, Kira Kane, Natasha Nice, Paola Rey, Sophia Santi, Aaron Wilcox, Eric Swiss, and Otto Bauer

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: Andrew Blake has an amazing artistic eye. Although his stuff doesn't always meet my expectations, he always has enough potential that I have a hard time lessening those expectations.

Initial Reaction: The movie is very well done, but with the movie barley lasting an hour and not having any real care put into the extras I have a hard time getting too excited about it.

Who Should Watch It : Fans of artistic porn

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody wanting a long DVD or straightforward sex scenes

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The technical aspects are nicely done. The audio is only music, but it works for the movie. The video is presented in anamorphic widescreen and looks great. The movie appears to have been shot on film and been treated right, and has very nice care put into the lighting and other aspects.

Music: The music is the only audio in the movie, and works very well for it. It's soft, slow, and melancholy, and really helps with the mood of the movie.

Disc Complaints: The DVD starts out with a commercial for Andrew Blake's website lasting roughly thirty seconds that you can't skip past or fast forward through. This always pisses me off and I'm deducting a half point from the overall score because of it.

Menus: The main menu offers a still of the boxcover with the choices for a first impression that's far from impressive. The chapter menu lets you choose a scene based on a series of text options.

The Feature

Paola isn't sure she wants to go on any more. It might have something to do with her being unable to stop masturbating and her having constant sexual fantasies. She knows it's driving her crazy, and just doesn't seem to know what to do anymore.

After popping a handful of pills, brunette beauty Paola settles into a bathtub and starts to masturbate. Her thoughts wander to her in a black dress and heels sliding into a pool where she's joined by Aaron. He runs his hands around her with plenty of attention for her pussy along with a little nipple play before Paola sucks his cock in return. Paola rides Aaron reverse cowgirl style and gets up to squirt on him before settling back down to ride him cowgirl style. Finally, Paola takes a facial finish.

This is a pretty good scene. Paola looks very good, but the opening left me a touch cold due to how dark it is. In the pool things pick up nicely, and Paola and Aaron look to have nice chemistry. As always there's a heavily artistic feeling, but it doesn't interfere with the chemistry of the scene too much. This is a pretty good start to the movie.

Paola's next fantasy puts her in a limo diddling herself while thinking of Kira. Kira rubs her through her panties before fingering her pussy as Paola lays back on the seat and then rolls to the side. Finally the girls kiss before the scene returns to Paola masturbating in the limo.

Paola continues to masturbate in her limo while fantasizing about brunette Kelly fingering herself by a long series of windows wearing a fur coat. The action cuts to Kelly blowing Eric in the kitchen as Kira walks in, watches them, and guides Kelly's hand up her leg. Eric fucks Kira from behind as Kelly watches from below as well as fucking him standing up with Kelly guiding them with two firm hands on Kira's ass. Finally, Kelly gets down to take a decent pop form Eric in her mouth.

This scene worked very well for me. The first part between Kira and Paola is very short but very hot. Both girls look great, and I love how the scene changes to black and white footage for Paola's fantasy. The second part is almost as hot, with Kelly's fur coat masturbation being pure Blake, and once again the artistic feeling enhances the scene rather than interfering with it. The division of labor between the girls is interesting and didn't quite work for me, but there's enough heat around the group that it didn't hurt the scene for me too bad. This was another very nicely done scene.

Paola returns to the bathtub for a smoke as she fantasizes about Kelly laying back on a table and being discovered by smoking hot brunette Sophia. Sophia goes right to fingering Kelly's bald beaver and keeps it up after Kelly rolls onto all fours.

The action cuts to Sophia sitting on a chair being fairly well dressed as Paola walks up behind her in a pair of black thigh high boots. Sophia tries pushing her away bit then lays back as Paola rubs her pussy roughly. Paola gives her pussy plenty of slaps as Sophia struggles, both fighting it while also being turned on. When Sophia gets up she pushes Paola on the floor where they struggle with Paola once again coming out on top and giving Sophia's tits a few slaps before leaving her again.

