Playgirl: Playing Dirty

Wicked Pictures

Genre: Vignette

Director: None credited

Cast: Tiffany Taylor, Jean Val Jean, Tory Lane, Mike Fuller, Jassie, Brooke, Manuel Ferrara, Victoria Van Helkine, Randy Spears, Nicole Sheridan, Voodoo, Tiffany Taylor, Niko, Faith, Selena Silver, Marcus London

Length: 114.5 minutes

Date of Production: 2/26/2006 (box cover); 6/13/2005, 6/14/2005, 4/25/2005, 6/7/2005, 7/14/2005, 6/8/2005, 4/26/2005 (credits)

Extra's: Compared to most previous releases in the series, this one had some decent extras that started off with a 16.5 minute long bonus scene between Rita Faltoyano and Derrick Pierce in American Classic; a vignette about a man who loved his car too much until the sexy Hungarian showed him how to better channel his energies. The music was too loud and the vocals too covered up but it wasn't a bad little scene as a warm up to something better. This was followed by a 6 minute long Behind the Scenes shoot for the Playgirl Man of the Year contest. That was followed by another Behind the Scenes shoot, this time focusing on a scene between Penny Flame and Kris Knight from a vignette called Experimental Twist. This led to a 7 minute interview with Brad Taylor, a photogallery, some trailers, a promo reel, some spam, a coupon for buying stuff directly from Playgirl, a true double sided DVD cover, and a cardboard slipcase to protect the DVD case.

Condoms: Yes

Audio/Video Quality: Playgirl: Playing Dirty was presented in non-anamorphic widescreen color as shot by an uncredited director (or several given the variety of visual styles employed here; one reportedly being Sky Blue and the other a lesser known industry figure) for Playgirl TV and distribution by Wicked Pictures. The emphasis of the short vignettes was to provide a less explicit, more erotic look at sexual liaisons between men and women. As such, the lighting was varied and the use of special visual effects added in to provide something designed to appeal more to a female point of view than that of a jaded porn reviewer though such boundaries are largely the result of marketing types rather than actual independent minded people so your mileage may vary. The composition of the camera shots seemed to favor the men with the camera geared to offering the men as the focal point of the vignettes but it was still uneven and I can see why no one wanted to claim credit for shooting the scenes. There were no compression artifacts and the picture was otherwise decent if one step above late night cable television offerings on Cinemax. The audio was presented in a 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround English with a decided leaning towards the music over the vocals of the cast as they engaged one another sexually. The majority of vocals were the voice-overs by the uncredited hostess of the show, outlining the scenarios presented, but again, the music was the focal point (some of it quite decent if inappropriate for the given scene).

Body of Review: Playgirl: Surrender to Lust was a mixed experience for me to review. I had a few friends that I knew were totally devoted to the producer and directors of the flick, making it a bit tougher on me to honestly evaluate the title (and forcing me to call upon a female friend of mine for her opinion which was far lower than mine) and I chalked it up to life that the two had swallowed the kool aid to the point where they couldn't appreciate objective commentary when it came up for discussion in a public forum. Needless to say, I was hoping the next volume in the series, Playgirl: Playing Dirty, would be better but it relied so heavily on the same formulas and lack of personal chemistry between the performers that I knew I'd find it the kind of erotica-lite that passes for what some marketers consider appealing to women (for some commentary on the topic, check out my article with fellow writer Ravyn in a recent Blue Room column, Porn For Women). As an introduction to real porn, the title wasn't bad but the issues I had with it were largely due to the fact that the formulas were so strictly adhered to and limiting that it killed the heat all too often. Here's a look at the vignettes that made up the DVD, noting that condoms were used in the scenes:

Scene One: Happy Ending: Tiffany Taylor, an incredibly attractive brunette with pretty eyes and a lean but sexy figure, was up first as a patron for an Asian massage parlor where Jean Val Jean was the masseuse. He rubbed some oil on her back for a couple of minutes, the narration got way ahead of things (a major problem for the series) and then gave way to more generic music as the couple kissed and caressed in a highly edited montage piece. He spent a couple of minutes going down on her and she gave him a decent blowjob in return, leading to some penetrative vaginal sex with a condom. The vocals were still covered by the music and she let him do almost all of the work until she jerked him off on her crotch (he sucked her feet a little bit too) and she awoke to find it was all a dream. All the women I know would hate her for putting them to shame with her physical beauty and she was too passive during the sex for me but it'll work for less discriminating viewers.

Scene Two: On Demand: Tory Lane, an attractive and curvy brunette, was up next as she enjoyed a true pay per view experience as Mike Fuller came to life off the big screen in her home theatre room. He walked over to her chair and started feeling her up as they kissed in slow motion, leading up to a bout of him going down on her pussy (initially in a very non-explicit way but eventually proving he was really doing it). She looked at the camera a few times, breaking the illusion but it was again the limited amount of vocals that did the most damage to the scene. She's a major hotty when not held back and as gay as he looked the hummer she gave followed the same pattern (initially cable ready before getting him deep into her throat). His penis was not proportional to his muscular body so she had no problems inhaling his shaft all the way in though he showed about as much emotional content with regard to her splendid oral work as he would if watching golf, leading to her actively riding him in her pussy. She bounced, gyrated, and proved to be a great lay before he pulled out and splooged all over her lower back. There was no physical connection between them (no chemistry) but I enjoyed it substantially more than the first scene thanks to her passion.

