Krystal Method

Club Jenna/Vivid Interactive

Genre: Vignette

Director: Justin Sterling

Note: The box cover also credits the lovely Jenna Jameson as co-director

Cast: Selena Silver, Randy Spears, Krystal Steal, Jenna Jameson, Arianna Jolie, Joey Ray, Eric Masterson, Alaura Eden, Erik Everhard, John Strong
Secondary Roles by: Jamie Lynn, Bella Starr, Avery Adams, Tall Goddess, Felix Vicious, Lili Anne, Leo, Kevin H., Billy Banks

Length: 72 minutes

Date of Production: 3/2004 (box), 2/15/2004 (credits)

Extra's: Other than a double sided DVD cover, the only extra was four minutes of bloopers and deleted footage. Admittedly, watching crew member Dic Tracy prance around wearing a T-shirt promoting Jenna's website was funny, but not "that" funny. There was a tease for a Behind the Scenes feature and some photogalleries but the links for those stated to go to the Club Jenna website. I'm going to be completely forthright here but unless the DVD is going to provide an access code to watch the extras for free (after all, a consumer paying for the DVD has a right to expect the extras being included on it), they might as well forget about it. Vivid and Club Jenna have provided some solid extras in past releases but with such a short running time as the movie had, this screams "gyp" to me. Where were the bonus scenes, the audio commentary, the interview with new contract star Krystal Steal, or any of a hundred other solid extras that could've been included here?

Condoms: None

Audio/Video Quality: Krystal Method was presented in an interesting combination of full frame and widescreen footage. The sex scenes were presented in a non-anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1 aspect ratio while the credits and in-between material was the usual 1.33:1 ratio full frame color. Those familiar with Justin's other releases will know that he uses a whole lot of quick edits, lighting that'd be at home in a rave club, and close ups galore. I've long been of the opinion that such visual tricks detract from the heat of truly good sex scenes; used primarily in an attempt to cover up other flaws. There's a difference between using smoke and a bit of slow motion and the full range of tricks you just learned from a friend. I'll give Justin credit on making parts of the movie look far cleaner than most Vivid releases have been in the past but at least they offered decent extras (and other companies manage to do both). The DVD had no compression artifacts that I noticed but there was some pattern noise at times and grain that looked different from the intentional effects.
The audio was presented with several choices; each using a 5.1 Dolby Digital base. The basic choices were a track that balanced the music and dialogue, a track that was slightly heavier on the vocals, and a track that played the music louder. I like to hear the vocals but I gave each track a shot in order to be fair. Few companies offer anything like this these days (Anabolic offers a no music option) and I appreciate the option more than most of you could know. In any case, each scene had music appropriate to the theme (where one was present) with the opener going for the Big Band era, the techno-dronings of a rave later on, and some that leaned towards progressive elsewhere. There was some separation between the channels but the rear channels were rarely used and the dynamic range of the vocals was something less than I had hoped for. Most of the time, the vocals were slightly out of synch with the mouth movements too.

Body of Review: If there's a reviewer on Earth that is as big a fan of Jenna Jameson as I am, I'd like to meet that person and exchange notes. I think she's one of the most attractive gals in the business, even ten years into her career, and the range of material she's been in has been nothing short of great, regardless of who she worked for at the time. Her recent biography has been a huge success and as she plans her inevitable retirement, she has taken to choosing her successor. At this point in time, the most likely choice is Krystal Steal, a blonde that looks very much like Jenna, to the point that I'd say she was two parts Jenna, two parts pop singer Christina Aguilera, and one part Paris Hilton. Krystal's debut movie for Club Jenna as their new contract gal is Krystal Method, a movie described in the opening credits like this: "Krystal: n. (kris – tal) lust; vixen; siren 1. the most erotic new female adult star., pure sex; visual desire. 2. sex goddess, (the best fuck you will ever have) 3. exclusive Club Jenna contract girl." And "Method: n. (meth – id) 1. the second part of the drug. (kris – tal) (n) 2. a particular way or interaction of oneself. 3. a trick or a fix containing emotions and or past experience, a new way for the future. 4. a systematic way of accomplishing something / a simple method. 5. hottest new film from Club Jenna. " I left the misspelling intact but this is where I get to point out a couple of things. First, the gal is a hotty but hardly new, having made her first scene in 2001 (or maybe a bit earlier). Second, while she is a good lay on camera, particularly in some of her earlier work, she isn't even close to the best (a "goddess"?!? hardly!), nor is she anything significantly different than a dozen other gals in terms of performances to date. I think she has a lot of rarely used potential but that's not the same thing. With those caveats mentioned, here's a look at Krystal Steal's first movie for Club Jenna:

