Taboo (VCX) Review

Distributor: VCX Edition Details: Limited Edition DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Golden Age Classic, Feature Film Run Time: 86 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1980 Director: Kirdy Stevens Written by: Helene Terrie Cast: Kay Parker, Mike Ranger, Dorothy LeMay (as Dorothy Le May), Miko Yani (as Miko Yama), Juliet Anderson, Tawny Pearl, Jesse Adams (as Jessie Adams), Don Fernando, Lee LeMay (as Lee Le May), Turk Lyon, Brooke West, Sarah Harris, Michael Morrison, T.J. Carson, Holly McCall, Valerie Paulson, Starr Wood (as Star Woods), Ken Scudder (as Grant Lombard), Jeff Scott, Gary Eberhardt, Jeremiah Jones, Lisa K. Loring Voices: Kirdy Stevens Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1 Disc: DVD 5 (SS, SL) Special Features: Photo Gallery, Web Site, Coming Soon DVD-ROM Special Features: none

Synopsis:
Barbara's (Kay Parker) husband Chris leaves her for his secretary. While she has several bad relationships, her son Paul (Mike Ranger) finds himself becoming less interested in his girlfriend Sherrie (Dorothy Le May) and more interested in her.

Video/Audio:
Taboo is presented in a full screen, 1.33:1, aspect ratio. This does not appear to be the original ratio for the film. In the beginning the credits go off the left side of the screen. At the end of the film, the pictures to the left and right of the credits also appear to go off the sides of the screen. My best guess would be that Taboo was originally filmed in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio. The only places that the incorrect framing was noticeable were the two places listed above.

For its age, 22 years, the picture for Taboo is quite good. There are, as to be expected, many artifacts present in most of the scenes. In most scenes the picture is nice and sharp. In a few places the picture gets soft and in a few other places the picture gets fuzzy, but I think the fuzziness was done during the filming and was not due to the print used. There is also occasional shadowing in places. The color levels are light, but constant throughout. Overall, this is not a bad presentation of the film.

Taboo has a 2.0 English mono track, which appear to be the original theatrical track for the film. There is dubbing in a few places. The audio is clear and easy to hear but lacks the dynamic range available in more recently produced films. There are no other language tracks and no subtitle options available. Music is used occasionally through the film, at no place does the music interfere with the dialog. The music used is far better than the synthesized music in today's adult films. There are even portions of the film with songs in them.

Chapters/Time Code:

Taboo has six chapters available from the main menu, since there are more than six sex scenes this doesn't allow for very easy navigation through the film. There is no time code for this film. Given the lack of a time code, it would have been nice if VCX had put a chapter stop at each scene change, since chapters and the fast forward button are your only means of navigating the film.

Special Features:
As far as the special features goes, Taboo is about as empty as they get. Web Site offers only the address for VCX's home on the Internet. Coming Soon shows the titles for three other films, Debbie Does Dallas, The Devil in Miss Jones, and Girls on Fire. No actual previews are available for these titles though, just the titles with a picture that isn't the case for the film. Photo Gallery is a minute and a half track with 18 pictures from Taboo. Most of them have a real lack of definition and are rather fuzzy. For a limited edition title, especially a classic such as Taboo, some more work could have gone into gathering some usable special features to compliment the film.

Review:
Taboo is a classic film from the golden age of adult films and it shows. With the amount of work that went into the plot, sets, etc. Unfortunately, since this is a film from the very early eighties, most of the cast is not as attractive as the stars of the blue screen are today. Especially one male, who at first I thought was wearing a rug on his back which turned out to be his back hair. Also, the cast sports much pubic hair, which some people may find unappealing. The cast does have more acting ability than most of the adult stars of today.

Taboo has a highly developed plot line, which will probably bother those who don't like a plot in their adult films. There is much time spent on the plot in between the sex scenes and with how the disc is put together, there is no easy way for those who don't wish to watch the plot to skip over it. One problem that I had with the film was the incest theme. Since the characters were well-developed, I couldn't get into the mother and son having sexual relations. Maybe it's because I never had any thoughts of banging my mother, but the incest parts didn't excite me at all.

The sex scenes in Taboo are quicker than the ones that are present in adult films today. Several of the sex scenes are also intercut with plot portions, which some people may not like. The sex scenes themselves are standard in quality, but there is variety throughout the film so the scenes don't get repetitious.

The Money Shot:
Since the picture is less than perfect, I can only recommend this disc to fans of Taboo, fans of the stars or fans of the classic films. This is a limited edition release which the stores appear to be running out of and the disc appears to be out of print, so if you are interested in picking it up you might want to do so soon. There does appear to be another release of the film out through Standard Video on DVD of unknown quality. This is definitely not a film for those who dislike a plot in their porn. Also, since the main theme of the film is incest, those who might be bothered by this might want to skip this one.

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