The Movie:

The first of director Robby D's ongoing Hard Candy releases gathers up a fine stable of beautiful young women to do what they do best in front of the camera. There isn't a plot at all, though the packaging states 'young and hardcore' and plays up the Lolita angle a little bit. Aside from that, this is a pretty standard Digital Playground gonzo affair, meaning that it's well shot with a nice cast and features the studios typically lush camera work and production values. Keep in mind that at the time of this writing, this feature is three years old, meaning that some of the 'fresh faces' in this movie are now considered pros, and/or retired.

Here's a look at the action:

Scene One - Nadia, Valery And Scott Nails: Nadia and Valery are lamenting the fact that there are no hot guys in class this year, though they think their teacher is plenty cute. Who should show up, but the teacher himself, Scott Nails, and before you can say 'After School Special' the girls are indoors with him, sharing blowjob duties. From there Scott goes back and forth between the two girls, fucking their pussies and their mouths from a few different angles. The girls, sadly, don't pay much attention to one another so this doesn't play out like a three-way so much as it does Scott banging two chicks in the same room at the same time if that makes any sense. After he's had enough, he pulls out and blows his load across their faces. The girls are hot enough and look nice doing dirty deeds, but the scene never quite hits a boiling point or gets as hot as it should.

Scene Two - Riley Mason And Mick Blue: Riley, now retired from the XXX industry, really had it going on before she called it quits. This saucy little dark haired cutie shows up at Mick's pad and wastes no time at all getting his dick into her mouth. After giving him head, she rides him reverse cowgirl style for a few minutes, bouncing around with some nice spirit. He goes at her snatch a few more times, getting her cowgirl and doggy style, then pulls out and delivers a fine facial finish. Riley is great in this scene, she's got a lot of bounce and a nice liveliness to her here that really propels this one. Hot stuff!

Scene Three - Clair Robbins And Scott Nails: Claire struts around in some short shorts and soon has Scott convinced he needs a blowjob. She works him over with her mouth for a bit and then he stands her up and bends her over to fuck her from behind. He shifts gears on her and slips it up her ass, at which point the scene goes from good to great, as things get way more intense. They go at it for quite a while, doggy and reverse cowgirl, until he pulls out and unloads into her mouth to end another very strong scene.

Scene Four - Leah Luv And Mick Blue: After a bit of small talk, Leah convinces Mick to drop his pants. She gobbles on his knob to get things started and then they get out of the truck they've been travelling in so that Mick can bend her over the driver's seat and fuck her from behind. They head back into the truck and he spreads her cheeks and fucks her up the ass, until he's ready, at which point he pulls out and shoots onto her face.

Scene Five - Holly Morgan And Scott Nails: Last but not least, cover girl Holly Morgan is up. She teases Scott by giving him a little bit of a show before going down on him and sucking him off for a few minutes. He fucks her missionary style and doggy style, and she rides him cowgirl and reverse cowgirl style, taking things fairly slow but looking quite good doing it. They manage to generate a fair bit of heat together before Scott ends the scene and the movie by pulling out and shooting his load on her face.

The opening scene isn't as hot as it could or should have been but the other four more than make up for that. Robby D. manages to capture the sex from a few really effective angles this time around, bringing us in nice and close without ever making it feel like we're watching a gynecological exam. Each of the six girls who appear in the feature are plenty hot and, opening scene notwithstanding, they're all pretty enthusiastic about what they're doing in here. Robby mixes in some effective humor here as well, and while that might turn off some of the gonzo purists, some of us appreciate a fun set up.

The DVD

Video:

Hard Candy looks nice in this 1080p AVC 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, once again proving that the guys doing the HD authoring over at Digital Playground know what they're doing. There's a lot of detail present throughout meaning you can see every hair, freckle and spot on each of the performers. There aren't any issues at all with compression artifacts or edge enhancement while color reproduction and skin tones look excellent throughout. There aren't any problems with shimmering either, resulting in a very eye-pleasing transfer.

Sound:

The sole audio track on this Blu-ray release is a 48 kHz 448 kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix in English. The audio on this release is fine but it isn't as impressive as the transfer is - and it really would have been nice to see an HD sound mix included. The levels are all properly balanced but there really isn't much here outside of the music - the sounds of the actual sex are more or less muted out, which does take away from the effectiveness of the material. The score sounds particularly good and there aren't any problems with background hiss or distortion at all. For an adult movie, the audio quality is better than average, but it doesn't really take advantage of the Blu-ray format at all.

Extras:

The only substantial extra is a bonus scene in which Keri Sable treats us to a sexy but not even close to hardcore eleven minute strip tease. Motion menus, the standard Digital Playground trailer gallery, a still gallery, contact info, and scene selection round out the supplements on this release. All of the extras are presented in standard definition.

Final Thoughts:

The extras are slim and the audio could have been better but the video quality is very good and the feature itself is absolutely worth a look. Hard Candy 1 is a pretty easy title to recommend.