Girls Gone Skiing HD-DVD

High Def Home Entertainment

Genre: Feature

Director: Christopher Vega

Cast: Katrena Starr, Rusty Nails, Felix Vicious, Nik La Shey, Vanessa Lane, Lexi Lamour, Sharon Wild, Jack Lawrence

Length: 113:21 minutes

Date of Production: 3/29/2005 to 3/31/2005

Extra's: There were three trailers only.

Condoms: None

Audio/Video Quality: Girls Gone Skiing HD-DVD was presented in a widescreen color, HD-DVD offering using the VC-1 codec as shot by director Christopher Vega for High Def Home Entertainment. The movie appeared to be in full fledged 1080p and certain parts of it were clear enough that I found them very promising in the "I bet newer material shot specifically with this in mind would be better" way would offer. The problem for me was that the lighting on the inside scenes was mixed and any truly HD offering is going to show mistakes in lighting faster than a wife can smell alcohol on your breath when you stumble in late from work. The cute analogies aside, a pure video shoot that is done right is going to really stand out from the pack in HD porn but this was another case where the marginal improvement from the WMV version released a couple of years ago made it less than a stellar pick in terms of the visual quality. I'm sure the novice director tried to compensate as best he could but for HD porn to really work, it has to offer something people can't get elsewhere and while this one showed glimmers of visual potential, it was ultimately frustrating when I knew that a veteran with the format could make it sing. There were some areas of compression artifacts that I noticed in the darker areas and while I got the impression they were related to the lighting more than anything else, I expected more for what this one costs retail. The audio was presented in a PCM (pulse code modulated) Dolby Digital + and this English stereo track was decent enough if you like generic couples music playing but there didn't seem to be any separation between the channels and the vocals were limited in each scene, often sounding as though dubbed in at a later date. The music was not the only audio aspect this time (thankfully enough) and some care was made to offer up something different for each scene that invoked a specific mood with the vocals dominating during the feature parts of the movie more than during the sex scenes. In that sense, this was one of the better audio releases of the year and provided the best showing of potential out of any other aspect of the movie for me (I typically fuss about the audio issues since they almost always get the short end of the proverbial stick).

Body of Review: Christopher Vega is one of those newcomers in porn direction, his sole piece of work a movie shot years ago for High Def Home Entertainment. The title was Girls Gone Skiing HD-DVD and it was one of the first wave of high definition porno's to come out on the WMV format awhile back, the company now upgrading to a full fledged HD DVD offering. The movie was a slight feature (practically a vignette of unrelated scenes) where a group of friends got together on a ski vacation to have sex and hang out with the usual stilted dialogue limiting the value of the non-sex work here. Still, with only a dozen or so full HD DVD titles available to the faithful followers of the HD DVD format, beggars can't be choosers and I took some time checking it out despite mixed reviews I've seen in the past. In all, the expense of the movie made it a tough sell to me and it was no showcase title but I did manage to find some strokable scenes and the casting of the ladies was pretty good considering I like a couple of the ladies from their past works. If you're still interested, here is a quick look at the scenes by cast and action, noting a heavy emphasis on lesbian action and a complete lack of condoms:

Scene One: Katrena Starr, a blonde that I haven't seen much of in porn but attractive enough for a stroke source, was up first in the office with nasty old Rusty Nails. His name alone invokes images of my tetanus shots from my youth but as a meat puppet he wasn't the absolute worst choice (if pretty close). This being a light feature with him sort of in the male lead, the couple kissed like they were involved with one another before she gave him a moderately active hummer. This didn't last long before he went down on her a bit with her getting in a few extra licks of his tootsie pop before they screwed in a few positions. I liked the doggy best as far as his work but she wasn't the epitome of energy and chemistry here as she relied so heavily on him doing the work until the load of population pudding was launched onto her belly. In all, it was kind of a weak scene to start the movie with but she had some untapped potential that I wouldn't mind seeing put to better use.

