Cast: Candy Apples, Tina Tyler, Bunny Bleu, Lauren Montgomery, Drew Andrews, Grant Woods, Vince Rockland, Dino D'Marco and Herschel Savage.

Director and writer: Anthony Rose

Production date: 4/25/98 (opening statement); 3/26/99 (box)

Length: 84 min.

Extras: Nine trailers, eight bonus scenes, a gallery with 20 photos from Curious, and an extra slide show with 40 unidentified photos.

Audio/visual quality: The video quality is slightly inferior, though not to the point that the movie is unwatchable. The problems range from minor to moderately distracting; they include remnants, harsh lighting, shadows, grain, flickers, a moir effect, jerkiness in the handheld camera and occasionally inexplicit angles. The good news is that the focus stays pretty sharp. The audio is okay and has a only few issues with hollowness, extraneous noises and maxed out vocals. The soundtrack is a generally pleasant mix of jazzy dance and chilled-out techno. The balance occasionally seems a bit off, though; sometimes the music is loud enough that is almost detracts from the action, and other times it's barely audible.

First impression: They say curiosity killed the pussy. This is not quite that bad, but it's not so good, either.

Scene highlights: Of the roughly 500 sex scenes I've viewed to date, the opener for Curious earns the dubious distinction of being one of the lamest. For starters, it's intercut. Intercut footage can be good, if the juxtapositions dovetail in a meaningful way that advances the story. Here, the gay and lesbian scenes have just been cobbled together. To make matters worse, they're supposed to be concurrent, yet the gay scene appears to have nighttime lighting while the lesbian scene has daytime lighting. The effect is somewhat jarring, especially when the camera cuts back and forth between the performers during the dialog.

The gay action fails miserably. Grant Woods can't keep it hard despite the devoted oral attention of Drew Andrews. Not surprisingly, we never see Grant's cock when Drew is doing him in the ass. Also not surprisingly, the fantasy segment between Tina Tyler and Grant completely lacks penetration footage. Drew's cumshot looks faked, with mystery fluid flying onto Grant's belly from somewhere off camera. (All I can say is that the chemistry between these guys must have been totally off, since Drew is reputedly a prolific popper.) The lesbian scene with Tina and Candy Apples is better. But too much of the cunnilingus involves each actress sticking the tip of her tongue out as far as possible (which pleases the cameraman rather than providing satisfying stimulation for the receiver). At least there's some warm kissing and pussy bumping in the bath, plus one minute of real penetration in the fantasy segment between Candy and Drew.

Candy's best lesbian friend, Bunny Bleu, decides to investigate a back alley encounter between Dino D'Marco and Vince Rockland. Bunny shyly accepts an invitation to join the blowjob in progress. There's an excellent rapport between these three performers, with some nice kissing and cocksucking. This setup initially sparks my interest, but 12 minutes is a long time for a 2-on-1 blowjob with no change in position. Also, the backdrop wobbles slightly as the performers lean against it, and then the camera accidentally sweeps past the edge and reveals that the action is staged indoors. Bunny enjoys enthusiastic vaginal sex with one guy and anal with the other (unfortunately, the camera angles are sometimes too poor to allow a direct view). Only one man climaxeshe pulls out during anal cowgirl and eventually jerks himself onto Bunny's ass. I'd still rate this scene as a little above average, thanks to the energy and attractiveness of the performers.

Herschel Savage tries to explain to his younger brother Drew what it's like to be with a woman. Lauren Montgomery emerges dripping wet from the swimming pool and wraps her arms around Herschel. There's a happy emphasis on kissing during the foreplay. He sucks her fingers while she offers some sensual head. Lauren reclines in a lounge chair as Herschel returns the favor, and they make love in the cowgirl position only. The mood is pretty mellow, and she keeps her eyes closed for most of this scene. Lauren's mouth and handwork do bring Herschel to orgasm without any additional assistance from him. She directs his modest pop onto her breasts.

Candy, Tina, Drew and Grant gather around the living room couch and all confess their interest in one another. Grant gets his blowjob from Tina, and Drew gets his from Candy and Grant. Grant actually looks aroused this time while receiving anal from Drew (it probably helps that he's simultaneously involved in 69 action with the lovely Tina). The guys take their places behind their gals for vaginal doggie, but Grant might be having trouble again, since he and Tina quickly exit before there's any hardcore footage. Drew and Candy stick around for a few firm strokes, though. He climaxes onto his own stomach from her highly competent handwork. Grant later "cums" internally with Tinait's almost certainly fake, but at least they made the effort to include it.

Thumbs up: The best thing I can say about this movie is that it's definitely bi. I really like the balance of gay, lesbian and straight action. I wish there were more DVDs available for those of us who appreciate seeing this type of mix. The basic concept is worthwhile, and the screenplay is acceptable. The disappointment for me lies in the execution.

Thumbs down: I get the sense that this movie was shot with a shoestring budget and/or limited experience. Whatever the explanation or excuse, the technical flaws are noticeable enough to hamper my enjoyment of this movie. Worse, the sex is often weak. The success rate for verifiable cumshots is only three out of seven. I'm also wondering if an entire scene was cut, since the gallery includes a snapshot of Tina doing Drew with a strap-on as T.J. Hart looks on (neither the strap-on nor Ms. Hart appear in this movie).

With the exception of Tina, no one in this movie sounds fully comfortable with the dialog. I'm guessing not much time was devoted to rehearsal. And just as a footnote, I can't help but laugh over the fact that the main menu is "backwards." It lists all the extras before the option to play the movie. (At the time this movie was made, Vivid had a reputation for caring more about the quantity of extras than the quality of the movie. You can draw your own conclusions.)

Themes: Gay, lesbian, straight, threeway (b/b/g), group, masturbation, oral, vaginal, tribadism, anal, rimming (m>m), kissing, internal pop.

Condom use: Yes, consistently.

Juice-o-meter: Low overall, but with some surges of interest here and there.

Final analysis: The online price history for Curious has indeed been curious, with some vendors charging as little as $7 and others as much as $30. I'd suggest you pick it up only at the low end. This movie won the "best bisexual video" and "best directorbisexual video" categories at the 1998 AVN awards (the adult equivalent of the Oscars), but to be honest, I'm not that impressed. The technical values and sexual performances are not up to the standards of the majority of the straight and gay titles I've reviewed.

Additional recommendation: Viewers who are searching for a mix of action might enjoy the quasi-bi Going Down. The gay play is limited, but the movie does feature a very hot mutual masturbation scene between Drew Andrews and Paul Carrigan (while Tina Tyler watches on a monitor). Going Down also includes a biker dyke scene. The production quality, performances and extras are all pretty good, so check it out!

YogaGrrl's e-mail is here.
YogaGrrl's DVD review list is here.