Nina Hartley's Guide to Sex Toys Review

Reviewed by Draken  on  3/29/2001

Pre-Viewing Expectations
I'm not expecting a traditional skin flick with this feature. It should be more of a tutorial layout, with some demonstrations of the use of toys.

The Main Event
The movie opens with a monologue by Tina Hartley describing several class of toys, such as vibrating, penetrative toys, tactile toys, sensory depravation toys, and constrictive toys. She talks about safety, such as using flaired base anal toys so they aren't sucked in, and not placing the penis into something that doesn't open or easily streach, such as bottles. After the discussion of toys, the women from the three demonstration couples gets to pick out a few toys for them to try. While the women pick out toys, the guys are trying to race vibrating toys across a glass table. As Nina says, one needs to be able to laugh at sex, as it is sweaty and hair in the face fun. The three couples are left to their own devices, with Nina going from couple to couple talking about what they are doing, the toy being used. The couples start off with general kissing and then some cuddling and feeling. Nina talks about the importance of foreplay as the women usually need more stimulation to be ready for sex than then guy. All of the couples proceed to oral stimulation, with Nina giving tips for eating pussy and giving head. Once they get to the toys, each toy is only shown for a short bit of time. For the most part, there isn't much explanation needed for the various toys. Some of the toys are liked, such as the silicon cock ring with clitoral stimulation nubs and the silicon masturbation tube. Other toys aren't liked, for example, the silicon masturbation pad. These are the opinions of the person the toys were used on, and may not necessarily be your opinions of the same or similar toys.

After the demos are over, there is a three-way with Nina and one of the couples. For the first part of the scene, there are no toys at all. Part way through, two dildos are added, used by the odd woman out. Since the toys aren't prominent, seems the only point of this scene is to help Nina get some action and to add a traditional sex scene to the feature.

The Details
The video is nice and sharp. Good camera work on showing the toy use, the action, and the people as they are talking to Nina. Sometimes it seems to be a bit Nina concentric, but that is understandable, as she is the host and the one doing most of the talking.

The audio is clear, with a repeating soundtrack underlying the action and the discussion. The volume of the soundtrack varied depending on the volume of the discussion and the background action that they wanted to capture.

Conclusion
For someone not familiar with sex toys, this is a good feature. It discusses their use and their safety, as well as some general sex tips. Watching this with one's partner would help bring up some points to open the channels of dialogue, especially if the topic of toys hasn't been discussed before. While explicit sexual action is shown, it isn't intended to be a hardcore porno, and shouldn't be expected to be overly arousing. This is mainly due to the clinical type dialogue from Nina.