The Movie:

Director Octavio Winkytiki's follow up to Vivid Alt's flagship title ReBelle Rousers is 2007's Man's Ruin, a XXX spoof on superhero-spy films as seen through the eyes of the renowned pin-up photographer. While the vast majority of the film is made up of the sex scenes, there's still a fun story here. Melodie Gore is your average 'alt girl' according to the packaging. She's into video games and hip clothes and good music and all that fun stuff. Soon though, she's chosen for a top secret mission requiring her to deal with different levels of perverted sex!

It's not a particularly heavy storyline but it pulls the six blisteringly hot sex scenes together nicely and allows Winkytiki to make the most out of some fun cosplay elements, some nicely designed sets and a few interesting kinks. Throw in a couple of well-played political jabs and a cast of very pretty women and it soon becomes obvious that Man's Ruin works. Here's a quick run down of who fucks who and how they do it:

Scene One - Melodie Gore And Stoya: Once the girls finish playing video games together briefly make out together.

Scene Two - Ava Rose And Chris Charming: Chris is a doctor and Ava is on his operating table looking very doll like and glassy eyed. Chris shaves her legs and then rubs her pussy for a bit. He puts on some rubber gloves and lubes her up before finger banging her at which point she more or less comes to life. Chris drops his pants and moves the table around a bit, positioning things so that he can do her missionary style. He pumps her twat and plays with her tits and then gets her on all fours so that he can do her from behind. He rolls her onto her side and goes at it some more before she gets on her back and jerks him with her feet. He does her missionary style again, then pulls out and jacks off into a beaker and ends the scene.

Scene Three - Roxy DeVille And Barry Scott: Roxy's all gothed out in this scene with black mascara running down her face. The action takes place in a Satanic Ceremonial chamber of sorts, red curtains and chains hang from the walls and pentagrams are displayed. Barry comes into the room hard and she sucks him off right away. He stands her up and bends her over and slips it into her from behind while she braces herself by holding onto some chains. Barry lies back and she rides him reverse cowgirl style, stopping to suck him off and then hoping back on, cowgirl style this time. She sucks his cock and then he fucks her missionary style, and we're given a chance to admire how nicely shaved she is. Yowza. He fucks her doggy style for a bit, and after that she gets down on her knees to take a load in her mouth.

Scene Four - Justine Joli, Celeste Star, Satine Phoenix: Ah, Justine Joli - definitely one of the prettiest girls working in porno these days - she doesn't work as often as she should so it's always a treat when she shows up in a scene, particularly one as well shot and well directed as this salacious lesbo three way. The gals are hanging out smoking cigarettes and throwing dice in a lounge, when Justine's top comes off. The girls start sucking and licking one another, with Satine and Celeste more or less ravishing Justine for the bulk of the scene. She doesn't seem to mind as she's eaten out and sucked on and even spanked a bit here and there when she's not having her pussy rubbed and fingered. Satine does all the work initially then Justine rolls her over and returns the favors. From there we see some lesbo action going on in the stall of the ladies room in the same club. Soon enough everyone collides in a big, wonderful orgy of lesbian lust.

Scene Five - Mia Rose And Jay Huntington: Mia's got some bondage gear strapped to her head while Jay stands around posing. He eats her pussy and then fucks her doggy style holding the leather reins attached to her headgear. The gear comes off and she rides him reverse cowgirl style, then he fucks her doggy style again before she rides him cowgirl, her plump rump shaking nicely. She lies on her side and he spoon fucks her a bit, then they do it doggy style and then cowgirl style again. He pulls out and shoots his load onto her back and into her hair.

Scene Six - Claire Adams And Lystra: Claire finds Lystra wrapped up in a chamber. She unwraps her and then chokes her. She tweaks her nipples and dominates her for a bit holding her face and trash talking her. She smacks her with a riding crop a few times then she gets her on all fours and lubes her up so that she can get fucked from behind by a dildo machine thing.

Whereas most modern pornographers are content to simply point and shoot, the Vivid Alt line has made a point of eschewing that type of typical gonzo filmmaking and they actually put a lot of care and effort into getting the right look for their movies. While this isn't unheard of - Blake and Ninn have been doing it for years - Winkytiki in particular really nails the whole tiki-rockabilly culture thing with his pop heavy style and bold use of color. The girls are nicely made up and their costumes are simultaneously cute and sexy (always a nice combination) and they actually look like women you'd want to have sex with rather than faux-Barbie doll crack whores.

In the end, Man's Ruin is hot enough to be effective as straight ahead pornography (read: you can wank to it) but the production values, sets, costumes, soundtrack and cinematography give the movie plenty of artistic value as well. You might not want to sit down and watch this with your mom, but it's not the kind of smut you'll necessarily have to hide when your friends stop by for a beer - and that's a good thing. It's hot enough to work, cool enough to matter.

The DVD

Video:

This shot on video production looks pretty clean presented here in a reasonably stable 1.66.1 widescreen presentation. There is some mild edge enhancement in a couple of spots and a noticeable bit of mpeg compression evident in some of the darker colors and the blacks but other than that, there's not a lot to complain about save for once or twice where the reds bleed just a bit. Skin tones look nice and natural, the compositions are dead on, and aside from the fact that this digital video production looks like a digital video production and as such suffers from the minor defects usually associated with the format, everything is coming up roses as far as the look of the film is concerned.

Sound:

The Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track is quite sufficient. The dialogue comes through cleanly and clearly as do all of the moans and groans. The soundtrack is mixed in properly at a decent level to make sure that we can hear both the music as well as the performers as the same time. Bass response is nice and lively and overall, for a porno movie, this is a way, way better than average effort and it actually sounds really good.

Extras:

The only extras on the first disc, aside from scene selection and animated menus, is a selection of trailers for other Vivid Alt titles and a massive still gallery of lovely pin up style pictures of the actresses from the feature.

The second disc has got a nice selection of extra features starting off with Perversion For Profit which is a horribly dated and completely hilarious anti-porn propaganda film from 1964 presented by the Citizens For Decent Literature! At over half an hour in length this high and mighty lecture on the evils of porno isn't in the least bit convincing but it is extremely entertaining for all the wrong reasons.

Promote Good Readin' is what happens when Winkytiki has a few drinks and decides to mess with Perversion For Profit by reediting some of the sound bites and setting it all to music over two and a half minutes.

Up next is a featurette entitled Behind The Scenes which is exactly what you'd think it is based on that title - a collection of behind the scenes clips from the Man's Ruin shoot. It's over twenty minutes long and it's all done quite humorously. Be sure to stick through the ending for an amusing little story. It gives us a good look at what went into making the movie and we're treated to some nice hardcore footage of the girls in action as well as some decent interviews.

Closing off the second disc is an alternate trailer for Man's Ruin, a kick ass still gallery of Winkytiki's pin up photography, and a Winkytiki biography.

The two discs are housed inside a nice gatefold package that opens up to reveal some funky artwork and an insert in the form of a nifty temporary tattoo. A shame that the soundtrack CD wasn't included...

Final Thoughts:

Campy, ultra-sexy and beautifully shot, Man's Ruin is entertaining, exotic, erotic and fun. Great looking girls, creative and interesting hardcore sex scenes and a great soundtrack all collide with comic book visuals and a great sense of style. Highly recommended.