Manhunters

Manhunters is Wicked's big adult feature for the fall, and while the disc is jammed-packed with extras, and the cast is very appealing (Jessica Drake, Kirsten Price, Carmen Hart and Exotica), I can't say that Manhunters is as good as some of the other "big" features that Wicked released in 2006 - notably Curse Eternal and The Visitors.

The biggest problem with Brad Armstrong's feature is that it can't decide what it wants to be. An action movie? A comedy? A drama? It actually tries to be a little of each, and doesn't really succeed at any of the above. What does work is the chemistry between the cast. Jessica, Kirsten, Carmen and Exotica each have the opportunity to create distinct characters and the banter between the four of them is one of the best parts of Manhunters (so much that one almost wishes Brad had just made this an all-out comedy rather than a drama with bits of comedy thrown in).

As far as the storyline, there isn't one over-encompassing plot, which is one of Manhunters problems. Instead we follow the four girls (who play bail bondsmen...or bondswomen, I suppose) as they go from case to case and arrest to arrest. About halfway through the movie, Jessica meets up with an old boyfriend played by Brad himself, but we're given so little information about his character in the one scene that he appears in, that the audience isn't very invested in his relationship with Jessica (which makes the climax to the movie have less impact than it should).

The upside to all of this is that the sex scenes are, for the most part, pretty good. There are nine segments in this 158-minute film; with the best encounters being an all-girl orgy between the four leads (which includes Exotica using a strap-on on Jessica; and Carmen using a strap-on on Kirsten). Other good scenes consist of a one-on-one between Kirsten and Chris Cannon at a dojo where Kirsten is taking karate lessons; a pairing between Jessica and Brad that has her taking anal in the missionary and spoon positions; and an extremely wild and nasty three-way between Jada Fire, Sandra Romain and Brian Surewood.

Like most big releases from Wicked, they've once again done an outstanding job with the bonus material. Manhunters is a 3-DVD set, with the majority of bonus features appearing on Disc 2 and 3, although the first disc does include a feature-length commentary track with Jessica, Carmen and Brad, in addition to the main feature. Viewers will also have an option of listening to a music-only or dialogue-only track instead of the 5.1 Dolby Digtial main audio track.

Disc 2 features a 29-minute behind the scenes featurette on the making of Manhunters, along with a ton of other featurettes about the film. Included in the shorter segments are a look at the photo shoots for the movie; bloopers; a behind the scenes sex reel (that runs for 33-minutes and shows the sex from a behind the scenes point of view); and a Manhunters music video. There are also brief segments that show various aspects of the shoot, including the girls getting bounty hunting training; working out in preparation for the movie; choreographing the fight scenes; and getting weapons training. "Bounty Hunting 101" features some comments from former real-life bounty hunter Bryon Uptgraft, who also served as Technical Advisor on the movie. There's also an alternate ending to the film which changes the fate of one of the main characters. Those who search the disc carefully will also be able to uncover a couple of "Easter Eggs".

Over on Disc 3, viewers will be treated to interviews with Jessica, Kirsten, Exotica, Carmen and Brad; as well as view text biographies for the characters that they play. The coolest feature on Disc 3 (and perhaps the whole set) is a Manhunters trivia game that will unlock two full-length deleted scenes (one featuring Kaylynn with Herschel Savage; and the other being a threesome involving Shannen Kelly, Cassie Courtland and Marcus London), assuming you get all the questions right! Disc 3 also contains four sex scenes taken from other Wicked releases; as well as the standard promo material and trailers (there are 10 of them here) that you get on most Wicked titles. Potential buyers may also want to note that the DVD package also includes four collectible cards (about twice the size of a baseball card) featuring each of Manhunters' four female stars.

Manhunters has been shot on film, and although the picture has been anamorphically enhanced, a lot of grain and some dirt is clearly visible on the print. Worse, there are several scenes in the movie (the nightclub scene being the biggest offender) where lines are clearly visible running vertically from the top and bottom of the print. These are the kind of lines one often sees in a theater after a movie has been running for a long time, and someone has got out the "grease pencil" to splice back together a broken reel, but why they appear on the print here (or what the cause of them are) is anyone's guess. So while it's nice that Wicked has offered up an anamorphic transfer, I still can't give the video a perfect score.

Overall, I would rate Manhunters an above-average release. Ironically, it's the extras and not necessarily the feature itself that really make this 3-disc set stand-out. As for the movie, it's solid - but it's not Wicked's best adult feature of 2006.

Just recently ordered the movie heard great things about the movie always been a big fan of Jessica drake, Kirsten price and Carmen hart but was disappointed I didn't receive the 2 disc wanted to watch behind the scene.