4
out of 5.00 -
Film:
4
Extras:
4
Video:
5
Audio:
3
-
7/23/2001
The hook on which "Babes Illustrated 10" hangs is a simple one: Grace Harlow steps into a bubble bath, masturbates, and fantasizes about other women. Fortunately, she has a very vivid imagination.
Grace is top-billed in this, her third, adult film, but she has only one real sex scene. Since these are her fantasies, though, she works her way into the other scenes as a photographer, always on the outskirts of the action, touching herself as she snaps her pics. Her presence is neither intrusive nor particularly exciting until the last scene, during which she finally discards the camera and gets a little more serious about getting herself off. She doesn't, but when she pulls her bikini aside, we're treated to a good shot of her moist pussy and the sexy image of her dipping her finger a couple of times.
Grace is good at such little things. In her own sex scene, shared with Dee, she jumpstarts the action during the preliminaries (which, unless the girls are good kissers is usually just what they are) not with good kissing, but by going down on Dee's index finger in a way that is both sensuous and highly erotic. Later, when she is between Dee's legs, Grace proves that she can handle the bigger things, as well.
The only good reason for not giving Grace a second sex scene is that it might have deprived Shay Sweet of one of hers. Shay has two and they are the film's best. Her partner in the first is Nicole Sheridan and in the second Tanya Danielle. All three girls are into verbal encouragement, and none of them takes it so far over the top that it seems forced or contrived. Instead, in these two scenes, it is what it was intended to be: a turn-on.
Shay is one of those girls who looks terrific between a woman's legs, and the finest example of this occurs during her scene with Nicole. Nicole steals the show, however, by accepting a double-penetration dildo in a segment captured extremely well by director Mike Quasar. Quasar generally keeps his camera at just the right distance and just the right angle to give us the full effect of Shay's deep thrusts. The segment ends with one of those priceless moments adult films occasionally capture either by accident or luck. Nicole cums and asks for the dildo so that she can lick her juices off both shafts. Segment over, right? Not for Nicole, who then asks Shay to put the thing back in again for no discernible reason other than that she is enjoying herself.
This enjoyment is present also in Shay's second scene, with Tanya, and their verbal exchanges are a big part of the reason for it. The other two scenes are three-girl affairs and, for all their moaning, the girls simply aren't as convincingly grooving on the sex. Some awkward positioning and truncated segments within the scenes help to account for this. On the other hand, the first of these scenes does offer Sana Fey and Wendi Knight teaming up to finger Bridgette Kerkove's ass, while the second features a good oral performance from Casey Raye, with Dayton Rains the benefactress.
The three-girl scenes may be lackluster, but the oddest scene is the one that begins and ends the film. Quasar takes the sensual approach to Grace's masturbation and forgets to let her climax. It's like those soft-focus lesbian scenes from the seventies and eighties that never seemed to go anywhere, except that Quasar has substituted long, slow dissolves for soft-focus photography. It's arty, but artless. It might have made sense if Grace's scene with Dee was the last in the film. We could have imagined that Grace got herself off during her fantasy. In fact, her scene is the second in the film. I'm quibbling, I know, but it would have been nice to see Grace finish what she started in that last scene.
The features on this DVD include a photo gallery, video interviews with Grace, Sana Fey, Casey, Dayton, Nikki Fairchid, Tanya, and Shay, and a short Behind-the-Scenes film. At one point during the Behind-the-Scenes film, Quasar discusses motivation with Shay and Nicole before shooting their scene. Specifically, the girls want to know what's up with Grace's character, and whether or not they should acknowledge her presence. That seems like a legitimate issue to me since it's a different scene whichever way it's played, but Quasar tells them it doesn't matter, that the viewers aren't going to care one way or the other. Now, why does a guy like this fill up his opening with a lot of arty dissolves?
"Babes Illustrated 10" is pretty solid all-girl entertainment and well worth a look. The image is sharp, the sound is good, and Quasar does a good job of capturing the sex on tape. And keep an eye out for more from Grace Harlow.
By:
Cain