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Category:    Home > Reviews > Erotica > Explicit Sexuality > Island Fever 3 + Pirates (HD-DVD + DVD Sets/Erotica)

Island Fever 3 + Pirates (HD-DVD + DVD Sets/Erotica)

 

Picture: B-/C+ + C+/C+     Sound: C+     Extras: B-     Features: C+

 

 

Is the line between mainstream entertainment and erotic hardcore filmmaking blurring or disappearing?  Not quite, or there would not be a multi-billion dollar XXX industry.  However, as more HD productions arrive and PCs further change the nature of the entire entertainment industry, the filmed and taped sex business faces new challenges.  Besides the constant glut of often silly product, the free XXX product on line, the trash sex that has spilled over into the mainstream and “amateur” cycle competes with star performers; the industry is wondering what to do next.

 

While downloads seem like a “rathole” as one famous Hollywood producer recently and correctly implied, the XXX industry will need to take a new tact to survive or be washed away by the commonplace.  Digital Playground is a company taking the initiative to try something better and different.  With more attractive, comical and cleaner performers than most of the industry seems to offer, the company has become the first to release their product in an HD format.  The result are HD-DVDs of Island Fever 3 and Pirates, which include regular DVD-Video versions and the latter of which is a send-up of a famous hit trilogy confirming Conan O’Brien’s theory that when a hit movie arrives, the XXX version gets produced immediately.

 

After VHS and Beta killed the filmed era of the XXX industry, they went to analog NTSC video for over 20 years, only rarely returning to filmed productions.  In the last few years and to serve what few XXX movie houses and outlets existed, they shot some productions in early HD and could issue them in film prints or video projection.  These are two of those productions.

 

Pirates goes through more trouble than expected with very dated CG effects for a production only a few years old, sets, costumes and even locations and a script that “sort of” has a storyline.  That they are a lame excuse for sex scenes is beyond obvious, though this is not as wacky as you might expect.  Like much heterosexual-aimed product going back to the 1970s, this features the usual “standard intercourse” with lots of oral sex and thought-police lesbianism.  That it skips other things is actually a surprise, but they have the bodies to get away with it, though those who have not seen such material in years will be surprised at the lack of body hair (an AIDS-era development) and more implant and plastic surgery than would have ever been tolerated in the 1970s.

 

Island Fever 3 is part of a series that is actually much closer to the series of video programs for couples interested in sex and massage Playboy Video has issued as these programs are just sets of sex scenes set to music with no story, dialogue, sound effects or much massage.  Many of the same actors are in this program, including women with names like Jesse Jane, Devon, Janine, Tera Patrick and very downplayed males (not even on the covers as not to scare off the male audience) with names like Tommy Gunn (no gangster is he) and Evan Stone.

 

For this latter title, they HD taped it all on location in Bora Bora and Tahiti, which is a far cry from the dirty reputation of the cheap influx the industry usually offers.  This does not make it art and may not be too erotic to some, but for the beyond obvious expectations of this kind of material, enough “memorable moments” are here for those interested in either title.  We have seen so much explicit material in indie and alternative filmmaking recently that looking at such material arriving on HD made sense and we will continue to sample such HD titles.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on both DVD versions is poorer than usual, however, looking like there are limits in the downtrade equipment and a strange moiré pattern like we have never seen before.  We have seen many odd anomalies and digititis, but this is a new one.  As for the HD-DVD versions, these were shot on early HD equipment and the “narrative” Pirates has more image issues die to lighting problems and Video Red limits of the indoor shooting scenes.  Island Fever 3 is shot outdoors and is more of a no-brainer for better picture reproduction, especially since all is in the daylight.

 

However, the problem like the largest Hollywood HD productions of late is that daylight still never looks like daylight since HD has the Video Red limit and you can imagine with all the nudity how that can be an issue with flesh tones.  Still, the VC-1 HD versions look a little better than the standard DVD versions, but is still too soft and as these companies upgrade to better HD cameras, this will be far more obvious.  At least they future-proofed themselves with HD shooting versus old analog tapes, which will likely be bonus footage for HD productions of the future as HD becomes more popular.  A comparison to Magnolia Picture’s Blu-ray of Bikini Destination – Triple Fantasy shows how behind this shoot is, looking far better even though it is more like a swimsuit magazine than XXX material.  Nudity is nudity, though.

 

There are also a few bad slow-motion moments that do not work and some hazing images when people move, showing again that it is older HD.  Maybe they should do a few of these in 35mm or 16mm just to see what happens.

 

Thought both titles offer Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes, the multi-channel is not used that well in either title and sounds like amateur film school work.  Island Fever 3 is simply the music, so you can’t go wrong there.  By comparison, Bikini Destination offers DTS and if these were in DTS, the flaws would be even more obvious.

 

Extras include behind the scenes footage for both productions that are far more entertaining than the features as a whole, with everyone having so much fun, you can see why these productions turn out better than most and why this company is more likely to survive its competitors.  Both also offer stills, bios, trailers for other DP product and audio commentaries on both features.  They have to be heard to be believed, including the first time in history the director (named Joone, who is behind both) electronically disguised so only the company and FBI knows who he is.  Pirates adds casting video, bloopers, a short made during the Island Fever 3 that inspired this project and a piece on the digital effects.

 

For more titles about sex and erotica, we recommend these titles:

 

BIKINI DESTINATION – TRIPLE FANTASY (Blu-ray)

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5044/Bikini+Destination+–+Triple+Fantasy+(Blu-ray)

 

DEBBIE DOES DALLAS UNCOVERED

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3432/Debbie+Does+Dallas+Uncovered+(Documentary)

 

FLESH GORDON

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/240/Flesh+Gordon

 

INSIDE DEEP THROAT (NC-17 version)

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2834/Inside+Deep+Throat+(NC-17/Documentary)

 

9 SONGS

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3230/9+Songs+-+Full+Uncut+Version

 

PORNOGRAPHY – THE SECRET HISTORY OF CIVILISATION

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4813/Pornography+–+The+Secret+History+Of+Civilisation+(Documentary)

 

SEXUAL INTELLIGENCE

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3431/Sexual+Intelligence+(Documentary/Kim+Cattrall)

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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