Nina Hartley's Guide to Couples Sexploration Review

Running Time: 64 min. (cover states approx. 60 min.)

Production Date: 8 / 26 / 2000

Director: Nina Hartley & Will Renald

Cast: Nina Hartley, Shayla LaVeaux, Joel Lawrence, Anthony, and Running Horse

Initial Expectations: I’ve had mixed luck out of this series, so I’m not quite sure what to expect.

Initial Reaction: It’s okay, but feels more like a porno than an educational feature.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody who wants to be more comfortable with sex

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody looking for exploration beyond vaginal sex

Audio /Video Quality: Although the audio has a few spots where the balance is off a little, most of the time it’s very clear and easy to understand. The video is also good. It has a few shadow problems here and there, but I think they’re mostly there to help the mood out. There’s just slightly more grain than normal, but it isn’t enough to really interfere.

Music: The music starts out with a classical piano style and moves on through some other styles that fit the mood of the feature very well. It’s romantic and normally very well balanced with the rest of the audio, changing levels as it’s needed. The only place the music dominates the audio at all is a little bit of the last scene.

Menus: The main menu is very plain with a little animation. The chapter menu is pretty basic, allowing you to choose a scene based on a small clip of the scene and a description or listing of who’s in the scene.

The Feature: Nina starts out this guide with a small warning and explaining that this feature is supposed to help couples learn how to please each other better. Since humans are visual people who normally seem to learn best by watching, Nina has brought several couples in to demonstrate their lovemaking. Since everybody has their own techniques, each couple brings something different.

Nina starts out with Shayla LaVeaux and her partner of ten years Anthony. There’s a lot of attention paid to the needs of both people. As they make love, Nina moves off to the side and adds a few notes and pointers about what they’re doing every now and then. They point out that after ten years together, Anthony and Shayla have gotten some things down very well, which makes some things appear easy but need quite a bit of practice, such as undressing in a sexy manner. Shayla and Anthony end things with one of the more rare things in porn that’s normally limited to real life couples. Anthony finishes things with an internal cum shot. Afterwards they talk about comfort levels and the time it takes to build it up. It’s a nice opening lesson that nicely balances the sex and the learning.

Runninghorse, a large older black man with his hair in long brains, joins Nina for the next segment. This one is more of a straight ahead sex scene, and Nina doesn’t stop it at all to add commentary. They work each other over orally as well as bringing some fruit into bed for added fun. In a slightly different twist, rather than fucking Runninghorse, Nina dry fucks him without taking him in. Afterwards they continue to work each other over with their tongues and fingers, but never fuck. Runninghorse never even gets hard, which he talks about after the scene is over. It’s a different scene, and although there’s no pop or fucking, there’s some great chemistry and sexuality here that should also teach those looking for a lesson a little something.

Finally, there’s a scene between Nina and Joel Lawrence, two of the most talented people in the adult film business, that’s directed by Will Renald. It has a nice lead-in that many couples with kids might be able to relate to, and builds some nice chemistry between them. They work back and forth nicely between oral and vaginal sex, and even take a break in the middle that has a nicely realistic feel to it. It breaks the scene into two parts, with Nina finally ending up with Joel’s load on her amazing ass. It’s a very good scene with amazingly good chemistry.

Although a nice feature, Nina Hartley’s Guide to Couples Sexploration might not educate people like they’re expecting. It’s mostly a collection of more realistic sex scenes that you can watch to try and pick things up. Although I have to admit to being a little disappointed at the informative part of the feature, the realism of the sex scenes really brings it back. Nina also does a great job of emphasizing the importance of communication with your partner without really preaching about it. Nina Hartley’s Guide to Couples Sexploration works very well, just not in quite the way you might expect.

Extras: There isn’t much for extras here. About all you get is a nice biography of Nina and some website information.

Themes: Educational, straight, internal cum shot, inter-racial, food, and oral

Raincoat Factor: High

Overall: Currently, most of the entries in Nina Hartley’s educational line can be found online for between $13 and $24 with several stores offering them under $15. Since it’s not quite what most people would expect, I’d recommend renting this one first or picking it up at the lower end. There’s some good messages here, but they’re fairly common ones if you’ve seen some of Nina’s other educational features. As with the others, there isn’t much here for extras, but the technical aspects are much better.

Note to Adam & Eve: If people are going to pick this DVD up, they may also be interested in some Nina’s other educational titles. It might be a good idea to include some kind of trailer for the other features or maybe a short interview with Nina talking about them.

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

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