Sex Safari Review

Running Time: 82 min.

Production Date: 3 / 29 / 1999

Director: Brad Armstrong (who also wrote and produced)

Cast: Stephanie Swift, Jill Kelly, Inari Vachs, Jessica Jewel, Mia Smiles, Sterling, Chris Cannon, Brad Armstrong, Mickey G., Alec Metro, Evan Stone, Eric Price, Erik Everhard, and Randy Spears

Initial Expectations: There's nothing on the cover to tell you what it's about and with a title like 'Sex Safari' I'm tempted to not expect too much, and especially not a plot. The only problems with that line of thinking is a) it's a Wicked release and I have yet to watch a bad Wicked DVD b) Brad Armstong wrote, produced, and directed it and Brad has done some excellent adult films. So, I'm not exactly sure what to expect, but I'm sure it will be good.

Initial Reaction: This is a great all sex feature and a very well put together DVD.

Audio /Video Quality: As usual from Wicked, the transfer is very good. There’s a little grain to the picture, but not a lot and it isn’t that noticeable. The audio is very good and very well balanced. There is quite a bit of dubbing, but unlike most pornos, it’s during the ‘plot’ scenes rather than the sex scenes.

Music: The music is fit to the area of the world where the scene is to take place. It’s balanced extremely well. I don’t think there was a single point in the feature where I thought it was either too loud or too soft.

Review: Brad Armstrong knows how to make a great adult feature, be it an all-sex feature or a movie feature. In this case, it’s an all-sex feature that uses a loose plot to tie things together. Stephanie and Randy set out in a plane from ‘Fly-By-Night Airlines’ to go to the four corners of the globe looking for the best sex in the world. The loose plot scenes are all in black and white and done in kind of a 1940's feel. It gives a nice touch and feels a little more like a movie than Hell on Heels .

The first stop is Africa, complete with jungle music. Stephanie is an explorer complete with rifle, gunbelt, and short-shorts. It’s a beautiful thing, and apparently Boy (Evan Stone), who appears to be somehow related to Tarzan, thinks so also. Either that or Cheetah wasn’t in the mood today. It’s a very good way to start things off and Even and Stephanie have pretty good chemistry together. Evan even shows off some of his muscles by picking up Stephanie to eat her out. Not a standing 69. Stephanie is picked up like she’s sitting down so Evan can eat her out. Stephanie must not trust Boy too much as she keeps the gunbelt on the entire scene. Oh, what a turn on. Babes and guns. Hey, on second thought, who needs Evan in this scene???!!!

Next Stephanie is off to Spain and the bullfights with Jill Kelly. After matador Brad Armstrong defeats the bull he’s showered with flowers outside and showered with Stephanie and Jill on the stairwell inside. This is one of the best stair scenes I’ve seen, but I was a little disappointed that Jill there mostly for support. She’s in the scene a little, but most of the action is between Stephanie and Brad. Of course, I’d be a lot more disappointed if Stephanie wasn’t as good at what she does as she is.

In London, Stephanie shows what the Spice Girls could have done to still have careers other than at the local fast food fish and chips. She’s absolutely stunning in her red, white, and blue dress and boots with the Union Jack on them. She shows that it is possible to get Beefeaters (the British guards) to move while on post. At least it’s possible if they’re Alec Metro and Chris Cannon. The music goes from what I think was the theme from Masterpiece Theater to dance music. It fits the scene very well and there’s some unintentional humor in a couple spots also. Unlike most unintentional humor, it adds to the scene here rather than detract from it.

In Asia, Stephanie meets a rickshaw (the pull behind carts that are often seen used kind of like taxis) girl (Mia Smiles). You don’t see them much, but the girls both wear the original Oriental platform shoes. You hear about them a lot in both the commentary and the behind the scenes featurette. This is not your normal lesbian scene, and I guess one can say that Mia really gets into the scene. It’s the only scene I know of where a girl uses her hair to pleasure the other woman. Especially when it’s in a braided ponytail. She doesn’t use it just on the outside like a feather either. It’s something you have to see to believe and is definitely one of those things that make you go Hmmmmmm.

