Yet after seeing it, I have to confess I had the same one-word reaction to this admittedly very professionally done film: bland. For the most part, GOW is technically superior to other videos catering to our GIMP fetish. In fact, the lighting, editing, photography, music and effects, are on par with a lot of mainstream output. Even the acting, usually the weakest element in these vids, is almost passable. But to me, it seemed like those involved with this production really don't understand GIMP fantasies. They might know a thing or two about shooting cheesecake – maybe even femme-fight videos – but this supposed capture-and-interrogation scene looks like it is targeting folks who think the Playboy channel is risqué and subversive.

First off, leaving the victim garbed in a red, Victoria's Secret ensemble throughout is unrealistic on more than one level. How many RL soldier girls wear the Valentine's Day special on their missions? And as others on this board have already pointed out, why in blazes would her captors take off Cali's uniform but not her underwear? The bondage is meh at best, and the only thing even slightly innovative about the torture scenes is hanging the heroine upside-down. This is a 45 minute video, but Cali suffers nothing other than an interminable barrage of mostly lame pummeling and electric shocks. And by the end of it, she sports nary a bruise, scratch or drop of blood.

Oh right, I forgot... there is a brief shot wherein a black-masked minion improvises by pinching (ungagged) Cali's nose for a few seconds (why?), and there's that horrifying part where a cat-suited fetish queen tries to break Cali by rubbing oil all over her body. Still, I dunno... those scenes seemed to be lacking a little bit of – what is it called again? – oh yeah... credibility.

And then there is that outstanding death scene at the climax. Although Cali is still in perfect shape and has not confessed to a single thing, her tormentors inexplicably and wordlessly agree to kill her. Suddenly, four (?) hands are at our heroine's throat and Cali asphyxiates in less than fifteen seconds. One wonders how a woman with such a healthy set of, um... lungs can run out of air so fast.

Of course, the whole film doesn't make a lick of sense anyway. In an overlong, ten minute intro, there's some blah-blah-blah about a rogue mercenary group, secret codes and biological weapons. Once Cali is caught, she exchanges some tough-chick repartee with the Catwoman wannabe, but aside from a brief bit of prattle about “Venus” the focus of the interrogation is pretty nebulous. The black-masked guards never say a word. Instead, they come across like a troupe of misogynistic mimes who will happily beat up a half-clad babe so long as they don't have to show their faces.

GOW is a film which fails not for lack of money or competent talent, but because its creators try to pass off a few isolated GIMP elements (punches, tasers, sexy victim, dominatrix villain) as a complete and satisfying GIMP experience. That's too bad, because in the end, it could have been much, much better. Eda's astute comparison between GOW and ZFX's South of the Border 7 makes this clear. GOW seems artificial, unconvincing and half-baked – peril for posers. SOTB is the real deal; nasty and believable – peril for pervs.