Roger's Rating:

Is there a more celebrated porn as art, director than Michael Ninn? Hell, is there a more celebrated director in porn period? His films never fail to stun visually, and are more technically sound than any other the porn world has ever seen. In the past, I found some of his films sexually explosive while others have left me cold. Rather than recap Ninn's greatest hits and misses, let's just take a look a this film on it's own, shall we? Oh, let me get this out of the way up front, so I don't keep bringing it up. The picture quality on this DVD is fucking fantastic. It should probably be a law that no one should be allowed to watch Michael Ninn movies except in DVD format.

Ritual is the story of Katherine Yale, an adult film super star in the year 2008. We follow her through an intense and often bizarre journey into the heart of the beast that created her. Bear this in mind folks, this is not your standard porn film. Ninn has something to say about the business, his own art, porn stars and even those of us who enjoy watching. Don't worry, I'm not going to tear each scene down and give you a look into the symbolism. I'll try to stick to the basics and let you all figure out what's being said about who.

We open with a long dialog scene between Vicca and Tyce Bune in Purgatory. Tyce has done some really good acting roles before, but this may be his best yet. Vicca is just phenomenal, especially considering English is not her native tongue. There is a lot going on in the dialog here so I invite you all to listen carefully. What follows is a really strange scene where Vicca lays herself down on an examination table and probes herself. What's so unusual about that you say? Well, she's playing three parts in this scene. This is about as technically brilliant a scene as you will ever seen in porn. That said, it's an exercise in art, without a whole lot of sexual heat until she gets off the table and starts sucking the nearest cock. Not sure how I feel about the popshot in the milkjar, though.

The transition into the next scene is very slick, but things don't get any less odd. We watch an old TV sitcom. Randy Spears plays Mr. Milky in this white washed world opposite housewife Danielle Rogers. Their dialog is pure porn pun, but we all know where this is going. Has anyone else noticed that Ninn seems to have a thing for chicks in rubber gloves? Danielle goes to work on the milk man's morning wood, devouring it to the root and trying to get that sweet nectar. Though still highly stylized, there is plenty of heat in this scene. Randy gives her ass a good hard pounding before pulling out and firing onto her ass. You don't get this kind of action on TV-Land.

As Vicca continues her interrogation, her thoughts become increasingly introspective. Naturally, this leads us to a techno-warehouse sex scene starring Nikita. With power chords blasting in the background, the tall Euro-babe fucks her long haired male counterpart with total abandon. This is classic Ninn sex, extremely well shot, with just a little too much slow motion footage to really hit the raincoat value square in the face. As a hard-core music video, complete with extreme close up anal shots, this works.

The next scene is a little hard to describe. It starts with Dee riding a huge dildo. This is an awesome site, but it's in slow motion and it becomes an odd little lesbian scene. The women lather gorgeous Katja Kean up with some sticky pink stuff, then Vicca comes in with a big strap on cock. Again, it's all slow motion and artsy (Andrew Blake anyone?) but just the sight of these two awesome Euro-babes in the same scene is worth watching. Dee comes back in, but we never get a full motion shot at the action.

From pretty girl arty porn, to industrial, Michael Ninn porn we go. You know, it isn't often anyone talks about cinematography in porn. Hell, usually holding the camera steady and keeping the boom mike in the upper one third of the screen constitutes quality work. With Ninn, each scene is an adventure. This one has sparks flying all around as a couple boffs through another slow motion fuck. I'll admit to enjoying how well crafted this scene is, but I honestly wonder if this sort of hard sex mixed with couples type slo-mo/quick cut action hits either market dead on.

Katja Kean is back, this time sucking dick and damn if she isn't one of the prettiest women I have ever seen. She gets two guys going at once, and the action is undeniably hot. Too bad we don't get to see it in full motion. Even at only half speed, this is the best scene so far, at least in part because Katja is a dream to look at. I'll give this one big points for being beautiful and hot enough to make it enjoyable. Still, full motion would have just kicked ass.

Vicca's best sexual moment comes on a stairwell as Tyce and another raincoater fuck her from every possible angle. Thankfully, we get the action with a lot less editing interference so the true heat can come through. More scenes like this would have been nice.

