Ablaze

Sin City (Ultra)

Genre: Feature

Director: Francois Clousot

Cast: Lauren Phoenix, Chris Cannon, Hannah Harper, Steven St. Croix, Brooke, Tristan Segal, Jordan Haze, Taylor Lynn
Non-sex roles by: Natasha Sweet, Ted Johnson, Joe Ortiz, Red Stevens

Length: 104 minutes

Date of Production: 11/1/2003 (box), 10/29/2003 (BTS)

Extra's: The extras started off with some trailers on the main page. Trailers are cool and an industry standard on video since the olden days of $300 tapes. There was a director's commentary that followed the usual format set forth by Sin City. That means during the sex, he shut up, which would make sense except people watching for the sex will watch it without a guy talking. It had some fun observations though. The real extras stared on the extra's page and included a set of mini-biographies most of the performers, even the men. This is a good way to introduce performers to the stars but somewhat limited in this case. Next up were some interviews with the female performers, lasting 20.5 minutes. I really liked them since they allowed the gals to open up more than usual. Hannah spoke of her upcoming implants, Brook spoke of her motivations to work in the industry, and a host of other trivia came up. Next was a 9.5-minute long Behind the Scenes featurette by Jason Silver. It was kind of interesting but mostly served as a blooper reel (and there was one of those too). The blooper reel lasted 6.5 minutes and was kind of silly but added some replay value to the show. Lastly, there were three photogalleries and a pop shot compilation as well as some spam.

Condoms: Some

Audio/Video Quality: The picture was presented in non-anamorphic widescreen color with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The picture had a bit more grain than I prefer to see but I think it looked pretty good overall for a movie shot entirely at night. I saw no compression artifacts, just a bit of video noise that was probably due to the lighting. The audio was presented in 2.0 Dolby Digital English (not the advertised 5.1 surround) but it sounded good with a fairly solid mix between the vocals and the music. The audio commentary was presented on the right channel and had a lot of problems, usually because it was mixed so low compared to the vocal track.

Body of Review: Sin City Ultra is the top of the line feature porn made by the company. The movies made under this line tend to have extensive (for porn) plots and some genuine (for porn) resources to allow for the story to fit the sex (or vice versa). The latest release in this line, Ablaze, stars Hannah Harper as a young gal trying to get over the loss of her fire-fighting boyfriend Steven St. Croix. The theme has been done many times before in mainstream movies, with Always the first to come to mind, and the resurrection angle is common to porn with movies such as Steven's own Blue Angel that I can think of. Here's what the box cover said about the movie: "When the beautiful Evie (Hannah Harper) fell in love with kamikaze firefighter Greg, she knew that there could come a time when he might not make it home. Forever running into fires without thinking. His luck was bound to run out soon. Not even his headstrong friend Chris. A heroic firefighter in his own right could keep him from trying to kill himself. But when Greg selflessly runs into a fire to aid a downed comrade, Evie loses the only man she ever loved. Now Evie must rely friends and the ghost of a love past to heal old wounds and allow herself to see the man that can bring passion back into her life again. Ablaze is the story of a love so strong it transcends the boundaries of life and death. A story of heroism, friendship and timeless all consuming passion. It's the story of believing that it's okay to want your heart to feel love, even if it means letting go of the past." If you enjoy feature porn, you'll probably enjoy this one too so read the following scene breakdown by cast and action if you're interested:

Scene One: Lauren, a very cute gal with a lean body and vocal attitude, had a scene with Chris on a couch. He went down on her for a few seconds (too short) and she slobbed his knob for only slightly longer. I liked her approach where she didn't use her hands as a change of pace. She then rode him in reverse cowgirl before tasting herself off his penis. After some anal with energy, he jerked off onto her awaiting face and she sucked him some more (ATM). Whew!

Scene Two: Hannah, the hot blonde on the front DVD cover, and porn veteran Steven, had a romantic scene by candlelight on a couch. The two shared some chemistry as he went down on her and she passionately moaned. They then boned in a couple of positions before going anal. He finished by pulling out and squirting a load onto her new dress. For those who care, the couple also kissed and embraced afterwards. Francois and his male helper comment that the commentary was screwed up initially (apologizing) which made me wonder why they just didn't start over.

Scene Three: Brooke, a lean gal with light brown hair, and Tristan were up next in a scene on a couch. I was tempted to go out and buy stock in a couch manufacturer by this point. She's attractive in a gal next-door sort of way and her blowjob to him was pretty good. He was such a sport that he held her hair for her and assisted in pushed her head down to assist gravity. He spent some time going down on her too and then they boned vaginally without a condom. She didn't seem all that enthusiastic here, even in the reverse cowgirl position she let him do most of the work (which is the exact opposite of how it's supposed to work). It ended when he jerked off onto her chest.

Scene Four: Jordan and Brooke were up next in the bathroom of the fire station. Lesbian scenes are an acquired taste for many fans; you either like them or you hate them for the most part. The two gals here were pretty good together, spending some time warming each other up before muff diving but there wasn't a lot going on and it got repetitious for me. There was some good eye contact however and that kept it from being lame.

Scene Five: Taylor, an attractive blonde, was the next gal to perform here. She had an oral-only scene with Chris on the back of the fire engine. To give her full credit, this was the best blowjob of the movie but it was very limited in terms of what I like to see. She gave good eye contact and used a corkscrew motion to really get him stoked. It ended as all such scenes do but just didn't work for me overall.

Scene Six: Hannah, still looking hot, had a scene outdoors at night with Tristan. Some fans fuss about her extra weight but I think it looks pretty good on her. The two made out before getting intimate and he was the first to go down on his partner. They screwed for a long time, ending with a doggy position, ending with him jerking off to her lovely face. It was kind of gross when he started to kiss her with a mouthful full of his own semen staring him down but he only touched her tongue so it wasn't too bad.

Summary: Ablaze is a decent feature with some solid extras, decent technical aspects, and a story you can share with your significant other. The gals all looked good here and the action was almost always pretty good or better. I'm going to rate it as Recommended since I enjoyed it a couple of times but a better commentary track (technically as well as content wise), longer sex scenes, and a better picture would have all made it worth more to this jaded reviewer.

Note: You can see recent candid shots of several of these performers by visiting: My Photo's and read about their antics at 2004 AEE Show.