Orgazmo Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		1.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		2.5

Orgazmo Blu-ray Movie Review

Neutered video and flaccid audio make Orgazmo a dysfunctional Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 16, 2015

South Park, the long-running brainchild of Co-Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, can be just about the foulest, crudest thing on television, but it can also be, and frequently is, one of the sharpest, most honest, and unapologetically socially aware programs on television. But the duo's film Orgazmo is all about the former. As the title suggests, it's a sex-romp Comedy in which a straight shooter Mormon evangelist finds himself working in the sex industry. The film makes no apologies for swinging sex toys all over the screen and working through a bottom-scraping plot that's only an avenue for adult industry humor and various bits of absurdity, but the movie plays it completely tongue-in-cheek and, despite its notorious NC-17 rating, isn't at all revealing, sexually, anyway, leaving T&A, explicit sex, and various acts of unspeakable weirdness for the truly hardcore, back room, watch-in-secret perversions, which this movie is not. It's certainly not something to screen for grandma and grandpa on their 50th wedding anniversary, either, but the truth is that the film doesn't live up (or down) to its rating reputation and, despite its crude and silly subject matter, actually makes for a passably entertaining and somewhat funny little time killer.

Save us Orgazmo!

Joseph Young (Trey Parker) is a Mormon missionary who has left the cozy comforts of Utah for the big city in hopes of spreading the message of his faith to the masses. He's rejected, rudely, time and again, but one innocent knock on one unassuming door will change his life forever. Little does he know he's outside a porn house where various adult pictures are filmed. A few brutes attempt to rough Young up, but he handles them with ease. Director Maxxx Orbison (Michael Dean Jacobs) sees Young's fighting skills and, tired of his current star's inability to put up a convincing fight without finding a reason to complain, hires him to star as the sexual superhero "Orgazmo" and commits to pay him a hefty sum of $20,000 for his trouble. Young's beliefs don't necessarily jive with the porno industry, but when he's told someone else can stand in (go in?) for him when it's time to shed the Orgazmo costume, he agrees. He finds himself in a world he cannot imagine and cannot bring himself to fully accept. But he befriends several of his co-starts, including a porn actress named Saffi (Juli Ashton) and a brilliant M.I.T. graduate named Ben Chapleski (Dian Bachar) who works in the industry to satisfy his endless sexual cravings. As Young's fame grows and his movie becomes a massive mainstream hit, he must keep the secret from his straight-as-an-arrow Mormon fiancé Lisa (Robyn Lynne).

For people who like hairy behinds filling the screen, old ladies spouting off the F-word in a rant against Mormon visitors, barely-dressed obese girls voiced by Trey parker and riding an unfortunate lover, cheesy costumes, characters wearing dildos on their heads and wielding variations thereof as hand weapons, an orgasm-inducing ray gun, and/or cheerily ridiculous (and deliberately so) adult film-level acting, then Orgasmo will hit the spot. No, not that spot. Geez! The movie thrives on tongue-in-cheek (and tongue in other places) insanity, embracing the total absurdity of it all and doing so unapologetically at that. The movie is full-on irreverent and manages to go way over the top without resorting to actually showing hardcore porn in full, unobscured action to do so. Every bit seems carefully plotted but zanily executed, a fun combination that allows the movie to feel like there's at least some story behind it while still just having a blast by playing with all sorts of tropes and giving basic shape to a number of oddball characters. There's really not much to the movie, otherwise. There's obviously no deeper (or faster!) meaning to any of it. Orgazmo is ridiculous because it can be, and that's what sets Parker and Stone apart from the crowd, their willingness to go all-out, thumb their nose at the naysayers, and just have fun with their craft and embrace their own sense of humor. And like them or this film or not, that's a quality one can admire.

Indeed, Orgazmo is the Parker and Stone show above everything else. Not only is their brand of unflinchingly crude humor on full display, but so too are their talents. Parker is terrific in the lead part, having a lot of fun with the character's duality that sees him torn between the woman and faith and life he loves and the exciting new world that opens up before him, a world of which he's terrified but oddly drawn towards, first only for the big payday promised to him but later by the people that become part of his life. Parker handles the core dramatic bits well and nails the goofy, untrained, on-the-spot sort of acting that's the perfect reflection of the adult film performance stereotype. He plays the title character with a recognizable South Park voice (newscaster?) and also performs a hilarious opening title song that's classic Parker/Stone (playing as the band DVDA, which has a connection with this film). They're surrounded by core performers who share their vision for the film and play it as straight as they can while clearly still clearly a lot of fun with it. They understand that Orgazmo is hardly high art or even in any way clever or meaningful entertainment but instead a movie that's made with an obvious passion for absurdity and no direction or want other than, hopefully, to make the audience laugh.

