Shades Of Red

Nectar Entertainment

Genre: Vignette

Director: Marty Zion

Cast: Phoenix Ray, Billy Tyler, Cytherea, John West, Natalia Wood, Lauren Phoenix, Matt Bixel, Isabella, Paulina, Mia Smiles, Chris Cannon

Length: 103.5 minutes

Date of Production: 7/11/03 to 7/13/03

Extra's: 16.5 minute long Behind the Scenes featurette, slideshow, trailers

Audio/Video Quality: The picture was presented in 1.33:1 ratio full frame color, the current industry standard at this time. The picture was a bit grainy, due to the artistic lighting, and used too much slow motion special effects going on. If you don't mind this type of sex on screen, you'll enjoy the erotic nature of the picture (much like Michael Ninn, Andrew Blake, and Antonio Passolini use this style, if you like it it's great but if you hate it, it'll suck). There were no artifacts observed and otherwise the picture was okay. The audio was presented in stereo English but in PCM mode (not the usual Dolby Digital). The problem with that is the music sounded distorted too often. The music was the dominant track with virtually no vocals taking place.

Body of Review: New companies appear all the time in the porn world just as older companies fall out of favor and disappear. This organic process is a function of a healthy market place and makes fans all the more important. After all, if they feel cheated by a movie, they will avoid the company, director or performer in the future and look for greener pastures (no udder jokes here). With that said, I turn my reviewer eye to a new company, Nectar Entertainment, and it's first DVD release, Shades Of Red. The movie is a set of five vignettes that all show artistically shot scenes with lighting effects, wind machines, and no story or vocals. If you've seen some of the industry notables that use such things, the new director, Marty Zion, will be right up your alley. That said, here's a breakdown of the scenes by cast:

Scene One: Phoenix, a blonde with a lean body and nice eyes, had a scene with Billy, who was a sketch artist to her model character. Much of the scene had her masturbating until the two dropped the pretenses and went at it. She continued to pose for the camera as she blew him while in a 69 position. They did some missionary and doggy style but the slow motion sex reduced the heat a bunch. It ended with a pop shot to her chest.

Scene Two: Cytherea, one of the cutest brunette's in porn and a gal that squirts like crazy when she comes, and John, had a scene on a platform in front of some projection screens and wind machines. There was oral, straight and even a gusher from her in this hot scene.

Scene Three: Natalia and Lauren had a lesbian scene on a large stage after they modeled lingerie under a wind machine. Matt then joined them half way through and the threesome continued on with some vaginal sex before the pop shot. Not great but not bad either.

Scene Four: Isabella, a new gal in porn that has a mane of hair and a hot body, had a lesbian scene with Paulina, another very attractive gal with a lean body and a nice face. The gals were great looking and I could've watched them for the entire DVD. Whew!

Scene Five: Mia, the long-time Asian performer, and her real life partner, Chris, had a scene where she's an artist that paints herself. He joined her and the fun began in her art studio. There was a lot of oral between the two before they screwed vaginally and ended with a pop shot to her face.

Summary: I would've liked to see less of the special effects during the scenes but I did like the tease footage before each scene as that worked quite well. I'm going to rate this as a Rent It since the feature was not the advertised 120 minutes, the special effects, and the general technical limits of the audio track. If you're looking for something to share with a significant other though, you may think this one a better choice than for a night by yourself. I look forward to seeing more releases by the company since I think there was some solid potential displayed here.