Scene One: Selena, a brunette from Australia that has been a moderately consistent performer in porn lately, and studly Randy, had a scene while Krystal masturbated on the couch beside them. The theme here was a film noir setting from the late 1940's with the cast members dressed in homage to that era. Sexually speaking, Selena gave some okay head to him and took anal well enough although I doubt anyone will conclude that she's in the top twenty list of current anal queens. Fans of gapes will appreciate that she had a long hang time and her energy levels were pretty good but she's not exactly someone I'd open a top notch movie with. A little more participation by Krystal would've gone a long way to making the scene better but other than verbally coax Randy into dropping a load onto Selena's face, the solo action was all we got.

Scene Two: Jenna and Krystal were up next on top of the bar of a live sex show club. Okay, if you look on the front DVD cover, you'll probably notice that they look very similar; a good thing in my book, and that their look-enhancing lingerie was very suitable for the proceedings. The action appeared to be in slow motion and the music more 80's than the previous scene (each scene had music to fit the theme). These two are a couple of hotties in my book and I'd like to see more of them together but the chemistry of the scene was not the best for either of them. There were a number of distractions in the background (gals like Felix masturbating) and while it looked very stylish, it took away some of the charm the leads have long established. The up side was that once things settled down a bit, the gals used no toys and appeared to be having fun so I guess my comments should be tempered with the knowledge that even a weaker than average scene with them in it is going to be better than a great many other scenes by other performers.

Scene Three: Arianna, a curvy brunette that has been taking the porn world by storm over the last year or so, was up next with Joey in the back room of the club. The distraction this time was Tall (sorry, I call no gal "goddess" ever since the last one asking it donned leather and wanted to hurt me) and Avery going at one another in the back of the room. Joey was frisky this time but Arianna seemed a bit like she was coasting. I've seen this gal tear up the screen with blazing performances so I wondered whether something happened during the shoot to throw her off. It was definitely filler material, especially for her.

Scene Four: Krystal, the stunningly attractive blonde of the movie, was up next with Eric in a glass chamber that allowed the cameras to record the action from every angle. Jenna lent moral support by masturbating in the background but I found that a bit distracting too since I really like her and that took away some of the attention towards Krystal. The sex itself was okay but the other distracting part was the plethora of lights and lack of a guiding theme as the other scenes had to keep them focused. The editing really hurt the heat and lowered the perceived chemistry levels as well and this straightforward screw was nothing like she was used to doing in her earlier scenes. The back DVD cover stated that this was her best scene to date but even a fan like me would have to disagree (it was as good as any of her scenes at Pleasure when she was a contract gal there but not even close to her Evil Angel work).

Scene Five: Alaura, another fairly attractive brunette, this time garbed in fetish attire on a couch playing with a glass dildo, took on Erik and John by a window. Why they wore aviator respiratory masks with their black leather outfits (they looked kind of gay to me here) is beyond me but she didn't seem to mind as she blew them with a degree of vigor lacking in the other scenes. The guys then took turns screwing her, eventually giving her a double penetration, before dropping their loads onto her face that she cleaned up by pouring the water from a large metal mixing bowl on her head. The scene wasn't bad either although it seemed to be an attempt at something out of reach for the director.

Summary: Krystal Method will appeal to those of you who want to see Krystal Steal in a substantially more stylish setting than she's been in to date. As Justin Sterling becomes a better director (on technical matters at least), I expect I'll come to like his work a lot more than I do right now but he needs to cut back on those visual aspects that simply don't look all that appealing to someone who isn't taking ecstasy. Krystal's scene with Jenna merited my attention far more than her scene with Eric so I'll be generous and rate this one as a Rent It but the lack of extras and very short length of the movie made it a disappointment for me. I will point out that I liked the movie better the second time I watched it but the replay value for most people is likely to be limited. Justin and Jenna have some interesting ideas in the styles they employ for their movies but someone might want to encourage them to look at the big picture or get outside advice once in awhile (just remember the old adage; "a little goes a long way", when using effects).

For other, greater, choices in porn, check out: 2004's Top Porn List and 2003's Top Porn List.

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.