Orgazmo Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Orgazmo's 1080p transfer is, to be blunt, a mess. After screening the Blu-ray, it's easy to see why Universal didn't provide a review copy. There are two kinds of image in this movie: ultra-smoothed over in the classic DNR style and excessively processed to where it's a soft, blurry eyesore that's a mess of motion blur, frozen grain, and, sometimes, glowing edges. There's nothing else, and it's not uncommon for these to share scenes, flipping back and forth and shot to shot, even shots of the same character or thing. Its disappointing best comes in the smoothed over shots that eliminate the grain. Here, the image is at least fairly sharp and consistently so, yields some serviceable details, and offers passably flashy, if not flat, colors. In the other shots, grain appears hopelessly frozen, so much so that slow pans make skin look like it's crawling or warping. Here, colors are noticeably more dull than in the other shots; the neon greens and loud pinks on Orgazmo's costume suffer the most, lacking even the cursory vibrancy of the smoothed-over images where grain has been removed, not left in stasis. The image additionally suffers from a regular barrage of pops and speckles that are troublesome but, frankly, the least of the transfer's worries. This is barely better than a DVD; the cleaner, brighter, more evenly smoothed shots at least benefit from the raw 1080p resolution, but the other shots are a fuzzy, motion-blured, grain-frozen disaster that, in some of the worst shots, aren't a significant upgrade over VHS. Note that this review corresponds to the unrated cut. The theatrical cut seems a little better in terms of favoring the brighter, "better" smoothed out image rather than the fuzzier, duller one.

Orgazmo Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Orgazmo's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtrack is, like the video, a major disappointment. It's uneven, unkempt, and unflattering. It's aggressive but balance is off and clarity is never rich or naturally authentic. There's a fair sense of space and weight to music, but forget pinpoint accuracy and the effortless blend of vocals and instrumentals. The track throws a few directional effects around the front and basic atmospherics are present but lack any sort of true balance or sense of place. One of the worst offenders in the movie comes at the 51:30 mark as Young and Chapleski wait in line to enter a club. There's a harsh, practically unidentifiable din that destroys the scene. Worse, dialogue is frequently uneven, booming here, sounding hollow there. This soundtrack could be described as "passable" were one being kind to it.

Orgazmo Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Fans must access all of Orgazmo's supplements in-film via the pop-up menu. The "top menu" offers only a selection to view the unrated version of the film (1:34:54 runtime) or theatrical version (1:32:36 runtime).

• Audio Commentary: Drunken Commentary with Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Dian Bachar, Stan Sawicki, Andrew W. Kemler and Jason McHugh. Available only with the theatrical cut presentation.
• Audio Commentary: Cast Commentary with Masao "Maki" San, David Dunn, Robyn Lynne Raab, Jason McHugh, Shayla LaVeaux, Farrell Timlake, and Mattt Potter. Available only with the theatrical cut presentation.
• Audio Commentary: Wild Commentary with South Park Writing Staff (Pam Brady, Matt Pregger and Kyle McCulloch), Weird Al Yankovic, Dave Foley, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, Kevin Smith, and David Zucker. Available only with the theatrical cut presentation.
• Deleted Scenes (480i, 29:23): With optional, and very informal, commentary which includes a lot of laughter and a few off-the-cuff comments.
• The Book of Orgazmo (480i, 39:10): Jason McHugh, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Lloyd Kaufman, Maso Maki, Dian Bachar, Farrell Timlake, Julie (sic) Ashton, Ron Jeremy, Robyn Raab, David Dunn, Shayla Laveaux, Andy Kemler, and Stan Sawicki share plenty of intimate details about making Orgazmo (including sexual arousal on the set, working with porn stars, and the NC-17 rating). Participants also show their best "orgasm" face and share their fantasy sexual superpowers.
• Outtakes (480i, 41:41).
• Behind the Scenes (480i, 17:45): Raw footage from the shoot.
• Interviews (480i): Includes clips from Dragon Con (33:51) with Trey Parker (includes the original "$#!tty audio") and EPK Interviews (7:54) with Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Dian Bachar, Jason McHugh, and Juli Ashton fielding a few basic questions.
• Orgazmo Trailers (480i): Red Band Trailer (2:11) and Original 16mm Trailer (3:14).
• Photo Gallery (1080p, 7:30): Stills from the shoot.

Orgazmo Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Orgazmo is a dirty movie, but it's not that kind of dirty movie. Its NC-17 rating seems more than a little harsh, and while it's a hard-R to be sure, there's no extreme violence that's not obviously phony, and there's no overt nudity, no full-on, unclothed, up-close sexual activity. There's also no real purpose other than laughter, and Parker and Stone understand what the movie needs to be and focus only making it as good as it can be in that very narrow context, and for the most part, they succeed. High art for highbrow audiences this is not, and neither is it fit for the family or anyone with even an inkling towards more traditional values, but more accepting audiences might very well find this to be a pleasurable little film. Universal's Blu-ray, on the other hand, is a complete disaster. While it's packed with vintage supplements, video is atrocious and audio isn't much better. Don't upgrade; hang on to the DVD instead.