Principles of Lust Review

Running Time: 77 min.

Production Date: 12 / 01 / 1999

Director: Michael Raven

Cast: Sydnee Steele, Charmaine Star, Allysin Chaynes, Tylene Tan, Wendy (Maya) Divine, Anita Cannibal, Rene LaRue, Megan Riley, Lisa Belle, Alec Metro, Eric Price, Randy Spears, Herschel Savage, Eric Rey, and Bo Dean in sexual roles and Michael Raven, Mike Horner, Eric Masterson, Alan Cannes, Nic Andrews, and George Kaplan in non-sex roles

Initial Expectations: Michael Raven is one of the best directors currently making adult films. I always look forward to his features with high expectations.

Initial Reaction: It’s well done porn that mixes some very good sex with a nicely done plot.

Who Should Watch It : Couples who want sex with a little more intensity and a well done plot

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody looking who doesn’t want a plot or who wants a lot of nastier sex.

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is clear, but there’s quite a bit of dubbing in some scenes. The video is frequently dark, but so is the setting for many of the scenes so it often fits in very well. There are a few soft focus problems that are very noticeable, but luckily they aren’t too frequent. There’s also a little grain, but not so much that it holds back the feature.

Music: The music feels a little like porno music, but as usual with Michael Raven’s features, it’s done much better than that. Mellenium does some of the music, who’s a frequent collaborator on Michael Raven’s features, as does 13 Music. As usual, it helps out many of the scenes and there’s even a few vocals. It’s very well balanced with the rest of the audio and has a very sexy feel to much of it.

Disc Complaints: As usual with many of Sin City’s DVDs, there are three commercials (two for phone sex and one for Sin City’s website) that you can’t skip past. This is one of my biggest pet peeves on DVDs (along with no time stamp which thankfully isn’t an issue here). I can respect that Sin City is probably very proud of their website, but this isn’t the best way to promote it.

Menus: The main menu is pretty simple, but has a little animation that enhances it a little. The chapter menu allows you to choose a chapter from a small clip of the scene. It’s a pretty average way to offer a chapter menu, but since this is an older DVD, I won’t complain that it doesn’t list the star’s name in each scene.

The Feature: Sydnee Steele plays a reporter sent to investigate a sex club that’s been rumored to be involved with sex slaves. With the help of her faithful assistant Eric Masterson, they go there to investigate and try to get the story that will make everybody take notice of Sydnee. The club owner, Michael Raven, takes note of her shortly after they come into the club, and over a short period of time, slowly draws Sydnee in so the club becomes much more than just a story.

Lisa Belle, an average blonde, brings Bo Dean up on stage to join in on her act. She sucks his cock quickly before laying back for him to fuck her as the strobe lights flash on their fucking. She switches places with him so she can be on top, riding him both cowgirl and reverse cowgirl and letting her nicely natural knockers jiggle as only real ones can. She finally lets Bo take her from behind before taking his man milk on and around her mouth. It’s a pretty hot scene, but the strop detracted from some of the scene for me and Lisa seemed to be trying a little too hard in quite a few places.

Wendy Divine, who appears to have a thing for guys named Eric, gets busy with the extraordinarily lucky Eric Price to celebrate his birthday. Wendy’s an extremely cute blonde with a great body, although her implants at the time of this feature don’t look nearly as good as her current ones do. She starts off working his cock through his boxers before breaking it out to aggressively suck, stroke, lick, and fondle his cock and balls. She moves her pussy over Eric’s face so he can get her ready as she works and then lets him fuck her from behind. She also lays back for a little missionary action and rides him as he sits down with a modified cowgirl. Wendy finishes him off by jerking him off onto himself and licking up a little bit of his dick droppings. As they get close to finishing, Sydnee Steele walks in unnoticed and watches them as they finish. It’s a very hot scene and has some very good chemistry.

