YogaGrrl's Pandora Movie Reviews (6)
Release date: 7/11/2003
Reviewed on: 7/25/2003
Studio: Pandora
Starring: Victoria Givens, Julie Robbins, Brooke Ballentyne, Brandy Clark, Skye Oxford, Nick Justice, Sam Sharpe, Bill Tyler
Directed by: Anders Manga
Review brief: Cast: Julie Robbins, Victoria Givens, Brooke Ballentine, Brandy Clark, Skye Oxford, Sam Sharpe, Nick Justice and Duane Vein in sex roles; Bill Tyler in a non-sex role. Director and writer: Anders Manga Production date: 10/5/02 Length: 73 min. Extras: Interviews with Victoria (9 min.), Brooke (7 min.) and Julie (4 min.); 4 min. of outtakes; a 4-min. music video; and trailers for the feature and Girl Show 2. Audio/visual quality: The technical aspects of this disc are very good. The camerawork is competent, and Manga's characteristic editing stylewhich includes scattered jump cuts, monochrome and masksis fun to watch. Because of the relatively low lighting, shadows and grain are present in some scenes. A crewmember's shoe is briefly visible at one point, but I haven't spotted any other potential distractions. The soundtrack is original. As I've come to expect from this director, the music's eclectic range of styles supports the different types of scenes. Other than an occasional bump against the microphone, there are essentially no audio flaws.
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Release date: 7/2/2002
Reviewed on: 1/21/2003
Studio: Pandora
Starring: Mariah, Inga, Darian Caine, Tara Indiana, Aiden Starr, Mistress Charlize
Directed by: Tina Tyler
Review brief: Cast: Lolita LeMarchand, Darian Caine, Tara Indiana, Mariah, Mistress Charlize, Inga. Director: Lunar Eclipse (aka Tina Tyler) Writers: Anders Manga and Tina Tyler Production date: 1/25/02 (box); 1/27/02 (opening statement) Length: 68 min. Extras: Trailers for the feature and three additional titles. Audio/visual quality: It's a little disconcerting to see so many artifacts in the opening slides, but they vanish the instant the movie begins. On the whole, the visual quality of Affliction is strong and appealing. The lighting is appropriately spartanthe stark ambiance perfectly matches the "personality" of the movie. There are minor issues with shadows and soft focus shifts, but the mix of camera angles is extremely pleasing. (Because of the unfortunate legal issues that plague the BDSM genre, no vaginal penetration is ever directly shown. But Affliction does contain explicit footage of oral penetrationwith a dildoin conjunction with bondage.) The music is limited to a haunting instrumental theme at the beginning and end.
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Release date: 10/15/2002
Reviewed on: 10/29/2002
Studio: Pandora
Starring: Kylie Ireland, Tina Tyler, Keri Windsor, Nikki Steele, August, Logan LaBrent, Victoria Givens
Directed by: Anders Manga
Review brief: Cast: Tina Tyler, Keri Windsor, Logan LaBrent, Kylie Ireland, Nikki Steele, August, Kylie Kurves, Victoria Givens and Serena. Director: Anders Manga Production date: 7/2/02 Length: 91 min. Extras: A 3-min. bonus scene, 8 min. of interviews (Keri, Kylie K., Victoria), "Glamour" music video, four diary entries (poems related to the scenes) and about a minute of additional fun footage. Audio/visual quality: This is a highly aesthetic production. The provocative images of Girl Show 2 serve as a creative tribute to the beauty and the insanity of female passion. The dynamic visual effects include jump edits, color shifts, monochrome footage, intercut text and more. These are generally concentrated in the early part of each scene. To the director's credit, the picture grows steadier as the masturbation gains momentum, providing sustained looks at the actresses' increasing excitement. The camera angles, lighting and mix of shots are all extremely pleasing.
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Release date: 8/21/2002
Reviewed on: 10/20/2002
Studio: Pandora
Starring: Kylie Ireland, Tina Tyler, Nina Hartley, Kaylynn, Keri Windsor, August, Logan LaBrent, Victoria Givens, Julie Robbins
Directed by: Perk Adann
Review brief: Cast: Kaylynn, Keri Windsor, Nina Hartley, Tina Tyler, Kylie Ireland, Logan LaBrent, Victoria Givens, August, Julie Robbins, Kelly Fire. Director: Perk Adann Production date: 10/21/01 (feature); 3/17/02 (box) Length: 90 min. Extras: A 34-min. behind-the-scenes featurette, an 11-min. bonus scene and four trailers. Audio/visual quality: Pandora is a relatively new studio, and they are still working on refining the technical aspects of their DVDs. Even so, I would rate this disc's audiovisual quality as somewhat above average. The camerawork occasionally feels a little conservative, but the angles are generally solid and satisfying. The sets are dark by design, yet the action is easily seen. Grain and artifacts appear here and there. Other minor blemishes include sporadic soft focus shifts, a slight internal reflection in the camera (in scene two only) and a crew member's shadow on the wall (in scene three only). The musical style varies widely from techno to classical.
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Release date: 5/29/2002
Reviewed on: 6/23/2002
Studio: Pandora
Starring: Christi Lake, Shanna McCullough, Coral Sands, Alex Foxe, Kelly Fire
Directed by: Anders Manga
Review brief: Cast: Coral Sands, Shanna McCollough, Kelly Fire, Christi Lake and Alex Foxe. Director: Anders Manga Production date: 9/7/01 Length: 84 min. Extras: An 8-min. behind-the-scenes featurette, and trailers for the feature and three additional titles. Audio/visual quality: Pandora is a new studio, and they're still working toward refining the technical qualities of their discs. Girl Show does contain some noticeable problems with artifacts, soft focus adjustments and color bleeds across high contrast areas. The camerawork is solidly above average, however. The angles nearly always let me see exactly what I want to see. Mirrors are aptly incorporated into three of the scenes. There is judicious use of a limited amount of black and white footage. The softly percussive ambient music enhances the mood very well. The music is generally the only audio at the beginning of the scenes, with live sounds coming into the mix near the middle. The overall volume would benefit from a slight boost, especially during the featurette.
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Release date: 5/8/2002
Reviewed on: 6/5/2002
Studio: Pandora
Starring: Steve Hatcher, Sean Michaels, Kylie Ireland, Randy Spears, Tina Tyler, Nina Hartley, George Kaplan, Drew Andrews, Paul Carrigan, Brooke Hunter, Kimi Lixx, Don Hollywood, Tara Indiana, Dru Berrymore
Directed by: Tina Tyler
Review brief: Cast: Nina Hartley, Kylie Ireland, Brooke Hunter, Kimi Lixx, Dru Berrymore, Tina Tyler, Tara Indiana, Sean Michaels, Drew Andrews, Paul Carrigan, Steve Hatcher, Randy Spears and Don Hollywood in sex roles; George Kaplan and Maryann Walters in non-sex roles. Director: Tina Tyler Production date: 10/22/01 Length: 74 min. Extras: A 34-min. behind-the-scenes featurette, and trailers for the feature and three additional titles. False advertising: The box lists "Cast/Filmmaker Profiles," "Behind the Scenes" and "The Making of Tina Tyler's Going Down" as three separate extras, when in fact there's only one featurette. The featurette does contain performer and director interviews, which might be considered "profiles," so I haven't deducted any points. But it's definitely sloppy copy, and I don't like it. Audio/visual quality: Visual quality is roughly equal to VHS. There are minor ongoing problems with artifacts, soft focus, shadows and color bleeds across high contrast edges. Emphasis falls on medium-length shots.
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