Babes Illustrated: Generation XXX

Metro/Cal Vista

Genre: Lesbian, Feature

Director: Beth Ann Rafael

Cast: Julia Ann, Samantha Ryan, London Keyes, Savannah James/Elexis Monroe, Raylene, Karlie Montana, Cadence St. John, Ann Marie Rios, Zoe Britton
Non-sex role: Beth Ann Rafael

Length: 107:41 minutes

Samantha Ryan and Julia Ann

Date of Production: 3/21/2010 to 3/24/2010

Extras: The main extra was the 21:27 minute long Behind the Scenes feature. It was amusing and all but hardly the best I’ve seen of late, the bulk of additional extras being trailers, a photogallery, some spam and a slipcase with an opening flap allowing for more pictures from the show.

Condoms: None

London Keyes and Elexis Monroe

Audio/Video Quality: Babes Illustrated: Generation XXX was presented in a nicely enhanced 1.78:1 ratio widescreen color as shot by director Beth Ann Rafael for Metro/Cal Vista for release in 480i resolution using the MPEG-2 codec. The majority of action took place inside the house with a little tease outside by the pool so the lighting was typically decent, eliminating the usual shadows, grain, and video noise indicative of porn. The camera angles and editing were capably handled as well with the ladies being showcased nicely in most scenes, their best sides focused on from what I could tell (and minimal amounts of time spent on implant scars, stretch marks, and other physical flaws). The fleshtones were accurate and the bitrate hovered around the mid 4.3 Mbps area most of the time but I did not see a lot of compression artifacts on the big screen and the bitrate varied a lot. Most scenes began with some tease before the regular motion sex kicked in, the music kept light in the background of the tease for the most part but the colors overly saturated and the occasional loss of focus a pain. The audio was presented in 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo English in a 192 Kbps and 48 kHz sampling rate offering, never really adding much by way of aural stimulation but the ladies were easy to hear on those occasions when they were using dirty talk. The music was generic and inoffensive, thankfully limited in scope for the most part.

Raylene and Julia Ann

Body of Review: The latest newcomer director is Beth Ann Rafael, the gal working for Metro as it attempts to regain lost ground. Knowing nothing about her outside of some comments made behind the scenes and off the record, I looked forward to seeing her debut effort called Babes Illustrated: Generation XXX. The series has had many directors over the years, this being the 19th volume of the lesbian-oriented outing. There was a moderate story according to the back cover whereas the series is usually more of a set of vignettes but given the cast included names like Julia Ann, Zoe Britton, and London Keyes, I felt it should offer up some solid stroke value. The back cover stated it like this: “Taylor, the owner of the Babes Illustrated franchise has died. One year later, the company is in shambles as her ex-lover, Denise has managed to snatch the company out from under the nose of Taylor's daughter Amy. The story takes us through Amy's struggle to try and regain control of her mother's empire while Denise tries to run it into the ground through sex, lies, and betrayals.” Here’s a brief look at the scenes by cast and action, noting that no condoms were used for those still interested:

Karlie Montana and Cadence St. John

Scene One: Julia Ann, the busty blond featured on the front cover, was up first as she used her position to seduce fetching young hotty Samantha Ryan in an office setting. Julia was direct about it and the two ladies ended up on the loveseat, removing clothing before slowing down to caress and kiss a bunch. Julia took the lead in going down on Samantha first, using her tongue and fingers in heated fashion before her young charge reciprocated. They seemed to share some chemistry and the playful demeanor added to the strokability even if the camera bounced around way too much for my tastes.

Zoe Britton and Ann Marie Rios

Scene Two: London Keyes, a super cute brunette with a smoking hot body, was up next as a model being played by blond photographer Savannah James/Elexis Monroe in the studio. Elexis nibbled on her lightly and this worked for London, the gals kissing and caressing before each went down on the other. London appeared to love giving head to Elexis and her fingers seemed to take up residence in her friend’s snatch, the women taking turns on each other before some 69 action took place. There appeared to be some chemistry here too, the lack of genetic juice and population pudding not souring the strokability for me.

Scene Three: Raylene, another MILF worth checking out in her recent comeback (as seen on the far right side of the cover), was up next as she succumbed to the wiles of Julia Ann in the office, the two verbally sparring though dominant Julia was clearly in charge. They kissed and despite Raylene’s protestations, Julia continued to push herself on her old friend, their clothing cast aside for some chemistry filled lesbian work. Julia ate Raylene first, using her fingers to full effect. Raylene then reciprocated orally on Julia in similar fashion as Julia lay back to enjoy her friend’s talented tongue. They mixed it up a bit more and the scene ended abruptly, making me long for more.

Scene Four: Karlie Montana, an extremely attractive babe, was up next in the warehouse with butch looking Cadence St. John, the couple making out on the forklift before taking turns going down on each other. Cadence made the first move in terms of servicing Karlie, their passionate kissing a bit more erotic than the series is known for. The usual lesbian acts applied, tongues and fingers probing pussy and ass with the difference here being that the clothing largely stayed on their bodies.

Scene Five: Ann Marie Rios, the hotty wearing the silver bikini on the center of the front cover, and tasty Zoe Britton, the gal on the cover to the left of her, were up last as the plot thickened. Ann had been cheated out of her company and she was working on a plan to restore her ownership, pulling Zoe into her scheme but it was Zoe that made the first move this time. Their hands went all over one another and they kissed a lot, the ladies eating one another slowly as if taking their sweet time to enjoy the action. The lighting was off and the abundance of closeup shots weakened it a tad but I had the impression the ladies liked each other genuinely and wanted to continue on the little couch they diddled each other on.

Summary: Babes Illustrated: Generation XXX by director Beth Ann Rafael for Metro seemed like a freshman effort in many ways, the technical aspects hit or miss despite some seasoned veterans assisting the director in her debut. Still, the casting was excellent and had the story been better written, it might have passed for something people might care about, the limited dialogue rarely interfering with the lesbian sexual exploits thanks to their minimal nature. There was chemistry, an erotic sensibility often missing from company efforts of the past, and a lot of potential but it was the replay value and strokability that made this worthy of being Recommended. In short, Babes Illustrated: Generation XXX was not the best of the 19 volumes of the series but it was one of the best new releases from a company literally rising from the proverbial grave, something few folks I spoke with seemed to think would ever happen. As a standalone project, it was fun to watch and with more polishing up, I suspect it could become the first of many I’d like to check out in the future.