Eden

Adam & Eve's big fall release for 2008 AVN Award consideration, Eden can best be described as Island Fever meets Fantasy Island, with a touch of Lost thrown in for good measure. While not the best release I've seen from A&E, Eden's 10 sex scenes should keep hardcore fans happy, and a nifty twist ending (which I wouldn't dream of giving away) gives the title an extra boost to elevate it above other, similar titles in this genre.

Eden enlists the skills of Carmen Luvana, Bree Olson, Ava Rose, Evan Valentine and (on "loan" from Zero Tolerance) Courtney Cummz. The male cast is made up of Tommy Gunn, Evan Stone, Jean Val Jean, Jerry, and in a non-sex role as the "host" of the tropical island, Xavier Towers.

Assisting Xavier on the island is Ms. Ono (Evan Valentine) and Jack Marshall (Evan Stone), the latter of which is kind of the "island guide". The rest of the cast are visitors who have been invited to "Eden," with Xavier (much like Mr. Roarke) making sure that each of the visitors fantasies (in this case, namely sexual in nature) come true.

As noted above, there are a full 10 sex scenes in the movie, but since the title clocks in at an impressive 218-minutes, none of the action is rushed and the majority of the sex is well-shot. Filmed on location in Hawaii, all but one of the scenes take place outdoors, and the majority of the outdoor locations involve either the beach or a view of the Pacific Ocean in the background.

The first scene takes place next to a large tree after Carmen Luvana and Jean Val Jean have spent some time horseback riding together. Shortly after the action begins, Courtney Cummz appears to turn this encounter into a threesome, although Carmen still gets the majority of the attention and penetration from Jean. The pop-shot here has Jean shooting onto Carmen's ass, with Courtney there to lick it off.

We don't see another threesome sequence until the next to the last scene in Eden, as the next seven scenes consist of one-on-one pairings, including two girl/girl scenes. Scene Two has Evan Valentine with Tommy Gunn on the beach, followed by a lesbian sequence with Bree and Ava on the edge of a pool. We then head out to the high scenes for a boat scene involving Carmen and Jerry, then return to dry land for a tryst with Bree and Evan Stone overlooking the ocean.

Believe it or not, there is very little in the way of plot through the first five scenes of Eden. The story starts to pick up a little before Scene Six, as Evan is about to go diving and Ava shows up to see if she can go with him. The two meet up with a shark underwater, and there's a very well-done digital shot of Evan and Ava running out of the water onto the beach, with the shark just missing getting his teeth into them. Hearing of his heroics, Evan Valentine joins our other Evan on the beach later that day for a nice rendezvous.

After a lesbian scene between Carmen and Courtney, we get the only indoor sex scene of the movie, as Evan beds Ava. After this pairing, we get the best sex scene in the movie, which has Bree involved in an aggressive threesome with Tommy and Jean Val Jean down on the beach that includes Bree getting anal. At several points it looked like Bree would get double penetrated, but the scene never takes things that far. Still, it was my favorite sex to watch in all of Eden, and it concludes with a nice double facial for Ms. Olson.

This sets up the most interesting part of Eden's storyline, as Ava disappears from her room, by a native (whom I believe is also played by Evan Stone). Tommy runs into the jungle to rescue her and is able to bring her back, but gets a lecture from both Xavier and Evan about the forbidden part of the island. I couldn't help but wonder why Writer/Director Daniel Dakota waited until this late in the movie to provide us with an interesting plot, since this should be where things are wrapping up, not getting started.

The final scene is a pairing between Courtney and Tommy, which is a solid, if unspectacular, coupling that concludes with Tommy jerking into her mouth. Then it's time for all to say farewell, except for Tommy, who we learn has run off to the forbidden part of the island. There he gets a shocker (again, not going to spoil it for you) that will no doubt have you shouting at your TV, saying "Damn! This is where they should have began, not ended!"

As far as the video quality of Eden is concerned, I'm afraid it's a mixed bag. First, props to Adam & Eve for creating an anamorphic transfer for home viewers. But the transfer is not without problems - compression artifacts are evident in almost every scene, most likely the result of squeezing a 3 ½-hour movie onto a single disc. Those with smaller TVs probably won't notice...but if you're TV is, say, 40 inches or larger, the pixilation will definitely come into play. So while I'm giving the video of Eden an above-average rating (because it's anamorphic and well-shot), potential viewers should be aware of the compression issues. The audio is solid, and viewers have the option of listening in either 5.1 or 2.0 Dolby.

Eden is a 2-disc set, with the movie on Disc 1 and all of the bonus material over on Disc 2. The extras are excellent - being both expansive and entertaining at the same time. There's a 16-minute behind the scenes featurette along with 13-minutes of interviews, both of which are highlighted by Evan Stone, who is often more entertaining in behind the scenes material than he is in the actual movie. Also included are 5-minutes worth of audition footage and 13-minutes worth of bloopers, along with both full-length and teaser trailers for the movie. A bonus scene with Lauren Phoenix and Randy Spears from At Your Service has also been added to Disc 2, along with an Eden slide show and six trailers for other Adam & Eve titles.

From a sexual standpoint, Eden is paradise, although I wish the storyline would have gotten going much earlier in the movie than it actually did. That being said, if you're a sucker (no pun intended!) for erotic couplings in exotic locales, this Adam & Eve release won't let you down.