Stephanie and Randy fly to the pyramids of Egypt next where Stephanie is treated like a Queen. Since they don’t have a Blue Oyster Bar in Egypt, she is instead treated like Cleopatra by slave girls Inari Vachs and Sterling with fan boy / guards Eric Everhard and Eric Price. This is the only scene where Stephanie doesn’t take any penetrations, but Sterling and Inari take over for her quite well. This is the first I’ve seen Inari, and after hearing so much about her I see why she’s so highly regarded. I also really like Sterling and think we’ll all be seeing a lot more of her in the future.

The final stop before heading home is Siberia, where Stephanie engages Mickey G. and Jessica Jewel on a dogsled. Although there’s snow all around them, they all seem to be able to keep warm just fine. This is another good scene and there’s a lot of use of a glass dildo. Jessica does a fairly good job of trash talking too which adds to the scene. Although still an above average scene, I think this might have been one of the weakest scenes in Sex Safari .

Finally, Stephanie and Randy head home. Of course, Randy still has to get paid, but Stephanie appears to have forgot her purse in her other plane. Not to worry, as Randy appears to take ‘other forms’ of payment. They go at it on the ground outside the plane in this final scene. The entire scene is shot in black and white and it does a great job of adding to the artistic feel of the movie. I think this was the shortest scene in the movie, but it does all it’s supposed to. After watching the behind the scenes featurette, I have to give a lot of credit to both Randy and Stephanie as it did not appear to be an easy scene to shoot.

Unlike Jonathan Morgan’s features (which have bloopers before or during the credits), Sex Safari includes behind the scenes stuff during the credits. Thankfully, they’re real credits also. Each person is named along with their character. Thank you Wicked! It’s really great to see so many studios including real credits lately (or maybe I just picked the right titles to watch).

Extras: As usual with Wicked releases there’s a slide show, audio bios, trailers, company profile, web site info, AVN winners & nominees, and the Wicked Interactive Casino (DVD-ROM). The slide show is automated lasting about three minutes with five seconds on each still. The audio bios cover Stephanie, Sterling, Brad, Mickey, Randy, Jill, and Inari. The bios all include a link to a scene with the chosen star. Trailers are included for Flashpoint, Sex Safari, Pornogothic, and Double Feature! .

The behind the scenes featurette lasts about 28 minutes and was directed by Ezra. It covers every scene in the movie and every star has a little bit of the spotlight. For those who have listened to some of Brad’s commentaries, you know that he frequently makes things himself for the movie. Sex Safari is no different and you get to see a little bit of it here. The only bad thing was some of the legal matters. At one point Brad had a soda which was blacked out so that you couldn’t see what he was drinking. Sad. If you pay attention to the credits you also see that custodial services were done by Crawdaddy. Hmmm. I’m guessing that on a porn set that’s the politically correct term for ‘jizz-mopper’. Maybe Crawdaddy would like to clear some things up. ;)

The commentary by Brad Armstrong and Stephanie Swift is one of the best Brad Armstrong commentaries I’ve heard. Many of his other commentaries had quite a bit of dead air in them. Thanks to Stephanie’s participation, the amount of dead air is greatly reduced. You learn some of the many things that Brad created in order to have things the way he wants them. In this case it included his matador costume and Stephanie’s British boots. If it weren’t for the commentary you’d never know it as he does a great job with them. Sadly, I think the commentary would have been much better if they were both allowed to say what they wanted to, but legal issues seem to interfere with it. There are several points where Brad comments that legal was going nuts over a comment that was made. At one point, Stephanie is commenting about giving both Chris Cannon and Alec Metro handjobs during the British scene. She refers to it as double-fisting and Brad tells her that legal goes nuts over just the word ‘fisting’. It’s really too bad.

Themes: Straight, group, anal, lesbian, toys, spanking, hairing, orgy, and rimming (male > female)

Raincoat Factor: Extreme. If you’re a fan of Stephanie Swift you’re going to have a hard time finding better whacking material.

Overall: Currently, Sex Safari can be found online for between $25 and $30. Fans of Stephanie Swift won’t be disappointed and shouldn’t pass this one up. If you’re not a fan of Stephanie’s, it might be best to rent this one first due to the cost. I doubt you’ll be disappointed because the sex is hot, the transfer is great, and there are some pretty good extras too.

Note to Wicked: Although you're the highest priced DVDs on the market, it's great to see that you're giving the customer something extra. Keep up the good work!

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