The Trailer

The Four (Michael Ninn’s…)

Adam & Eve/Ninn Worx

Genre: Feature

The Cast

Director: Michael Ninn

Screenplay: Sherry Ziegelmeyer

Producer: Nicholas Steele

Brea Bennett with Charles

Cast: Brea Bennett, Charles Dera, Jana Jordan, Amber Rayne, Maya Gates, Veronica Jett, Tristan Kingsley, Alexis Love, Marco Banderas, Renee Perez, Jennifer Dark, Cassidey, Reno, Nikki Kane
Non-sex roles: Dirty Harry, Sledge Hammer, Alexia Levy, Cody Garr, Dennis Cowell, Erik Fein, Fred Encinas, Dennis Waller, Sam Parvino, Steven Origel, Gregory Berger, Gary Kraft, Jigger Seaman, Joseph Braun, James Ramos, Greg Nugent, Justin Harris, Julian Waller, Marc Gallagher, John Livingood, Noah Gardner, Milton Waller, Scott Foster, Michael Guntehart, Richard Helman

Length: 200:33 minutes (89:06 minutes & 111:27 minutes)

Date of Production: 2008

Jana Jordan and Amber Rayne

Extras: The third disc housed the initial extras, the company spam and trailers not nearly as appealing as the 119:57 minute long Behind the Scenes feature by director Chris King and cameramen Kenny Carolina and Andre Madness. The BTS began with a lengthy montage during the credits, soon providing a lot of interviews and glimpses into the various production elements that took place to make the movie. The rest of the 137:12 minute time was devoted to a long photogallery, some shots from the 2008 AEE included as well (from the show floor).

Veronica Jett, Maya Gates, and Tristan Kingsley

The fourth disc offered up bonus scenes of sexual activity (Brea Bennett’s lasting 28:47 minutes as she masturbated and did TJ Cummings, 30:53 minutes with Renee Perez in a lesbian tryst with Charlie Laine & Lena Nicole , 29:07 minutes of Nikki Kane with Tommy Gunn, 23:58 minutes of Cassidey with Tommy Gunn, and 40:30 minutes of Jana Jordan in a lesbian try) which could be watched including a 19:11 minute interview (in two parts) of all the ladies sitting beside each other or as a 181:01 minute production.

Alexis Love with Marco

Condoms: None

Audio/Video Quality: The Four was presented in an anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1 as shot by director Michael Ninn back in 2008 to be distributed by Adam & Eve. Barry Wood was the director of photography, the editing provided by Steven Katz and Philip Smith, William Henderson was the production designer, and visual effects by Sebastian DiGiorgio, fleshing out the technical side (at least the major players) rather nicely. Unlike many low end productions, there was a big emphasis on the special effects here, the slow-motion and lighting with smoke effects providing a similar feel to the show as the mainstream “300” did back when it came out. I’m not typically a fan of such visuals but it did work pretty well here if you don’t hate such a look in your porn. The video bitrate was among the highest I have seen in a standard definition production with 7.50 Mbps not uncommon, some minor issues not really worth exploring in detail once you get by the intended visuals of the show. The audio was presented in 2.0 Dolby Digital English with a 224 Kbps audio bitrate (on the first disc, 192 Kbps on the second), the aural aspects enhanced more by the haunting score of Loren Alexander than the intrusive narration comments used to explain much of the story. The vocals were easy to hear and otherwise balanced nicely with the music and special effects, making this a very solid production on technical merits to consider for awards. For the record, you could skip the story elements and only watch the sex if you liked, my preference to include the whole thing given the sheer amount of tease and other twists provided.

