The Movie:
When DVDs were first released, they were touted as being an amazing
home entertainment vehicle. Surprisingly, the early claims were true for
the most part. Publishers have been including foreign language dubs,
film maker's commentaries and a lot of bonus features. One thing
that hasn't quite panned out is the interactive ability. With DVDs
you can change have alternate angles and seamless branching will allow
publishers to put out a disc where the viewer gets to decide what happens
next. But aside from a couple of games that have been released and
a few notable releases, this aspect of DVDs has remained untouched.
Until now that is. Digital Sin has released Groupie Love a two disc
DVD set that features "interactive sex" where the viewer gets to decide
what happens next.
When I first received this DVD, I was intrigued. But my fascination
turned to boredom soon after I popped the DVD in the player. The
movie, and each segment, is introduced by three rap artists, Young Buck,
50 cent and Lloyd Banks. Their names are prominently displayed on
the cover, but they do not appear in any of the sex scenes. After
a non-skipable introduction, you are presented with a menu where you can
select one of four scenes identified by where they take place: Hummer Limo,
House Party, The Lab, or G4 Private Jet. Selecting any of them will
bring you to a (skipable) introduction setting up the scene, and then you
are presented with two women, one how is 'naughty' while the other one
is 'nice.' An on screen menu lets you select a girl and position.
When you make a choice, the girl stands up and undresses an then you are
taken to a 2 minute loop of film showing the sex. The man is only
shown from the waist down to give the viewer the impression that they are
right in the action. This aspect didn't work for me, and thought
it just limited the camera angles that they could use.
At any point during the sex, you can chose another position by highlighting
the appropriate area on the menu that is always on screen and selecting
it. This will bring you to another two minute loop. Each scene
has two angles that you can select between, a medium shot and a close up.
When you want to end the scene there is a "cum on cue" button to highlight
which shows you the cum shot. You are then free to select another
position, girl, or scene.
There was several thing that I didn't like about this DVD. First
and foremost, the sex was very dull. Each position only lasted two
minutes before it loops around again, and there was only the two angles
to switch between. There wasn't much heat in the performances, which
is mostly because of the short amount of time they had for each position.
To add insult to injury, the cumshots were put in digitally, and not real.
This was fairly obvious too. The guy would pull out and cum on the
lady's stomach but there wouldn't be any cum on her.
It was also hard to figure out what positions were offered at first.
They labeled them "M, D, C, BJ." Okay, the last one was obvious,
but when I was first offered these choices I wasn't sure what they were.
For the curious, they represent Missionary, Doggie, Cowgirl, and Blow Job.
Overall, this DVD just didn't float my boat.
The DVD:
Audio/Video:
The audio and video quailty were good on this DVD. The stereo mix was
clean and the full frame image was clear and without excessive digital
defects. Overall a nice looking disc.
Extras:
The second disc of this set is taken up with extras, all of which I'm
sure could have fit on the first DVD. The most interesting sex takes
place on this DVD, which is a bad sign for the feature. There is
a 43 minute behind the scenes featurette where a camera goes films what
goes on between the takes. This didn't have much form to it, just
people talking randomly.
There were three bonus scenes with Taylor Rain, Nadia Styles, and Jennifer
Love. Each of these were more entertaining than the feature.
A two minute reel of out takes and a three minute gallery along with some
trailers round out the disc.
Final Thoughts:
This was an interesting experiment, but it just didn't work for me.
The sex, in static shot two minute segments just didn't get me excited.
I'd much rather just watch some people having sex, the selecting positions
(and the abrupt jump cuts associated with that) just seemed too much like
a gimmick at the expense of the sex. . The digitally inserted
cum shots also ruined the mood. Pass by this one. Skip it.