Peekarama: Pleasure Maze / Lovers Lane Review

Distributor: Vinegar Syndrome Edition Details: Standard DVD Release Specs: Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

Vinegar Syndrome has collected two late-1980s films from Duck Dumont, Pleasure Maze and Lovers Lane, for this entry in their Peekarama series. Both of the films present themselves as features, however, both would be best described as thematic films. You can jump to the review of Lovers Lane or Pleasure Maze or one can just keep reading to read all of them.

Lovers Lane is a shot on film later 1980s film from Duck Dumont that is more of a vignette style film than a feature film — although there is a thin connecting thread throughout the film. However, that thin thread of a story would be a stretch to call a true story arc. The short segments between the sex scenes exist to do nothing more than start the next sex scene.

In Lovers Lane, Susan (Tracey Adams) finds out that “Lovers Lane” Ronda (Barbara Dare) is back in town after five years. Susan and her bowling team consisting of Lulu (Stacey Donovan) and Sally (Alexis Greco) reminisce about their sexual adventures on Lovers Lane.

The sex scenes are the best part of Lovers Lane. The cast does a great job with their sexual performances with nice chemistry with each other and good heat generated by the sex scenes. The sex scenes are nicely captured as well. The cast does a good job with the minimal non-sexual portions of the film as well.

The sets are a mixed bag. Some of the sets are well dressed and, outside of an obviously fake window view, work well for the film. The other sets are minimalist which didn't work as well in the eyes of this reviewer and detracted from the film. The minimalist sets were obviously minimalist and clashed with the fully dressed sets. The ending result was a look that the film was too cheap to shot on location and used a cheaply dressed set instead.

Lovers Lane holds some enjoyable sex scenes but the plot is the standard late-1980s throw away that was designed just to get the viewer from one sex scene to the next. Fans of the genre will likely be disappointed with this film.

Vinegar Syndrome has done an outstanding job with their DVD release of Lovers Lane. Lovers Lane was shot on film and Vinegar Syndrome has utilized a 2K scan from the 35mm camera negative for their release. Lovers Lane is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 480p. The image for Lovers Lane is pristine with minimal grain, artifacts, and print damage. The colors in the film look perfect.

Lovers Lane is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural audio track. There aren't any noticeable problems with the audio track. The dialog in the film is clear and easy to hear at all times during the film and there are no blemishes within the audio track.

The only extra that Vinegar Syndrome has included on this release is the theatrical trailer for the film.

Pleasure Maze is a shot on film adult feature from the late-1980s from Duck Dumont, who would later go on to form RedBoard Video. Pleasure Maze purports to be a feature film, however, calling it a feature might be quite a stretch — more realistic would be to call the film themed and leave it at that.

The theme in Pleasure Maze is that in the future there are android hookers named Nightdroids. They are tested in a proving ground called the Pleasure Maze by human testers overseen by Rowe (Joanna Storm) and Merrick (Jon Martin). The new deluxe top of the line Delta model (Amber Lynn) is ready for testing and retiring tester Parker (Joey Silvera) has been training for her testing.

Pleasure Maze is more of a series of sex scenes where the various testers try out the different Nightdroid models, one after another while the film leads up to the testing of the Delta model. The cast is great in the sex scenes. The film has a set of top notch performers in it and they don't hold back in their sex scenes. The sex scenes are incredibly enjoyable, which is good since the plot isn't really there in this outing. There isn't much for non-sexual material, so there isn't really non-sexual acting to speak of within the film.

There is no way to miss that Pleasure Maze is a product of the 1980s. The sets that Dumont uses in the film scream of the mid-1980s. Dumont is obviously a fan of minimalist sets, which doesn't exactly work in this film. The set for the control room is decent, however, there is little for set design in the testing rooms, which essentially look the same — likely because they are the set dressed slightly differently for each testing room. The minimalist set design, honestly, makes the film look cheap and repetitive.

Pleasure Maze is a hard call in the end. The plot is a complete loss but the sex scenes are very enjoyable. Fans of plotted adult entertainment will be frustrated by the lack of set work and the lack of a coherent plot yet fans of all sex films will find that the breaks between the sex scenes are frustrating.

Vinegar Syndrome has done an amazing job with their DVD release of Pleasure Maze. Pleasure Maze was shot on film and Vinegar Syndrome has utilized a 2K scan of the original 35mm camera negative for this release. Pleasure Maze is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 480p. The image on this release is astounding with minimal grain and a few instances of print damage and artifacts. The colors in the film look perfect.

Pleasure Maze is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural audio track. There are no noticeable issues at all with the audio presentation. The dialog is clear and can be easily understood throughout the film and there are no defects within the presentation.

Vinegar Syndrome has only included the theatrical trailer on this release for an extra.

This release from Vinegar Syndrome has two films from Duck Dumont from the same year on it. Both films suffer from the same issue, a lack of a plot and some lacking set design, but both have the same positive to them, some excellent sex scenes. Fans of Dumont will obviously want to pick up this release; fans of the genre may ultimately be disappointed by the films on the release. Vinegar Syndrome has done an outstanding job with the audio and video quality on their DVD release of Pleasure Maze and Lovers Lane.

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