DONKEY PUNCH

Kim (Jaime Winstone) and Lisa (Sian Breckin) have dragged pal Tammi (Nichola Burley) away for a girlie weekend in Majorca to help her get over her split from boyfriend Ryan.

They venture on to a bar on their first afternoon and almost immediately bump into rich lads Marcus (Jay Taylor), Blue (Tom Burke) and Josh (Julian Morris). Kim incites Marcus to steal a bottle of bubbly from another table and the giggling sextet flee to drink it on the beach.

After a while the girls grow restless and wonder what to do next. Marcus suggests they can continue to party on the posh yacht he's looking after for the weekend. Tammi is wary but Lisa persuades her to give it a go for "just one drink".

On board the yacht, they meet Josh's older brother Sean (Robert Boulter) who along with Tammi is not in partying mode. When the drinks are poured and the music is cranked up, he's quick to protest against the noise, saying it'll disturb the other boats on the marina. I know how he feels: I can't stand Justice's "Never Be Alone" either.

Marcus has the solution: set sail for the high seas and party out there. Sean is reluctant but his mates win him round. As the girls are shown around below deck by Josh, the other boys remain upstairs and discuss who they're going to sleep with.

An afternoon of sunbathing, drinking, talking about sex, popping pills and diving into the sea ensues. All of which brings us to sunset, when Tammi and Sean snuggle in on deck to discuss their mutual heartache over respective recent break-ups. The others retire below deck for drunken sex.

Blue and Marcus swap partners while Josh films the events on his camcorder. But Blue insists Josh take his turn with Lisa, while he has a go at filming. Josh gets into Lisa doggie-style and, as he approaches orgasm, Blue continually shouts at him - encouraging him to perform an act they'd briefly discussed earlier in the day: the donkey punch.

Of course, this results in Lisa's swift death. The boys are quick to tell Kim and Tammi that Lisa has overdosed on drugs, but the girls grow ever more suspicious as their hosts frantically try to cover their backs by persuading Sean against contacting the coastguard, disposing of Lisa's body overboard and attempting to discard the incriminating DV cassette.

Stuck at sea in the dead of night, the unfolding events become not only a battle of the sexes but a battle of wits (God help each one of them!) as the boys try to protect their sordid secret while the girls simply strive to get home in one piece …

The first 50 minutes of DONKEY PUNCH work surprisingly well. It wasn't a film I expected to appreciate - I think you reach a certain age where all these "yoof culture" films grate, buckling under their desperate need to be hip - but the characters were all quite well-developed. The boys were more stupid than calculating, which gave them an air of authenticity. While the girls shared a convincing chemistry that played across extremely well on screen. Performances and script were engaging, as were the lovely Spanish landscapes and sun-kissed cinematography.

But once the film passes it's halfway mark, it nosedives into pedestrian horror film territory and finds that it has nowhere to go other than via lots of shouting, arguments about "doing the right thing" and obligatory gore (infrequent but fairly strong).

It's a plausible premise and it's fallout is handled deftly - up to a point, you can feel the panic in the cabin following Lisa's unmistakably accidental death - but then comes the inevitable lunge into sensational (and unconvincing) horror theatrics.

The final half ruins what opened as a credible, cool thriller with an interesting plot device concerning an urban myth (a donkey punch is supposedly a sharp blow to the back of your partner's neck just as you're about to orgasm - during anal sex, this is said to make your partner's anus involuntarily spasm and heighten your own pleasure. Only, it's likely to be lethal for your partner …).

It's worth noting that neither Blue's explanation of a donkey punch or Josh's actual delivery involve anal sex … I wonder if the filmmakers bottled it?

Nice production values, a good-looking cast (even Zippy-lookalike Winstone looks good with her kit off) and some attractive locations are ultimately DONKEY PUNCH's strongest points. Which, given it's agreeable set-up, is a letdown.

The film looks very good in a bright and clean anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer. Colours are vivid and grain is absent, although motion blurring is evident in darker scenes.

The English audio track is a strong, even proposition that makes good use of it's 5.1 channels. An English 2.0 mix is also available. Optional English subtitles are provided, as in an English audio descriptive track.

An animated main menu leads to static sub menus including a scene-selection page allowing access to the film via 12 chapters.

Extras include a warm and easy-going commentary track from director Olly Blackburn and producer Angus Lamont. As you'd expect, it focuses a fair deal on finance and logistics, but also manages a few light-hearted moments along the way.

Next up are a few onscreen interviews, all filmed in front of the same promotional studio backdrop. All interviews follow the same format of answers being split by onscreen text questions.

First up is 8 minutes in the company of Taylor and Boulter who discuss how they were cast, filming at sea, their own working relationship and so on.

Then we have the girls up for 9 minutes of enthusiastic banter, interrupted occasionally by bouts of playful giggling. They clearly had a hoot making the film, but derive most mirth from discussing how they each found out what the title meant.

Blackburn understandably gets the most interview time - 14 minutes - and proffers more sober, technical replies to his questions.

A 17-minute Making Of featurette provides plenty more cast and crew interviews (producer Mark Herbert has a fair bit to say) alongside many clips from the film. But there's a lack of behind-the-scenes footage.

6 deleted scenes follow in non-anamorphic 1.78:1, serving up more drug-taking, swearing and bickering.

The film-related extras are rounded off by a 2-minute storyboard-to-film comparison featurette utilising split-screens, the original 2-minute trailer and 4 UK TV spots.

The disc opens with trailers for WOLF CREEK, FRONTIER(S), WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE (the "Cannibals? What Cannibals? Oh, there they are - 2 minutes before the fucking end credits" one) and … a Pot Noodle ad!

Not as clever as it perhaps believes itself to be, DONKEY PUNCH starts promisingly but later descends into depressingly banal territory.

Review by Stuart Willis