Customer Reviews

Playboy / Sex on the Beach [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the history of Wet & Wild videos, this Playboy DVD was the first one to not contain any Playmates, only unknown amateur models. I did recognize two of the models from the Girls of Hawaiian Tropic DVD, Sarah Hutchinson and Shellani Taarud, who aren't household names.

How unknown were the models? None of the previous reviewers mention Brande Roderick. I got this DVD soon after it came out in 1998. A recent viewing of it again brought to my attention a nice surprise: Brande Roderick appears here, 2 years before she becomes a Playmate, 3 years before she is crowned as 2001 Playmate of the Year.

She doesn't look the same, though, and if you don't look at the end credits, you might not notice her. Here, she has straight blond hair, some freckles on her nose and cheeks, very little makeup in this appearance, and she appears less busty here than she does in the current POY DVD she has out (pre-silicone days, perhaps, or she just hadn't filled out yet?).

Is it her? Yes, as her distinct tattoo just to the left of her belly button is the same. She does a nice 4-minute striptease with her bikini in front of a male photographer.

As for the whole DVD, it is a decent viewing, but not among the best of the Wet & Wild series, where Playmates star throughout the DVD, as Playboy has done with the latest Slippery When Wet DVD. 9 video segments total including Brande's appearance, a bit short at 52 minutes, as each segment runs from 4 to 6 minutes.

Among the other segments, there is one really nice girl-on-girl full body massage. There are two other girl-girl scenes where they mostly oil each other up or dance with one another.

Obviously recommended for Brande fans, not necessarily one of the better overall Wet & Wild DVDs. Definitely worth a rental to check out the pre-Playmate Brande appearance. If you prefer Wet & Wild DVDs with Playmates, this one isn't for you.

This video is Playboy at its finest. For all of you, who want HOT, STEAMY action, Sex on the Beach is one flick you won't want to miss.

I personally think there was only one really hot woman in the entire thing. SO much for my expectations.

Playboy's Sex On The Beach is a decent dvd. My favorite segment is Massage featuring the VERY shapely Shellani Taarud. She's a beautiful blonde with better than average boobs & a perfect round ass! The masseuse really seems to enjoy her work on Shellani's body. I wouldn't mind if this had been explored a bit further! Also Island Girls with Sandy & Casey isn't bad. Two attractive girls giving each other awesome sexual pleasure. But the segment ends just as things get interesting! Darn!

Blue Heaven is just that! Two ladies stripping in an island bar performing a VERY sensual dance! Island Artist is a truly sensual performance! Although some of the other segments are somewhat lacking in sensual stimulation, the others, including Bonfire Dance, Massage, Island Girls, and Sun Charter, more than make up for any shortcomings in the other segments!

In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, wrote film theorist Laura Mulvey in her highly influential 1975 essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. One can only wonder what Mulvey would make of this erotic feature, directed by Styx Jones and the chances are she would not be too surprised that the development of porn/erotica (still predominantly confined to cinemas in 75  although video would soon change that) had reached a point where Jones film would come to signify the industry standard. Certainly, Playboy magnate Hugh Hefner knew what was going to happen; video would provide the first opportunity for his Playmate models to actually move, therefore becoming more human, as opposed to (admittedly well-crafted) pictures on a page. Given that Playboy magazine is Entertainment for Men it seems entirely justified that the images contained therein have been designed with the active/male in mind. This may also be the reason that Sex on the Beach is such a mixed experience.
Taken at the level of highbrow masturbation material, Sex on the Beach succeeds admirably. The women on show look every inch the Playmate: the sight of these tanned beauties writhing around to bland pseudo-chill-out music creates a temporary state of euphoria within the heterosexual male viewer. Its hard not to be impressed when, for instance, during Beach Girl (the film is divided up into vignettes), Brande is photographed naked, providing two fantasies for the price of one: that of photographing a naked woman and the ideal conditions that a beach provides to view her in (an open environment where natural beauty seems in abundance). This particular scene is also baffling as we witness Brande disappear at the end, suggesting that it was in the photographers (and, one suspects, our) head.
But if Mulveys assertion that the female as passive is taken in literal terms, then it also most likely applies to many of the other sections of the film. Take Bonfire Dance for example: Sarah dances around a fire, but the result is dull, perhaps the result of one too many close-ups, which are most likely of interest only to gynaecologists. She is presented as some sort beach goddess (the drummers evoke this neatly), but, haunting final image aside, the effect is not even remotely arousing. This problem seems to affect most of the strands: Cascading Water, as the title suggests, literally runs off before you can even get a grip on it; and Sun Charter, which takes place on boat, over-eggs the mix by trying to do too much at once. The result is shoddy: like a bad music video, only more explicit.
More interesting, though, are the representations of lesbianism. Baring in mind that Jones has quite obviously designed the film with a hetero-male in mind, he still manages to get away with an awful lot. Massage provides the most interesting angle for this; we take the viewpoint of the voyeur, peeking through empty shelving to spy on the act in progress. Its a strange sequence and one that lingers in the mind. Given recent acceptance of this behaviour as normal within hetero-male fantasy (constant references in such American sitcoms as Friends have no doubt helped), its understandable that Jones chooses to allow his cast to indulge themselves in such a manner. One could speculate that the models probably feel more comfortable with a female; that they may enjoy it more. It doesnt matter: its not the point anyway. Whats really going on here is that, because there is no actual penetration involved, the male viewer does not feel that the activity on display is a threat to his masculinity; he can watch, enjoy, and still feel in charge. The same goes for the segments in Island Girls: the lotions applied to the bodies not only serve as a method of relaxation for the women on screen but also provide a semen substitute that the viewer can make their own.
Next to this, the level of explicitness seems rudimentary. Recent big-screen excursions into the realms of hardcore sexual activity in such films as Romance (Catherine Breillat, 1999), The Idiots/Idioterne (Lars von Trier, 1998), Intimacy (Patrice Chéreau, 2000) and the forthcoming Baise-moi (Coralie Trinh Thi, Virginie Despentes, 2000) have put paid to the argument that less is more. The BBFCs (British Board of Film Classification) policy change on R18 certificate material, which has effectively meant that hardcore porn is now legal in the UK, does little help Jones case. In fact, actual sex seems totally off the menu in Sex on the Beach (which is kind of ironic given the title). The only real hint of this occurs during Sea Goddess. As Tara dances, we see that a young (male) pool hand is folding towels. He is clearly enjoying the display, as is Tara. As she walks off, she leaves her (one assumes) hotel room keys behind. Although not stated, the suggestion is that Tara really wants the man to come by her room so that they can engage in sexual activity. But, like everything else, Taras actual reasoning is left behind closed doors; as, presumably, Hefner would have wanted it. In Playboys Sex on the Beach, sex is virtual, but desire is real.

With the exception of two ladies, Sex on the Beach does not contend with some of the earlier releases. I enjoyed the quality of the video photography and the location is fantastic, but the models lacked the personality and beauty I expected. Sex on the Beach is a good buy if its the first playboy video you see. I would hence, suggest something else!

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