Nina Hartley's Guide to Seduction Review

Running Time: 156 min.

Production Date: Jan. 1997

Director: Nina Hartley

Cast: Nina Hartley, Midori, Missy, Mickey G., Michael, Tye Law, Aiko, and Dave

Initial Expectations: This series has been kind of hit or miss for me, so I’m keeping an open mind.

Initial Reaction: It’s a great idea that’s almost killed by another bonehead act.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody looking for a little help getting things started with their partner

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody who’s already seen most of this series already

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is very well balanced and clear. You can hear both Nina’s teachings as well as the sexual sounds very clearly. The video is a little grainy and soft, but I didn’t think it was bad enough to interfere with the overall feature. I’m guessing from the quality that it was taken from the original VHS master.

Music: The Foreplay section only has music during the fantasy scenes where it uses some nice slow and soft jazz. The Dancing section uses slow and sexy music that seems perfect for the subject. Unfortunately it loops frequently and noticeably.

Disc Problems / False Advertising: Unlike most DVDs where they advertise something that isn’t there, this time it’s a case of not advertising something that is there. It’s my major problem with the DVD, and something I’ll go over thoroughly in the main part of the review.

Menus: The menus are very clear and nicely presented. The main menu is slightly animated, and the chapter menus lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of the scene and a title or list of the cast in the scene.

The Feature: When I first heard that Nina Hartley’s Guide to Seduction was a compilation of Nina Hartley’s Guide to Foreplay and Nina Hartley’s Guide to Private Dancing, I checked the running time. Seeing that it was advertised as “over two hours” rather than “over two and a half hours”, I assumed that Adam & Eve was going to try something new. At around two hours, Nina Hartley’s Guide to Seduction could have very easily gathered the educational portions of Nina Hartley’s Guide to Foreplay and Nina Hartley’s Guide to Private Dancing, and become more of a softcore educational feature that would be easier to market in more mainstream stores. This would have made a lot of sense to me, and could have very well opened up a bigger market for Adam & Eve’s DVDs. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. There’s nothing new added or changed. It’s just the two features put on one DVD with a different cover and a better looking menu.

I immediately became torn about this DVD, as there’s some very obvious good and bad about it. First, the good. The two features work very well together. This is a DVD that’s aimed at people who are having problems with getting things going sexually with their partner. They might be too shy, nervous, or just looking for a few new techniques. To put these two together on one DVD, then makes a lot of sense and shows some great care towards the consumer. Nina’s a great teacher, and comes off on both subjects as being knowledgeable, friendly, and non-threatening. She keeps things basic and easy to understand, and the people she has help her normally come off as very real while looking like they’re also really enjoying themselves. All of these work together to make for a very nice educational feature. Each feature also includes a bonus scene or two that’s also very soft and non-threatening. They’re often fun and artistic, and appear that they might work very well to entice people who would be attracted by these features to check out a bit more of the adult world. All in all, they’re good features.

Then comes the bad, which to me is much worse than the good, and at least part of which could have been very easily solved. First, the hard part to solve. The technical aspects look just like they did originally. Most of the other episodes in this series had some significant grain issues, and it would have been great to see them re-mastered for this release. I can see this as being a significant undertaking, so I can somewhat understand it not being done. That doesn’t mean I’m happy about it, but I think many people who had bought the original DVDs of these features might be a little upset if they saw a significant improvement in the technical aspects. If so, they might not have felt like they wasted their money.

Now comes the easy part, which really upset me. Nowhere does it say that this DVD is simply Nina Hartley’s Guide to Foreplay and Nina Hartley’s Guide to Private Dancing put on one DVD! To me, it seems fairly logical that a person who checks out an educational feature on foreplay or private dancing might also want to check one out on seduction also. For this reason, it seems extremely deceptive to not state anywhere on the cover that this DVD is just the two aforementioned DVDs put together on one DVD. It feels like a cheap gimmick to try and sell more products. This omission is 95% of my problem with this DVD, and I’m extremely glad I got it as a screener. If I had actually paid money for it, I’d be extremely pissed and this might be the last Adam & Eve or Nina’s Guide to DVD I’d pick up for a long time. It shows a lack of care, and more so, could be taken as an attempt to trick consumers. I don’t see Nina Hartley’s Guide to Foreplay or Nina Hartley’s Guide to Private Dancing being pulled off the market, which makes me think Adam & Eve is still selling them just like this one, possibly in the hope that they’ll pick up this one after checking out one of those.

Rather than giving Nina Hartley’s Guide to Seduction a 4 overall (that it probably would have received if the cover had better indicated what the DVD contained) I’m only giving it a 3 because of the cover omissions. Part of me wants to rate it even lower than that, but the DVD really is well thought out and a great idea. It just has a really bad cover description, so I really hope that at the very least Nina Hartley’s Guide to Seduction gets a new cover in the near future. Consumers deserve to know that it contains something they very well might already have rather than spending money on redundancy. If you haven’t seen either Nina Hartley’s Guide to Foreplay or Nina Hartley’s Guide to Private Dancing, Nina’s Hartley’s Guide to Seduction could be a great buy, but avoid it like the plague if you have either of them already.

For another perspective on this DVD, please check out dumblonde’s review.

Extras: A bio for Nina Hartley and web site information. You’ve probably seen both of them before.

Themes: Straight, educational, lesbian, group, foreplay, toys, dancing, spanking, and oral

Raincoat Factor: Medium low

Overall: Currently, most of the Nina Hartley’s Guide to series can be found online for between $13 and $21, although this one is offered at a higher price. If you haven’t watched either of the features on this DVD already but were considering getting them, this is a much better deal. If not, you should probably pass this one by.

Note to Adam & Eve: This was a decent idea, but the execution left a lot to be desired.

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

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