Titan Media has always put out scorching, reliable products. Yet, as with any ascent, there must be a descent. Redwood is not a terrible film, absolutely not - but it doesn't quite live up to Titan's standards. The film, as expected, is exquisitely shot and photographed, tightly edited, and, if visuals could give erections, there'd be boners on the ceiling. The music is ethereal and distinct. The men are breathtaking, as usual. But the sex ultimately suffers in the trade. And in a fuck flick, visuals aren't exactly what the aim should be.
The film starts out promising enough: Superbottom Will Clark and huge-dicked Craig Stevens pair up for some nasty talk and some raunchy sex. Clark devours Stevens' big rod, and you can see in his eyes that he's wondering what that monster will feel like up his ass. This is one of Clark's best films to date. He begins the scene as the dominant force, reminding me of his scene in Titan's earlier Island Guardian where nasty, dirty-talker York Powers totally dominates a younger Clark. Now it's Clark's turn to take over with his own sexy, dirty mouth. He allows Stevens to fuck him and starts out mean and rough, but after that dick has been in him a while, he begins to whimper and moan. Clark totally controls the scene, though, indicating what a professional performer he's become. He even spears himself on a huge dildo to prove his insatiable sexual appetite. Talk about exhausting! But after the scene is over and the semen has splooged, Clark disappears, never to be seen again. What's up with that?
The following scenes are good and boner-inducing but never quite reach the intensity of this first scene.
We move to a greenhouse, where light-skinned black boy Austin Woods (and his beautiful bubble butt) is taking a nap. Gorgeous Thomas Lloyd, with eyes that could light fires, sneaks in and wakes him up by licking his sleeping body. In contrast to the first scene, this one is more romantic and sensual. Lloyd has some erection problems but is so enthusiastic about his work that it's not that much of a bother. He tops Woods briefly, capping it with a huge load.
Next we are in the woods with Alec Powers (looking better than ever) and Brad King (ditto) walking amongst the huge Redwood trees. It's a nice, quiet fuck scene, with Powers nailing King on a giant Redwood stump, which, OK, was pretty cool.
Stevens returns for a brief but explosive J/O scene, and then we visit cute Joshua Michaels (who was terribly underused) at a glory hole. He is chewing on a big, hard dick (Peter Roth) and then Stevens joins Roth to allow young Michaels to sample both. Both men stay rock hard and can't keep their tongues out of the other's throat. Eventually, they emerge and lead Michaels back to a deck where Powers, King and Woods are waiting. Before you can say "orgy" - well, you get the drift. There is a lot of sucking and rimming and kissing, but it left me wanting more. Roth was never utilized to his ability and he has a mammoth cock; Michaels bottoms too briefly, and with as many opportunities for pairings, more than half must have ended up on the editing floor. Not to mention that if you're gonna have an orgy, invite everyone - Clark and Lloyd must have been off with each other, I guess.
During certain scenes, the performers would turn and talk to the camera, annoying the hell out of me. Then I realized that Titan also has an interactive CD-Rom that accompanies the video and, in context with the CD-Rom, it's pretty cool. However, it should have been left on the CD and taken out of the film.
Bruce Cam and Robert Kirsch have mastered the art of videograph, but they need to focus it more on hard dicks and hot sex than big trees and lush foliage.
- Jeremy Spencer
REDWOOD - Escape to Fern Falls: Interactive CD-Rom Windows 95/98/NT (Only) Imedia Interactive/ Titan Media. ©1998. System requirements for the CD-Rom. PC Pentium 133 MHz Processor (or faster), 32 MB RAM, 6x CD-ROM drive (12x or faster recommended), 16-Bit color display adapter 800 x 600 screen resolution, 16-Bit sound card, speakers (or headphones), Quicktime for Windows * Netscape 4.06 *, Internet Connection **
* included on the CD-ROM
** required to access Internet-only content
Highly Recommended.
Titan Media and Imedia Interactive have joined forces to produce a very stimulating and exciting CD-Rom. Not only are the videos and stills unbelievably clear and vivid, but this CD-Rom finally does something that I have always wanted an interactive CD-Rom to do: Allows the player to actually interact. Well, as much as possible. The only thing that the buyer must be forewarned of is that Redwood is only compatible with Windows 95/ Windows 98 or Windows NT. Macintosh users must look elsewhere for their porn pleasures.
Getting started is relatively simple - I'm not a computer genius, but I was able to figure out the steps that needed to be taken. Almost immediately, you are introduced to stunning visuals and a very user-friendly guide to touring Fern Falls. Users can choose from viewing stills of the Redwood video that the CD-Rom is companion to, or they can actually choose video clips from the film. My favorite part was being able to choose the perspective of either the top or the bottom in various scenes - a feat that doesn't work in the film yet works wonderfully in the CD-Rom. There is a quiz one can take to gain access to special stills from Titan models not used in the film, but there was only one that I found and would have liked more. (Of course, you must have seen the film to take the quiz.) There is free registration through an Internet site that gives you a password and a user ID when registered that also allows you more access to certain areas of the CD-Rom - but you must be connected to the Internet to use itr.
Users also have a choice of hearing five pieces of music from the video that sounds terrific and fills in as background music until you get bored or want a different taste. Users can virtually play their own favorite scenes.
Having access to the Internet is fine, but it's really not necessary. The CD-Rom still gives you some juicy sex scenes without having to hook up your modem. It doesn't hurt to have it, though.
One will never tire of turning a new corner or clicking onto a new section and seeing some of Titan's most beautiful men stroking or poking or just plain talking dirty. There are even some video scenes not seen in the film.
Overall, an exciting piece of computer erotica.
Jeremy Spencer