Scene Two: Felix Vicious, the very cute gal on the left hand side of the front cover on the bottom row, was up next wearing a t-shirt I could see through thanks to the higher definition format. I admit that she is a sexy little cutie that sparks extra interest in my libido so her scene in the bedroom with newcomer Nik La Shey provided some particular interest to me. The way she took charge of getting him naked added some fun but the blowjob was rushed and gave me the impression that she wanted to finish up quickly more than she simply wanted his cock pounding her mercilessly. Still, they followed the formula and after he ate her out with some fingering action, they went to bumping uglies with her work on top of his lap showing the most energy and enthusiasm. The scene ended when he rubbed out a load to her sweet ass cheeks and the scene, while far from her best work, was enough to elevate the appeal of the movie for me compared to the last scene and the added bonus of her showering off was a treat to me.

Scene Three: Vanessa Lane, the well known performer standing above the others on the middle of the front cover, was up next with Lexi Lamour, the gal on the lower right hand corner, as the two engaged in some heated lesbian antics in their ski cabin on the bed. I liked the way their outfits hugged their curvy figures and they did not appear to be stuck in lipstick lesbian mode as so many of their gay for pay peers seem to be all too often, the pair exploring each other from head to toe as though they were caught by the cameras doing each other on a real vacation. I would have preferred more lighting here but it softened the look of the situation and made it more erotic than gonzo in nature, the toys plunging deeply with Vanessa's asshole getting some extra attention that proved her sex skills as above average. I would have preferred the scene last longer but I'm getting spoiled by some of the epic length titles of late in this regard, Vanessa and Lexi both showing some rough spots but enough raw energy to cover any minor spots where the editing did not exactly shine.

Scene Four: Sharon Wild, a leaner blonde with a sunny disposition, was up next in what amounted to the last heterosexual encounter of the fuck flick as she took on the best known male of the movie (by far) in Jack Lawrence as the two hit the sack for some frolicking fun. The dynamic was the same as previously established with the couple making out like old lovers before screwing but the change was how limited her oral was here. She managed to make up for it by providing him full access to her backdoor though and he took full advantage as drilled her to completion before knocking out a stomach pop but her vaginal energy was a lot more enthusiastic so your mileage may vary depending on what you are looking for. The up side was that the two came off like they wanted to work together though so the resulting chemistry was pretty good compared to the other scenes.

Scene Five: Vanessa Lane, Felix Vicious, Lexi Lamour, Sharon Wild, and Katrena Starr were up last in a lesbian orgy of less than epic proportions. I liked that they kissed and spent some time warming each other up but there was only a nod to this kind of action when the toys and fingers started probing like they were digging for nuggets of gold in a somewhat mechanical manner. The use of food in the form of a large strawberry was appetizing but had the director added in more of that, the food fetish crowd would have had something more to enjoy (as with any fetish act, there has to be more than a dab to get a fan into it). In any case, the strap on dildo used by the gals was wielded with a lot of competence and even though it wasn't a great scene, it did add some replay value I found interesting.

Summary: Girls Gone Skiing HD-DVD by director Christopher Vega for High Def Home Entertainment was far from Curse Eternal in terms of the HD DVD quality factor for a feature but at the same time it was a nice little effort by a rookie director too. Still, the lack of extras and essentially straightforward porting over of an older release gave me little reason to pick up this version over the previous one that I've seen for sale a great deal cheaper (less than half as much) so I rated it as a Rent It. The sex was typically uninspired or under inspired so the marginal improvements in picture and audio quality really did not make this a top pick for me to showcase my brand new (and expensive for this blue collar worker) high definition home theatre set up. Still, there were some strokable scenes in Girls Gone Skiing HD-DVD and I'd be remiss if lying if I said I didn't find the visual elements worthy of checking out the release all on their own so give it a look if you have the right equipment and let me know what you think.