Scene Three: The Hunger: Jassie, a thin brunette, and curvy Brooke, were up next with AVN's male performer of the year Manuel Ferrara in a darkened bedroom with multi-colored lights providing the visual stimulus for them to attack one another with. There was no build up as they simply went to orally doing each other with Brooke as the central figure of the attention. Brooke then blew him as Jassie continued her oral assault on her pussy, leading to Manuel porking the curvy cutie while she laid back to enjoy it. Jassie never took the cock and he jerked off onto Brooke's abdomen as the scene faded away with a dove in the foreground.

Scene Four: Escape From Danger: Victoria Van Helkine, playing a timid gal in need of rescue, relied on Randy Spears (playing an Indiana Jones character, complete with fedora) to save her. After he did so in the outdoor setting, she repaid him with sex, kissing him and feeling him up before the sexual formula took place. This was another scenario where the narration was laughable but I found her quite physically appealing even as her milky white skin took him inside her pussy in the least explicit scene of the bunch. He did bust a nut on her ass cheeks but she was so passive during the sex that most women I know would be less into it than I was on sexual terms.

Scene Five: Dark Fantasies: Nicole Sheridan, the most established female performer of the cast, played wife and bed buddy to her real life partner Voodoo in bed before they switched to a more stylish setting of a metal warehouse with some light fetish trimmings. Her dominatrix outfit looked good on her and she appeared to be in charge as the two bounced around on a mattress inside the industrial setting. She blindfolded him during the foreplay, aggressively blew him, and expected him to do likewise as she kicked back to enjoy his oral attentions. He used a toy on her and the two screwed vaginally for a limited amount of time but at least showing some energy on both their parts. The candle wax use was hot but it was too short and the abdomen pop shot was nearly as erotic as a facial.

Scene Six: First Vacation: Tiffany Taylor, back to lounging by a pool in her bikini, was given a second chance as she enticed muscular Niko out of the pool from doing his laps. Her eyes seduced him and he grabbed her roughly before the two kissed on the chair, leading to another of her sexy blowjobs that really warmed him up. She was more active this time when the banging began, even with the lame music added in there was the appearance that she was letting him hit her deep inside. It was a relatively short scene and he pulled out for an abdomen shot before they kissed and the scene faded away again.

Scene Seven: Her Perfect Date: Faith, a fetching gal with dark hair, was sitting on a small blanket in her normal clothing as Mike Fuller walked up to her and the two engaged in small talk of little consequence. Her baby blue eyes and lean figure seemed to betray the "we met on the internet" scenario but I've never relied on Playgirl to come up with realistic fantasies (their track record is about as good as Penthouse) so I blew off the wasted time and appreciated that the couple did finally get busy following the formula on the back yard setting under the shade of some trees. They actually looked good together even if the pacing of the sex once again did not match the tempo of the music and the sex seemed forced (as in performed rather than enjoyed). Both were active and the pop shot to the small of her back wasn't the weakest of the movie. If this one could get a "do over" I'd have let them build up their own heat by slowing down but even giving it more foreplay wouldn't have turned it into a scene women would enjoy.

Scene Eight: Gunslinger: Selena Silver, sporting her lightened hair from a year or so ago, played an old west gun fighter straight out of a spaghetti western (complete with poncho), and won a gun fight with muscular Marcus London. Rather than kill him, she felt a connection between them (with the loud, obnoxious, and completely wrong for the scene music; she was the only one that felt it too) and the couple finished out the movie with the same formula employed by the other scenes. Oral/oral/vag/vag/pop could probably be translated into a song but as much as I like seeing Selena go at it, she came across like she was at the office putting in a hard day's work rather than appreciating a sexual liaison with a partner she wanted to be with. The penetrative sex part was so short that even I could have filled in for the guy, ending the movie with the ass cheek pop.

Summary: Playgirl: Playing Dirty suffered from many of the same issues as Playgirl: Surrender to Lust; formulaic porn, a lack of chemistry, music taking precedence over the vocals, and all sorts of directional problems but I still thought it offered up enough that some of you will consider it was worth a rating of Rent It. The ladies of the cast were as physically appealing as the men were (I'm told) and the extras were pretty decent but Playgirl: Playing Dirty seemed like the vignettes were knocked out in record time without any nods to the factors that should have been employed to make it more appealing to women and men alike. I'm glad it wasn't gonzo or the ever popular circus act sex so prevalent in porn today but the flip side to that is how weak the scenes came across on a routine basis; almost if the sex had been dumbed down on purpose.