2005 AVN Awards Show, The

Like the releases of previous AVN Awards shows, the two-disc 2005 AVN Awards Show is intended not so much for those viewers looking for a DVD to "get off" to, but those who truly follow the adult industry closely and want to have a memento of the latest awards show - either because they attended it, or because they missed it and want to check out what happened.

As someone who attended the AVN Awards in January, I can tell you that the slightly edited (the actual awards ran about three hours...this DVD version clocks in at 112 mintues) version makes the festivities look much more exciting than they actually are. Of course, I just may be bitter because I didn't get any screen time on this release - a fact that I'm either upset or really happy about, I haven't decided which yet.

Some of the events of the show (most notably the appearance by group Smash Mouth, who actually launched the show in Vegas, but get moved to the middle of the show on this DVD) have been moved around for the sake of presentation, but this is more or less what you would have witnessed had you been an attendee.

Like previous releases of the AVN Awards (which have been done by Hustler and VCA), each winning movie or star is accompanied by a clip from the movie in question. These are full-blown scenes, but they are hardcore and almost always contain the pop-shot for one's viewing enjoyment.

One of the funniest things at this year's show were little comedy clips that AVN put together featuring some of adult's biggest stars. I'm happy to report that these clips are on this DVD - including a few unused clips that are part of the second, bonus DVD. The funniest of these clips is a bit entitled "Miracle Of Nature" with Cytherea and Randy Spears in which Randy gets Cytherea to "squirt" for the camera. There's also a pretty entertaining one featuring Ron Jeremy entitled "A True Icon".

Although heavily advertised on the box cover, the bonus scene on Disc 2 from Digital Playground's Island Fever 3 isn't a full-blown scene at all, but rather about 2 ½ minutes of footage from several scenes in the movie...pretty much an extended trailer. The best part of Disc 2 is an hour's worth of interview footage with Chi Chi LaRue and some of your favorite stars, including (but not limited to) Jenna Jameson, Tera Patrick, Gina Lynn, Nina Hartley, Devon, Teagan Presley, Felecia, Shane, Ron Jeremy, and even special appearances by Heidi Fleiss and KISS's Gene Simmons!

Also on Disc 2 is a five-minute slide show, a list of the 2005 AVN Hall of Fame Inductees and a list of 71 additional award winners - including Adult DVD Empire's second consecutive win in the Best Retail Site category (I think I get paid extra for this review if I mention this! No? Damn.).

These Award Show DVDs are great collector's items if you're the kind of porn fan who takes the industry seriously and/or just want a better look at what your favorite porn gals and guys are like in real-life. No, you won't be whacking-off to this DVD (at least, not much of it), but that doesn't mean you won't have fun watching it. It's at least worth one viewing, even if you're not a die-hard porn historian, like ol' Spooky is.