Some Special Effects

Body of Review: Every year, there are only a small handful of titles that stand out as something special. This can be because a gonzo flick has a superb cast of top babes or a feature that looks like someone cared enough to do it right by combining great sex with story elements well beyond the norm. Michael Ninn, a director long acclaimed for his stylish method of fusing art and erotica in his movies, now teams up with ever popular Adam & Eve to release his long, long awaited epic, The Four. The movie pays homage to Zack Snyder’s “300”, the mainstream movie providing a take on the Battle of Thermoylae where a small group of warriors held off the massive Persian army before perishing. Rather than to provide a cheesy parody on a miniscule budget, Michael took the superior route of assuming the battle had ended and showing a supernatural retribution by four of the widows of the group, the sexual aspects of the movie still taking center stage. I’ll admit that I wasn’t overly keen on the way the original took such liberties with the historical accounts and used such a heavily stylized method of shooting the movie (similar to the more recent Starz series “Spartacus”), but Michael managed to put together a team of talented individuals to render his own spin in such a way that it worked better as a porno. It’s been years since I spoke with numerous members of the cast (in person at the AEE convention) and the various court dramas that kept this one from release appear to finally be over, suffice it to say that you will likely either love it or hate it on several levels, my own beliefs being that it was a very appealing 4 disc boxed set of entertaining material.

Renee Perez

The back cover described the movie like this: “Vengeance is their destiny. Michael Ninn renders the power and the passion of the feminine heart in a fantasy battle of four women sworn to revenge following the desiccation of the Spartans after The Battle of Thermopylae in ancient Greece. It is 480 BC and the 300 elite soldiers of Leonidas have been destroyed by the Persian army. As the Grecian forces invade Sparta, four surviving Spartan widows of the 300 swear revenge for their husbands and unite to assassinate Persian God-King Xerxes. The Oracle, unable to stop the impending demise of Greece, grants each of these four women the strength, power and courage of the 300 brave warriors who died in battle, allowing these few brave souls to strike a final blow in the name of their lovers and their land. Bringing Michael Ninn's ode to the beauty and strength of woman to the adult audience with a fantastical movie enhanced with the Ninn Worx team's unparalleled imagery to create an epic of sex and revenge, starring the most beautiful women in adult entertainment. Ninn Worx contract girls Brea Bennett, Cassidey, Nikki Kane and Renee Perez portray the woman warriors vowed to avenge their men and their nation's brave souls.” Here’s a brief look at the scenes by cast and action, noting that no condoms were used for those still interested:

Jennifer Dark with Marco

Scene One: Brea Bennett, the fetching blond on the upper left side of the cover, was up first as she embraced her king played by Charles Dera, the couple ending up in bed after some pretty heady effects. She wore a flowing white robe and he sported a beard, his talented tongue working over her snatch before she slobbed his knob actively. Once I got past the visual effects, her active vaginal riding was a lot of fun to behold, the beauty pushing back against his pecker to soon unleash his wad of genetic juice all over her chest. Brea gave some post coital head and the term erotica came to mind (though it was still strokable).

Cassidey with Reno

Scene Two: Jana Jordan, a sexy blond babe with an all natural body, was up next with lovely brunette Amber Rayne, their lesbian tryst showing a lot of energy and chemistry as they licked, sucked, fingered, and otherwise pleasured each other loudly. Amber was the dominant partner in the liaison but both brought something to the mix, Jana showing some snap as she reciprocated just as enthusiastically (while a masked Dirty Harry watched from the sidelines).

Brea Bennett and Jennifer Dark

Scene Three: Maya Gates, Veronica Jett, and Tristan Kingsley, were up next as harem girls going at each other while the next scene progressed beside them (I split them for the purposes of this review). Maya seemed most at homes going down and savoring the experience but all of them had some licking and fingering fun before they masturbated beside each other in the king’s palace (Marco really plowing Alexis). I really liked the costuming here and the little touches added in by the editors showing some chemistry also helped make it strokable.

