The Lover’s Guide 3-D - Igniting Desire

Twenty years after the original The Lover’s Guide (a sexually explicit ‘educational’ guide to sex) video hit the unsuspecting UK public comes  a new  delve into the pleasures of love-making, The Lover’s Guide 3-D - Igniting Desire. This 18-certificate addition to the 3D marketplace receives a brief theatrical outing alongside its DVD and Blu-Ray release on February 7…just in time for a little Valentine’s Day gifting.

It is all largely inoffensive (unless one regards sex on screen as offensive) material and goes about discussing sexual techniques and desires in a matter-of-fact manner.

The original offering was essentially a video ‘how-to’ guide to sex – positions, problems, paranoias and pleasures – that received the 18-certificate from the UK’s rating body The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) due to its educational nature and medical seal of approval. It went on to sell millions of copies and spawn a series of sequels – such as The Lover’s Guide: Sex Play, The Lover’s Guide: Better Orgasms For Men, The Lover’s Guide: Secrets Of Sensational Sex and The Lover’s Guide: What Women Really Want – as well as many imitators.

This latest edition in the series – to give it its full (and rather lumbering) title, The Lover’s Guide 3-D: Igniting Desire: How To Have The Best Sex Of Your Life – was shot in 3-D, naturally bringing viewers even closer to the educational-action. To make it even more UK-friendly it features voiceovers by local actors Gemma Bissix (Eastenders, Hollyoaks) and Jeremy Edwards (Hollyoaks, Holby City).

The film breaks down into various chapters, bearing titles such as ‘Spice’, ‘Lick’ and ‘Caress’, and features various couples – largely youngish and good-looking, and apparently couples in real-life, and named in credits simply as ‘Bea and James’, ‘Jasmine and Otto’, ‘Cathy and Nick’ etc  – engaging in a little light acting (at bars, dinner parties in the kitchen etc) before having uncensored sex, while the voice-over explains some of the ‘how-to’ aspects of sexual congress…for example, the big issues around sex are: “..safe sex, bad sex and lack of sex”.

Naturally enough, the 3-D makes the sexual lessons that little bit more realistic, with every breast, erect member and ejaculation artfully shot by director Kenneth D. Rye, who favours soft lighting and mood music to help the educational atmosphere.

It is all largely inoffensive (unless one regards sex on screen as offensive) material and goes about discussing sexual techniques and desires in a matter-of-fact manner, and running just over an hour it never really outstays its welcome. Clearly its main life will be on DVD and Blu-Ray, but it may also find a modest – and probably intrigued – theatrical audience amongst younger folk and 3-D completests.

The official BBFC consumer advice for the film simply states that it: “Contains strong real sex”.