Throughout the annals of film history, producers have used salacious titles in order to promote exploitation movies. Barn of the Naked Dead, Three on a Meathook, Bloodsucking Freaks -- all of these titles certainly catch your attention. (Ironically movies with innocuous titles like Last House on the Left and any of John Waters’ movies are actually more shocking.) Some movies which were initially failures were actually re-released with more questionable titles in order to gain more business. This practice still continues to this day. If you think that Donkey Punch is about someone hitting a mule, then maybe the dirty title escapes you...just like the appeal of the movie escaped me.

Donkey Punch introduces us to Kim (Jaime Winstone), Lisa (Sian Breckin), and Tammi (Nichola Burley) are three young British women who are on vacation in Mallorca, Spain. Kim and Lisa are ripe for partying, but Tammi is a bit reticent because she’s just broken up with her finance. Her friends are still able to convince Tammi to go bar-hopping with them. (In the middle of the day.) Once out, the three meet Marcus (Jay Taylor), Bluey (Tom Burke), and Josh (Julian Morris). They have some drinks, steal some champagne, and walk to the beach. The girls start to get bored, when the guys explain that they are crewing a yacht and suggest that the girls come see it. The girls agree and go to the boat, where they meet Shaun (Robert Boulter), who had stayed behind to monitor the vessel. The group begins to party, but they can’t play loud music while in the marina, so they decide to take the boat out to sea. As the drinks and drugs begin to take effect, the group begins to pair off, with Bluey and Josh having their way with Lisa. Suddenly, Josh strikes Lisa and kills her. The guys tell Kim and Tammi that Lisa must have overdosed. Hearing this, the girls decide that the police must become involved. However the guys protest, and suddenly Kim and Tammi find themselves being held hostage on-board the boat.

The bottom-line is that you've seen most of this before, and you've seen it done better. The only thing that Donkey Punch does to separate itself from the pack is push the envelope when it comes to sex and violence. Of course, this isn't surprising as the movie takes its name from an act of sexual violence. In the unrated version, the sex scenes aren't necessarily graphic -- there's hardly any nudity -- but they are steamy. From there, the violence in the film is somewhat graphic and people do die. And when they die, it's in interesting ways using implements found on the boat. But, the unusual level of sex and violence doesn't justify watching the film, as you'll find yourself itching to fast-forward to the next outrageous scene. Everything in between is leaden scenes of the group arguing. They are stuck on this boat at sea, and feel that we are right there with them with no way to escape the boredom.

Donkey Punch wastes a perfectly good yacht on DVD courtesy of Magnolia Home Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is sharp and clear, showing basically no grain and no defects from the source material. The colors are OK and the image is never overly dark or bright. However, the picture is slightly hazy at times and there is some shimmering of the image. The DVD contains a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. The track features great subwoofer effects from the in-film music and the throbbing beats of the songs had my walls shaking. The surround sound and stereo effects are good as well, as they are nicely detailed and show good speaker separation. However, the dialogue is somewhat muffled and the thick accents don't help. There are no English subtitles on the DVD, so I haven't had no idea what the characters were saying.