Underworld (Sin City) Review

Running Time: 87 min.

Production Date: 1 / 15 / 2001

Director: Michael Raven

Cast: Ava Vincent, Jessica Drake, Zoe, Asia Carrera, Taylor St. Claire, Bridgette Kerkove, Teri Summers, Ryan Conner, April, Alex Foxe, Herschel Savage, Dillion Day, Evan Stone, Mark Davis, Lexington Steele, Jon Decker, Cheyne Collins, Ian Daniels, Chris Cannon, and Ron Jeremy

Initial Expectations: I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about Mr. Raven, so I have high expectations for the movie. Unfortunately I’ve had awful luck with the treatment Sin City gives their movies on DVD so I’m not expecting the overall package to be that good.

Initial Reaction: Wow!!! I liked it so much that I ordered several of Mr. Raven’s other movies.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody looking for original and well done porn who thinks that there hasn’t been much really good porn since The Devil in Miss Jones 6. Anybody who loves mythology and porn.

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody who thinks porn should be all pink and frilly and happy where any time two people meet they should have sex.

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is very clear and well balanced throughout almost the entire movie. The only problem with the audio is that a couple times you could hear Taylor St. Clair being told to open her eyes. The video is in widescreen (YAY!) And was originally done on film. Thankfully, it was done right. There’s a little grain but it’s very good for film. In a couple places it looks so clear that you wouldn’t even know it was shot on film if it wasn’t advertised on the cover.

Music: The music in Underworld is great!!! It varies some to fit the scenes in some places being very low and dark looming quietly in the background and other places it’s up front and in your face. It even has lyrics to some of the music! There’s a song that’s throughout the movie and during the chapter menu and closing credits called Downslide by The Ducks that’s awesome! I really wish I could find more by this band.

Disc Problems: There’s no time code! This is one of my biggest pet peeves. It all appears to be one chapter, but it does have chapters that I could skip and scan to while watching the movie. It’s nice to see that Sin City has almost fixed this problem. In the past, Sin City’s DVDs had multiple chapters and you couldn’t scan backwards past the start of the chapter. Also, Sin City still has the annoying habit of sticking mandatory phone sex ads at the beginning of the DVD. You can’t skip past them to the main menu. You can only scan past them. There’s two phone sex ads and an ad for their web site. I’m sorry, Sin City, but you used up my time that might have been spent on your website watching the fast forwarding past your damn ad for it. If you paid a little attention to your customers you’d probably find out that nobody likes mandatory ads on a DVD. That’s why there was a huge mainstream movement against Di$ney DVDs when they made the bonehead decision to put mandatory trailers at the start of their DVDs. Figure out how you want to make money, by renting out space on your DVDs or by selling them to customers who pass on positive word of mouth to other potential customers.

False Advertising: There are no previews of coming DVDs. This is really disappointing because this is an amazing movie!

Menus: The menus are nicely done but not much above average. They’re slightly animated breaking into flames to separate the menus which fits the movie well.

The Feature: There are certain topics that aren’t supposed to be used in adult films. Drugs and violence are two of the top no-nos. Even having a gun or a needle sitting on a table aren’t supposed to be used. Thankfully Michael Raven doesn’t pay too much attention these rules from the start. The opening scene has Mike Horner committing suicide by popping pills and tying a plastic bag around his head while watching Ava Vincent suck cock on a TV. Not even three minutes into Underworld and I knew that all bets and all expectations were off. Underworld follows Orpheus (Dillion Day) on his journey through the underworld to bring back his true love DC (Ava Vincent). In charge of the underworld is his uncle who everybody refers to as Mr. H (Herschel Savage). Guarding Mr. H is Marc Davis and Chris Cannon, who have their handy dandy machine guns (which look slightly like MAC-10s) always by their sides. The only person who appears to be their to help Orpheus from the start is Hermie the cab driver with a winged helmet (Ron Jeremy) and later the fortune teller (Asia Carrera). Opposing him are his uncles forces such as the Harpies (Zoe, Jessica Drake, and Ryan Conner) and their pimp (George Kaplan) as well as the dark man (Lexington Steele) who appears to be following Orpheus wherever he goes. Yes, Mr. Raven borrows liberally from Greek mythology and thankfully he does it very well.

The opening scene has the harpies (Jessica Drake, Zoe, and Ryan Conner) pulling down guard Evan Stone after Dillion turns them down. Rather than just cutting from one position change to the next, the positions are separated by a quick look of the girls as actual monsters with fangs and long nails. Evan knows what’s eventually going to happen to him, so he does try to escape a couple times but to no avail. Since the harpies have been together for ages, they of course know how to work well together. The teamwork is really great in this scene and nobody is left out. Evan starts with Jessica and then works through the other two. It’s a very hot first scene to the movie and one that lets you know that even in the sex scenes things aren’t going to be quite what you’re used to.

