Pretty Girls

Directed by Michael Raven, PRETTY GIRLS derives its theme, look, and style from superior director Michael Ninn, most notably as demonstrated in his DIVA series, from VCA. There is an immediate sense of deja vu as soon as you give this disc a spin (after you speed-search past all the commercials and advertisements, that is), when beauties like Shay Sweet and Katja Kean are filmed glamorously a la Andrew Blake against colorful set and production designs. Unlike the DIVA series, there are enough boy-girl scenes for non-lesbian fans to enjoy, and true to it's title women like Felicia and Katja look stunning in each of their segments.

However, Raven tries desperately to achieve the kind of grace and beauty achieved effortlessly by Blake and Ninn, but the results are and nakedly derivative. There was no doubt that PRETTY GIRLS was merely a rip-off of Ninn's work, and if the distinct similarities were meant to be satirical or a parody, then the irony was completely lost on me. Further, Raven's efforts are greatly undermined by the very grainy video transfer of his work, where otherwise well-composed images end up looking like visual mush on the screen.

If it's PRETTY GIRLS you want, stick to DIVA 4 and DIVA GIRLS to get your true money's worth.