Nikki Kane

Scene Four: Alexis Love, a curvy brunette looking very physically appealing, was up next as she serviced her king played by Marco Banderas, beside the lesbian orgy mentioned above. She inhaled his cock readily and Marco was rock hard even before that, his role in the movie standing out as quite memorable in the feature elements as well as the sexual trysts he engaged in. Alexis blew him really well and then switched over to actively riding him in her shaven pussy, impaling herself as the two of them sweat up a storm. The tryst ended when he tossed out a moderate amount of population pudding all over her mouth, Alexis cleaning him orally and a second camera angle of the spunk was provided as she looked up towards him seductively.

Some Extras

Scene Five: Renee Perez, the bow wielding babe on the front cover, was up next with her Spartan man, the two falling into a 69 position after some major smack down fighting on the field. The emphasis was on him chowing down on her pussy and ass more than the way she blew him, the barren landscape moving from night to day time in an artistically questionable manner. From there, she made up for lost camera time as she savored his pecker orally and gave him great eye contact, her hand to gland combat style as pronounced as her abilities with the bow. While he was a lot leaner than muscular Marco, he pounded away at her snatch rapidly, Renee continuing to push herself by riding him to the fullest before he jerked off a lot of splooge all over her face.

Scene Six: Jennifer Dark, a very sexy brunette with alluring eyes and a nice natural rack, was up next blowing Marco Banderas in the temple. She continually looked up at him which worked for me more than a little bit and her flowing black robes were removed so he could gobble her crotch in heated manner. Marco maintained his turgid member at all times and they actively fucked vaginally and anally until she milked his balls dry of semen. Marco beat off to her face to finish up, their tryst showing some chemistry.

Scene Seven: Cassidey, the ever-popular brunette with glistening eyes seen brandishing two swords on the front cover, was up next as she took on Reno, the man clearly looking the role better than a number of his peers. Cassidey has long been an exceptional cock sucker and this scene proved no different, the gal dropping down to slob his knob aggressively by a fire as she appeared to adore every last streamer that followed. Reno then spent some time going down on her, lifting her up in the air to demonstrate his physical prowess before setting her down so he could keep working his meat as she moaned happily. They actively bumped uglies until it got even darker, her pussy sliding down on his rod very easily until she was positioned to take the large facial while looking up at him with a smile.

Scene Eight: Brea Bennett, the dominant blond hotty from the opening scene, was then up next as she impressed brunette Jennifer Dark that she was a force to be reckoned with. Jennifer went down on Brea first and as the juices moistly flowed all over the place, Brea spent some time reciprocating though both of them appeared to appreciate some fingering action on the barren cliff. They kissed and connected from there, the mixture of close up shots and contextual medium shots adding to the replay value for me though it really did not spend enough time before the inevitable ending.

Scene Nine: Nikki Kane, the teenage blond cutie seen on the upper right hand corner with the spear, was up last as she took on Charles Dera in a temple. The leading up tease was interesting but she had to establish herself as a force like the other ladies had done, her knob slobbing skills put to the test as she knelt before her king. Charles was a bit stoic here and for good reason but the lack of oral reciprocation hurt the replay value for me, the two going right into some largely passive vaginally penetration positions. Nikki had a small pubic patch and was very loud here but thankfully became more active as the scene progressed. The scene ended abruptly when he tossed off a wad of spew onto her abdomen, Nikki tasting it but looking a bit like she wanted more.

Summary: The Four by director Michael Ninn for release by Adam & Eve was a movie that I strongly suspect will garner a lot of critical acclaim in the coming year, already setting the bar higher than most would expect so early in the year with a movie that has literally gone through hell and back to see release. The visual effects are perhaps the biggest obstacle to the enjoyment of the sexual exploits of the fetching cast of ladies but frankly, they were in keeping with the battle scenes of the original movie that this was tied to so enjoy it as a Highly Recommended set of four discs, the extras adding some serious value for me. In short, The Four had a lot of heart and stood the test of time much better than most releases held onto (for legal reasons), the technical aspects and sexual exploits enough to keep people coming back for more. It was a nice touch to see the ending credits dedicating the movie to Lee Garland, one of the best makeup men in all of porn for years, the four page booklet form of the set helping showcase each of the leading ladies really well.