This is an okay scene. I like the dichotomy of Sophia dominating Kelly only to be dominated herself by Paola, but it's not always the most comfortable of scenes. Paola also looks downright dirty for her portion, and although I can see that having some artistic merit and working for some people it didn't work the best for me. This scene didn't work nearly as well for me as some of the other scenes.

After diddling herself a little more in the limo, Paola, dressed in a navy dress with gold shoes and accessories, walks into an office to talk with shrink Otto, who she tells her fantasies and troubles. As she tells him she flashes back through her fantasies, masturbates, and has a vision of Natasha sucking his cock and taking a facial while she appears to be breaking down.

This scene is almost all plot. Natasha looks to do a nice job sucking cock, but it's done in such flashes with the rest of the flashback sequences that it's pretty hard to pick out of the scene. That said, the scene does a great job with the artistic style and ties most of the movie together to have some kind of substance beyond just being eye candy. Although this might not be the most stroke-worthy scene in the movie, it does work very well in aiding the movie as a whole.

Blonde photographer Charlotte checks out Paola in a makeup chair before getting a bit too hands on photographing her. Paola refuses at first and stomps off, but quickly goes back to posing when the action moves to a trailer. Charlotte kisses her and fingers her pussy before Paola runs out again, and then watches and diddles herself when Otto moves in back in the studio for Paola to suck his cock. He rubs Paola's pussy before fucking it from behind, and keeps pounding it in missionary and a standing cowgirl. Otto pops on Paola's ass as she spreads it for him before Charlotte masturbates to the footage she captured in the editing bay.

This is a very hot scene that worked very well for me. The lesbian portion of the scene isn't always the most comfortable, but it plays very well into Charlotte's infatuation that drives the scene. There's great chemistry between Otto and Paola, and no doubt about how much Charlotte wants Paola. This is another unique scene, and one that worked well for me.

Night Trips: A Dark Odyssey is a unique and artistic adult movie, just as one would expect from Andrew Blake. There is a bit of a story here, but it's a story that serves more as a framework for the scenes as it does a linear method of conveying a story as it's dealing with Paola pretty much having a breakdown. That works very well for Blake's style, as it gives him a bit of freedom with his artistic nature and lets the editing style work for the movie rather than against it. The movie is also very unique in that it tries to tell a bit of a story while never letting you hear any of the performers and instead giving you music that's slow, soft, and very melancholy. Yes, there are some happy moments in the movie, but for the most part it's the dark journey that the title suggests. Paola Rey does a fantastic job with her role in it, and I was also very impressed by the job Otto Bauer did and how he added to the movie. On the other hand, Night Trips: A Dark Odyssey barely lasts an hour. It does feel like a solid movie with scenes that for the most part seemed to have a nice length, but it's still a movie that only lasts an hour and as such I have a hard time getting too excited about it or recommending it too highly for just that reason. Night Trips: A Dark Odyssey might not be the most comfortable adult film out there and is definitely on the short side, but there's no denying Andrew Blake's style and how well it works for the movie.

The Extra Stuff

The photo gallery lasts about three and a quarter minutes with roughly four seconds per very nice looking snapshot. Trailers are included for X2, House Pets, and Paid Companions.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Straight, masturbation, squirting, lesbian, group, peeing, and voyeurism

Raincoat Factor: Very high

Condom Usage: None

The Bottom Line:

Currently, most of Studio A’s DVDs can be found online for between about $18 and $30 with only a few stores offering them near the low end. Rent this one first unless you're a major fan of Blake's work. The movie is very artistic and well made, but it only lasts an hour and there's no effort put into the extras. Even with a well made movie I have a hard time recommending picking up a DVD that doesn't even have an hour and a quarter of total footage when for the same price as what you can normally get two to three times that footage.

Note to Studio A: If you're going to put out a movie this short, please put a fair amount of effort into the extras so people can think you're trying to give them their money's worth for your DVDs.

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

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