Sydnee Steele relaxes in the shower after chasing off Eric and Wendy, and gives her naughty parts some extra attention. She starts out thinking about Eric and Wendy, but soon after starts thinking about the act she saw at the sex club the night before as she diddles away. It’s a pretty good solo scene and short enough to act as a nice teaser.

After buying Allysin Chaynes at the auction, Herschel Savage samples his new acquisition on stage. He has her suck his cock and then drops down to warm her up with his tongue. He has her start out in the missionary position and then hop up to ride him cowgirl style. Allysin finally finishes Herschel off all over her fist and appears almost afraid of his jiz. It’s a pretty good scene that has decent chemistry and acting.

As Herschel samples his new toy, Megan Riley and Tylene Tan take care of Evan Stone back at the booth, who’s enjoying the show as well as his own action. The girls trade off sucking his cock and share his joy juice between them when he pops. It’s a nice oral scene that has surprisingly good chemistry.

Charmane Star, an attractive girl who has great natural breasts and appears to be at least part Oriental, starts out the penultimate scene giving Randy Spears a blowjob in one of the club’s small rooms as Michael Raven and Sydnee Steele watch through the doorway. She gives it some slow attention and licks it like a long lollipop before Randy lays down and lets her ride him. Randy lets her control the pace for much of the scene, but does hold her up at one point so he can give her some good, hard, fucking. They move to one of the corners of the room so Charmane can brace herself as Randy fucks her from behind. Randy and Charmane take a short break for some passionate kissing before Randy decorates her mouth. It’s a pretty good scene, but the shadows gave me mixed feelings. At times they enhanced the scene, but in some places it took over the scene and obscured things. There’s also a little bit of slow motion which almost always turns me off.

Finally, Sydnee Steele gets initiated into the club by Alec Metro, along with Renee LaRue and Anita Cannibal. The girls each start out taking their turn sucking Alec’s cock, starting with Anita and ending with Renee. Each girl aggressively works over Alec’s cock, with Sydnee giving him quite a bit of extra hand action and Renee deep throating him . As Sydnee watches Renee work, she gets turned on and has relieves herself a little with her fingers. Alec notices and selects her as the first of the three to get fucked. Alec takes her in a couple common positions before letting her suck and jerk his cock until it explodes in and around her mouth. It’s a very well done scene that has some great chemistry as well. Once again there are a few shadows, but they fit in with some of the darkness of the initiation very well and help out the scene more than they detract from it.

As usual, Michael Raven has done a very good job with Principles of Lust. Although very familiar, the storyline is nicely done and helped out quite a bit by the acting of Sydnee Steele, George Kaplan, and Michael Raven himself. The sex is also nicely done and shows a nice variety of sex that most would consider “couples sex”. Raven’s intensity, cinematic eye, and great care for his movies help it rise above that term, which many people have come to think of as a bad thing, and shows that features with “couples sex” don’t have to be boring. Principles of Lust is a well done adult film that shows great art direction and rises above the familiarity it will have for many people.

Extras: Trailers are included for Eighteen & Awesome, Eighteen & Anxious, and the first four installments of the Just 18 series. The photo gallery contains about thirty four snapshots that look quite good. Finally, there’s the web site and phone sex commercials you couldn’t skip by before the main menu. If you choose to watch them again and then change your mind, you won’t be able to skip to the end of them there either.

Themes: Straight, masturbation, group, lesbian (extremely light), oral, and shoe worship

Raincoat Factor: Medium

Overall: Currently, Principles of Lust can be found online for between $11 and $24 with almost all stores offering it for under $20. At the low end, this is a heck of a deal and makes this a DVD that anybody curious about Michael Raven should pick up immediately. The plot is well done and nicely developed, and the sex fits in very nicely to enhance it. The transfer is pretty good, but does have a few flaws and the extras are a bit weak.

Note to Sin City: Thank you for including a time stamp and chapters on this DVD. You have no idea how happy I was to not need to complain about it!

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

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