We first saw Zazel more than a year ago, and there has yet to be an adult film on the market to equal its exquisite beauty, succulent sex and lush locations. So of course, Zazel would be Metro's pick for its premiere DVD. Wise choice… and, in truth, a no-brainer.

The first thing that strikes the viewer is the disk's superior image quality. Using true MPEG-2 compression, every moment of Zazel is flawlessly replicated from the original film. In fact, it's so good that Metro has been forced to resort to copy-protecting and encrypting the disk, as pirate tapes or QuickTime movies made from a straight disk-to-tape or –computer transfer would have looked better than the videotapes Metro retails! What this means for consumers, unfortunately, is that if the DVD player is connected to the TV/monitor through a VCR, the picture will cyclically lighten and darken due to the copy protection. A minor problem, since direct connection can easily be made, but one which many consumers will face.

But consider the benefits! Zazel DVD owners can listen to the feature in either English or Spanish; can check out dozens of still photos from the original shoot; can view biographical screens of some of the stars, as well as the movie's sexy trailer; and can jump to any of the film's 11 scenes with the push of a button.

For a full review of the movie, check out the Editor's Choice section of our February, 1997 issue; that says it all. Briefly, however, there are more than a dozen Euro-beauties in the production, many of them Penthouse Pets, all having volcanic sex in settings ranging from botanical gardens to Spanish villas, to heaven and hell.

Zazel deserves a prominent place in every retailer's DVD section, where it should sell like hotcakes. At press time, it was already heading for a second printing, 4500 of the original 5000 having been pre-ordered (750 of those for Virgin Megastores alone!)

Zazel may not have all the bells and whistles that other disks have, but it hasn't forgotten what the cognoscenti buy adult disks for: Breathtaking women artistically shown in sexually-explosive encounters.