The next scene occurs in one of the Underworld bars and combines three small scenes. In the first one, April gives Jon Decker a blowjob. April gives great head, but the scene is cut up enough with the others that it doesn’t build too much heat. In the second part, Bridgette Kerkove puts on a show for a guy (who I’m assuming is Skeeter Kerkove who I also assume is her husband) with a double headed jelly dildo. She takes the only anal in Underworld with the dildo and also double penetrates herself with it. The lucky guy also gets a blowjob and she lets him cum in her mouth. Bridgette is kind of hit or miss for me, but she hits here. Finally, Alex Foxe gives Cheyne Collins and Ian Daniels both a blowjob. This is another scene that wasn’t able to generate too much heat but at the end Cheyne and Ian abandon Alex to go and blow their loads on Bridgette’s tits. After all three scenes finish, April stands up and lets go with a good stream. Peeing did kind of fit in with some of the nasty feeling of the scene, so it didn’t really do anything for me one way or the other.

Outside, Taylor St. Clair gets it on with the Dark Man, Lexington Steele in a back alley. Taylor is really smoking here! Her fine natural tits get a great chance to bounce around a little and show why real is so much better. Amazingly, she takes all of Lexington in her pussy. I almost expected to see it coming out of her mouth with every pump. It’s a very hot scene and Taylor finishes it off with a great facial.

Ava finally gets her chance when Mr. H tells his guards to take care of her. Surprisingly, Mark Davis is left out of the scene so Chris Cannon gets her all to himself. This scene didn’t do too much for me either. It was very highly edited which didn’t allow the scene to build much heat. Yes, Ava is very hot, but if you only see thirty seconds or so of her at a time it’s hard to do much. The scene is also done with a completely black background which I didn’t think helped things either.

Finally, Dillion and Asia build up some heat after she tells him his fortune. This scene is also edited fairly well but manages to keep some of the heat. There’s a lot of ghosting in the scene which gives it kind of a dreamlike feel. The audio is also dubbed in and kind of matches some of the ghosting feel. Of course, I do admit to being biased here since Asia is one of my all time favorite performers. She adds a lot to almost any scene she’s in and I think a lot of the credit here should go to her acting ability. Mixed into this scene are some of Dillion’s flashbacks about Ava that fill in a lot of the blanks in the story. Mr. Raven does a great job of filling in the blanks in the story while still keeping the heat going in the sex scene. Although it’s the final sex scene, there’s a surprising amount left of the actual movie. Mr. Raven keeps the pace going and actually manages to give an adult film a great ending without ending it with a sex scene.

Finally, Underworld closes with credits. The cast isn’t listed with their character’s name but instead lists all of the major players along with their picture. The only people not included are the hookers in the bar and their johns. As a viewer I love this! I really liked a lot of the cast and now I know who’s who so I can pick up more of their stuff. I don’t know if the credits are included by Mr. Raven or by Sin City, but whoever did it, thank you!

I wasn’t even a half hour into Underworld and I was amazed. Michael Raven currently has one of the best reputations as an adult film director out there right now and if the rest of his work is anywhere close to as good as this it’s well deserved. The sex is done very well and I love the plot. It’s a nice twist on a classic tale and one that’s done very well thanks to a great combination of the cast’s acting and sexual abilities, a great story, and great vision behind the camera.

Extras: Sin City did a pretty good job with their extras. As with many other current releases, Underworld comes with a two sided cover. The bloopers reel lasts about four minutes. It’s your typical blooper reel that shows a lot of people screwing up their lines. It also has a little physical comedy but not a lot. The behind the scenes featurette lasts sixteen minutes and is great! In addition to showing quite a bit of behind the scenes footage it’s hilarious. Evan Stone hosts the featurette and mixes information with entertainment. A lot of the time he plays the intrusive investigate reporter trying to break onto the set. When he does get there he does things like hassle Asia Carrera with questions as she’s on a mad bathroom run. Make sure you watch this! There’s also a photo gallery that contains 26 very clear snapshots. Finally, you can choose to watch the phone sex ads again just in case you missed something when you were forced to see them at the start of the DVD.

Themes: Straight, lesbian, anal, group, masturbation, toys, DP, peeing, interracial, oral, spanking, and rimming (male > female)

Raincoat Factor: Medium high

Overall: Currently, Underworld can be found online for between about $13 (on sale) and $25 with a couple stores offering it on sale for under $15. For under $20 it’s a definite keeper. Right now I’d probably put it in my top five favorite adult movies. The transfer is excellent for being shot on film and the extras are very good as well, especially the behind the scenes featurette.

Note to Sin City: If you would have treated your customers right and been honest with them I would have rated this higher. If you’re not going to put trailers on the DVD, please don’t advertise them as being on there. More importantly, add a time code to your features! From what I understand about making DVDs about all this takes is pushing one more button. Also, drop the mandatory ads at the start of your DVDs. I would have been tempted to give Underworld another full point overall if it weren’t for these things but I couldn’t see giving that high of a rating to the DVD when the company doesn’t appear to care much about the consumer.

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