Easter Movie Reviews

An apparently titillating documentary such as this needs more than anything else to answer the basic question of why the otherwise normal Ms. Chong (as we are frequently reminded) chose to engage in compromising positions with over 250 virtual strangers in a matter of 10 hours. What was she trying to prove?

Off I went to find out with a very open mind willing completely to forward my sympathy to a woman who did something so maverick, if nothing else. Unfortunately, the answer never came.

For one thing, it would have helped the creators of this putative muss to have at least gotten their own act together. We are first told that the whole motivation behind this supposed expression of female empowerment was an "ultimate ego trip" ...to have all these men wanting to have sex with Chong.

A few minutes down the line, we find out more about her sordid past which included, lo and behold, a teenage sexual assault (gang r*pe) and drug abuse, the obvious implication being that this drove her into promiscuity.

Which is utterly unconvincing in its own right, but as though this were not bird-brained enough we are then presented with an interview with Ms. Chong on channel 4's "The Girly Show" (clearly a benchmark for intellectual debate now isn't it?) talking about how it was "a p*ss take on the whole western ideal of masculinity" or how she felt that it "was an artful expression".

Right. An*l hand-jobs and "triple penetrations" - how very vintage Da Vinci!

In the end, this 90 minutes of burlesque gibberish leaves the viewer sighing. This is NOT a look at sex or any offshoot thereof as seems to be promised from the title, but a look at the psyche of Annabel Chong and the only thing it ends up conveying is that she is one troubled human being. Playing neither the role of a defiant punk slut rebel or a vulnerable woman-child entirely convincingly, she ultimately comes across as a very confused young woman desparately scrambling for an identity. Whether through porn or (hopefully) some more respectable means, you can't help but hope she finds it.

There's no denying that the life of Annabel Chong is fascinating to observe -- from her life as a feminist scholar to porn-star celebrity to nothing and back to porn-star celebrity.

Unfortunately, with such great material the filmmaker doesn't do a good job. First of all, this documentary is just like an Annabel Chong Home Video collection done by the ex-boyfriend (which is what the director was). It follows all her through her daily and not-so-daily life and nothing more.

Never does the filmmaker ever ask "Why?" Why does she do this? How has her past trauma (being gang-raped) affect her (it barely even acknowledges the rape)? Why does she go back to porn after promising her humiliated parents to make it up to them? It just lazily notes these things and moves on to her going around and doing her daily tasks.

Worse, at times it misrepresents Chong. There's one scene where Chong is cutting herself without explanation. Wow. Screwy, right? Except in the BONUS MATERIAL, you learn that that's the scene when the director breaks up with her and SUGGESTS they take turns doing cutting themselves and films it.

The filmmaker may be incompetent but that's not to say the DVD isn't interesting. With a life as... complicated... as Chong's it's hard to make it boring. The most moving part is when she moves back with her parents in Singapore and they discover from strangers her secret life has having being the center of the world's biggest gang-bang.

So the documentary is worth the viewing, but don't have your expectations up there and you'll be fine. Also be forewarned: they do show clips of Annabel Chong uncensored.

This documentary profiles adult film actress Annabel Chong (real name: Grace Quek), who in 1995 broke new records in sexual history when she performed 251 sexual acts in 10 hours with 70 different men for the porn movie "The World's Biggest Gang Bang." This documentary, which included (the MILDEST of)actual footage from Chong's X-rated movie, was difficult to watch at times and, predictably, elicited gasps from the audience with its subject matter. However, the shock value of the film's central focus eventually wore off, and the filmmakers-- intentionally or not-- leave us with a portrait of a woman with a uniquely admirable quality: Miss Chong shows herself to be unapologetic about her passion for sex (incidentally, with both men AND women), is completely intergrated with the sexual side of her personality, and has no regrets about her astonishing act-- even though she faced an HIV scare afterward, and got stiffed (no pun intended) for the $10,000 salary that she was supposed to receive for her work in "The World's Biggest Gang Bang." Annabel Chong, of course, is not the first or only person in the world who has expressed her sexuality and sexual desires without apology. At the risk of portraying an adult film star as a role model, however, Miss Chong's comfort level with her sexual attitudes and activities is refreshing. Her honesty and freedom of expression form a sharp contrast in our society where even as we slowly break down barriers dealing with sexuality, confronting our sexual behaviors and activities still remain a potential source of conflict (both internal and external) to us. It's debatable over whether Annabel Chong's life warrants an 86-minute documentary-- but nevertheless, this is fascinating stuff.

The editorial review of this DVD is the wrong one. It applies to "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" and not this title! I purchased this, remembering "Irontail" from my youth. However, "Irontail" does not appear in this DVD. It is a cartoon and not claymation. The cartoon is fine for small tykes but make sure you are ordering the correct title!

I believe that the reviews associated with this listing are for Here Comes Peter Cottontail, not this animation. This DVD is an animated cartoon about a bunny named Peter who is given the responsibility by the mother rabbit to watch his four sisters. Peter disregards every instruction his mother gives him and gets into a lot of trouble. This movie has absolutely NOTHING to do with the Easter Bunny. I feel that the title of this DVD is extremely misleading and the only reason I bought it was because of the supposed Easter theme. This being said, my 2 and 4 year old girls loved hopping around the room as they watched this cartoon.

My children ages 5 and 2 really enjoyed this cute Easter video. They watch it all year round but get really excited about watching it the night before Easter. The story is easy to follow and enjoyable to watch!

I think I might have got a defect product. In addition of the poor picture and sound quality as mentioned by the earlier reviewer, my DVD also shows "blocks" during some scenes and sometimes the sound got distorted and even paused. Very annoying. Though Caballe is out of her prime anyway. By the way, this series's sound all seem to be bad. I also have the Jose Cura version, which I think the sound is even worse.

In spite of a few negative points, it's a nice and moving compilation of popular spiritual and classical pieces which is a useful addition to my classical DVD collection. Unfortunately the pleasure is marred slightly by the picture quality being barely VHS standard let alone DVD. Because the Dolby Surround is not very effective, I switched my Yamaha 595A to "Movie Theatre" which greatly improved the surround effect. I then realised that there was an obtrusive and annoying mains hum due to microphone pickup that was noticeable between items coming mainly from the rear speakers. Eventually I found that the Movie Theatre setting was actually accentuating the noise. Changing to the Mono Movie setting proved to be the best, although the noise was still there. The cover shows that there should be 13 tracks when actually there are 14! If you like this type of music, then it's worth having in spite of these negative points. If it wasn't for the mains hum, I would have given a higher rating.