Digital Playground Goes Blu-Ray with 'PIRATES'

The adult movie studio enters new territory by releasing its first Blu-Ray formatted feature: the award-winning Pirates. And it's not the Roman Polanski flick.
Though we're riding the line of appropriate subject matter by posting this story, it's just too interesting to cast aside.

On Friday, January 4, Digital Playground's acclaimed 2005 feature Pirates becomes the first adult video title to debut on Blu-Ray Disc high definition format.

This move, which includes a new 1080p transfer, was motivated by the undeniable market share Blu-Ray now enjoys. Until now, Digital Playground had supported only the competing HD-DVD format (and a 720p transfer), but the studio now is adding Blu-Ray to their slate.

Joone, DP's co-founder and the director of Pirates, commented: "The Blu-ray format is an excellent fit for Pirates as this feature offers a multitude of bonus features. The format’s extra capacity, and advanced video and audio qualities, allows Digital Playground to deliver an unparalleled HD 1080p experience to consumers."

Co-produced by Adam & Eve, Pirates (also known as Pirates XXX) is the most expensive adult film ever made, with a reported budget of $1 million-plus. The production was shot on HD-DV, and some scenes were lensed on a Florida-based replica of the HMS Bounty. (Apparently, the ship's owners were ignorant of the film's nature, having been informed that it was a "Disney-type pirate film for families.")

The film stars Jesse Jane and Janine Lindemulder (right) as the good and bad first mates, respectively, and features many references to Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Set in 1763, Pirates is the tale of newlyweds Isabella (Carmen Luvana) and Manuel (Kris Slater), en route to his new job in the Caribbean when their ship is boarded by renegade pirate Captain Victor Stagnetti (Tommy Gunn) and crew. Stagnetti, who resembles Keith Richards on steroids, kidnaps Manuel and sets Isabella afloat before heading off to locate an island that contains a powerful secret. Meanwhile, the pirate-hunting Captain Edward Reynolds (Evan Stone) rescues Isabella from the sea, and follows Stagnetti to a forbidding cave. There, Reynolds and crew battle the pirates, as well as an army of skeleton warriors!

The movie featured over 300 special effects shots, plus an original music score, later released on a separate Soundtrack CD (a rarity among adult video releases), and was mastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.

While the acting isn't stellar, nor the effects on par with the average Hollywood blockbuster, admitted the reviewer at Bilgemonkey.com, both serve their purpose. And what really makes the flick work is the fact that cast and crew obviously had fun making it.

"Stagnetti and Reynolds both dish out countless hilarious moments, and clearly take great joy in hamming it up for the camera," read the review. "The women don't have as much to work with from a spoken perspective, but all are quite easy on the eyes. All told, it's just plain fun, and well worth checking out."

Pirates garnered a record-breaking 13 AVN awards, including Best Director, Actor, Actress, Music and Special Effects.

The new release features an impressive collection of bonus materials, such as Behind-the-Scenes Footage, a Visual FX "Making Of" Featurette, a Commentary Track, Bloopers, a Pirates Short, Trailers, a Casting Video and Photo Gallery.

The Blu-Ray edition of Pirates sails into stores on January 4.



[Original report by GUIDO HENKEL at DVD Review. Thanks to Wikipedia for additional info.]
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PAnthony
1/3/2008
DVD Review