I did not see Ritual on video, so I have the advantage of having seen it in a format that allows the technical and visual brilliance. As such, the strengths of this film come through incredibly. Ritual is simply one of the best looking adult films I have ever seen. Ninn is at his best and creates images that are striking beyond description. Some of the performances are award worthy. Most notably, Katja Kean Tyce Bune and Vicca for their acting, sexual performance and both respectively. I have never seen Vicca give a better acting performance and her sexual heat is unmistakable. That said, I have the same problem with this movie that I do with a number of Ninn's other efforts. The sex too often looks like an X-rated music video and not often enough like a solid strokeable piece of smut. Maybe someone should just let Ninn set up scenes, and direct right up until the action begins and then cart him off into another room while a good gonzo director takes us through the hard core. That said, the visual brilliance of this film, coupled with the edgy, gutsy dialog and images make this a X-rated film that everyone should see at least once.

Copyright © Roger T. Pipe

Posted By Roger, www.excaliburfilms.com | 10/5/06 1:58 PM

Reviewer's Rating:

Starring: Danielle Rogers, Dee, Katja Kean, Nikita, Vicca Brick Majors, Eric Price, James Bonn, Julian, Randy Spears , Jenny MacArthur, Keri Windsor, Evan Stone, Damien Wolf, Tyce Bune.
I don't know where to start. This is a great cast (at least on the female side. ) All of the girls are great looking, most can act decently (at least at porno standards), and they all participate in really outrageous activities in this video.
Still, I have to say that Dee was the most sensual looking of all of the girls in the video. At least she didn't get dressed in one of the cliche attaires Michael Ninn is so enamoured with.

This is a maga production with all kinds of lavish stages, special effects, costumes, and situations. They must have spent a respectable amount of money just getting the stages decorated. One of them was a marble hall, another a theater, and so on. It conforms to the typical Michael Ninn "artsy" style.
The story is about this girl telling these acounts of things she experienced sexually in what seems to be her dreams. She looks like she's on some psyquiatric cell, but she says something about being in purgatory or something like that.
The scenes are far too complex to break down, and sometimes they are even continuations of the previous scene.
They are very weird too. In the first we start with this dream sequence in a marble hall, then in a surgical table with a girl in the cliche wigs used by Ninn in his videos, then the girl in the table blows a police officer, who ejaculates in a bottle of milk and then she drinks from it.
Then a milkman picks up the milk and takes it to a stage where a black and white 50's type show is being shown and he has sex with a housewife.
It gets weirder, but this should give you an idea of what you get in this video.
Now, this would have been a great video had it no been for the fact that the entire video is shot in this jerky "slow motion" video quality that really gets into your nerves. I'm not sure I see the artistic value of it. It really takes away from the eroticism in the fluid motion.
And you know, for an artsy film by Ninn (who usually makes clunkers) it's not that bad. There are some problems, though:
the imagery is VERY cliche. You'll see the same type of wigs, dresses, and costumer you'll see in penthouse and heavy metal magazine.
the video quality, because of the jerky slow motion, gets on your nerves.
It takes a long time for the sex to take place. And the plot is not good enough to get into it and avoid fast forwarding the dialog.
In other words, this is the typical Michael Ninn video, only more erotic than other of his videos.

It's good. The goofy costumes get in the way (I still don't see what's with Ninn and his fascinaton with short hair wigs), but in general the girls are good looking, the scenes are outrageous (the sperm in the milk was certainly new), and, jerky video aside, the scenes are viewable.
One thing though: For some reason surgical gloves are used even when they are out of place, like in the scene with the milkman and the housewife. If this is Ninn's idea of erotic I think he should re-evaluate it. It looks clinical, not erotic.

Dee. She's really hot. All of the girls are good looking, but since most use gobs and gobs of makeup, silly wigs and costumes, it sort of dilutes the sensual energy. Only Dee's body is shown in full glory and it's HOT.

Several things: the jerky video, first and foremost. Looks like a vad, jerky AVI file for computer video. I don't think it adds anything to the sensuality of the feature.
I also don't see the point to the use of the wigs. Ninn uses these wigs in just about all of his movies and they add nothing to the sensuality either. The girls look like in a shoot for penthouse. It's too cliche.

There are some nice moments--if silghtly ruined by the jerky video. I'm not a big fan of Ninn's work, but I think this one was slightly more viewable than some of his videos. I'll give it a 7. 5 based on good looking girls, good sexual performances, and weird sex acts. The cliche dresses and jerky video keeps it from getting a higher grade.

Posted By Reviewer, www.excaliburfilms.com | 10/12/06 1:58 PM