San Francisco- [www.ebar.com]- It’s the reason there are porn stars everywhere you look! It’s the reason there are pre-parties and after-parties and just plain old party parties every night this weekend. It’s the reason my back-of-the-issue column is right smack up front! It’s the GayVN Awards!
Following more than two decades of doling out acclamation in various bars and clubs in the southland, the GayVN Awards show landed at the venerable Castro Theatre two years ago. That made sense, since San Francisco is home to the industry’s biggest sexo producers: Colt, Titan, Raging Stallion, Falcon, Hot House. The glamorous movie palace provides room for more fans to attend, and confers a greater and deserved respectability on all concerned.
Sure, the GayVN honchos need to iron out the dichotomous policy that righteously excludes bareback movies from award consideration, yet allows them revenue-producing editorial consideration in the parent magazine. And get this – one of my favorite scenes of the year wasn’t even nominated! The scorcher between Zeb Atlas and Killian in Falcon’s Best Man 2: The Wedding Party shoulda got a nod for Best Duo. It’s been stuck on repeat in my machine for months now.
Oh well. Let’s celebrate. On every side of Saturday night’s award ceremony are a slew of industry-only parties and events. But there’s a special one for the fans: on Friday, March 27, the bars of the Castro will host the biggest studios and their nominated stars for a giant tailgate party, orchestrated by NakedSword and the Stop AIDS Project. They promise the boys will be spilling out of the bars and onto the street to welcome their fans. It’s not a night for staying home and watching stars, get out there and meet em!
The most awarded movie this year is likely to be Raging Stallion’s To the Last Man. Has there been a bigger movie in sexo history? The finished product clocks in at 5 3/4 hours. Its astronomical budget, the number of performers, the amount of time spent on location: it’s one of the biggest sexo productions ever. It may well be one of the last, what with the recession and the cut-rate sale prices studios are hurling at consumers in a way that says they’re hurting for money. Yet it may augur more blockbusters: sales of TTLM have been phenomenal.
Even before the movie rode in, people were crying Controversial! because of Violence! Well, hold your horses. It’s true that the first half ends with a double dose of brutality, and the second half won’t give up until everyone’s dead: shot, throat slit, drowned, burned alive, plus an endless rape and a priest shot through the heart. Yet it’s nothing you
haven’t seen in a Hollywood Western. It’s just that you’ve never seen the likes of such violence in a sexo. Sexographers have forever been seeking validation as filmmakers, and I’ll grant them the right to stretch their wings. Yet is this the narrative to aid and abet eroticism?
Two extended families of all-gay ranchers are separated by more than a blood feud stretching back a generation. There’s a mountain range between their ranches. On one side of the mountain, good and plenty. On the other, drought. When the dry boys steal water from the wet guys, the old feud is ignited. In-between the ranchers shooting sperm at their buddies, they’re shooting bullets at the baddies.
Supported by a strong script by Tony Dimarco, with adept performances and character-driven sex scenes directed by Chris Ward, Ben Leon and Dimarco, Part 1, The Gathering Storm, is continually hot. The movie opens on a solo for Damien Crosse. He takes a swig from his Jack Daniels bottle, then sits down on it til the neck disappears up his wazoo. He crams it in savagely and jacks off til his cum blasts. Then he pulls the bottle out of his ass and takes another swig. Still horny, he plows the bounteous buns of Antton Harri, a beautiful but slightly passive performer.
Then we’re hurtled into the rousing coupling of furry young RJ Danvers and tattooed daddy Dan Rhodes. RJ’s bottoming telegraphs a visceral excitement. Sturdy Scott Tanner joins in, and gives Rhodes a mighty screwing. I love it when a hot top tumbles, and takes it like he gives it.
A startling scene with Jackson Wild and Ricky Sinz comes next. Wild’s a ball of eroticism and a colossal cocksucker. Sinz has such a ripped body and steely cock; Wild goes slobbering ape over it, then takes a royal ride on the adamantine tool. I’m a little put off by Sinz’ bullying nature. I don’t care for masculinity that’s defined by malice, and that’s Ricky’s specialty. Yet you may be stimulated, as Ricky really works it.
Part 1 churns along. Tristan Jaxx uses a wrench as a dildo on RJ Danvers before providing him with a rollicking Reverse Cowboy that culminates in Jaxx’s jet-propelled orgasm. Then comes my favorite scene. Logan McCree, one of the bad guys, meets up with fresh-faced bear-cub Scott Campbell, one of the good guys. They’re on the edge of rocky ledges that give way to a sheer drop into a bottomless canyon. Despite being enemies, the guys are horny cowpokes, so their wrasslin’ quickly turns to rammin’. There’s real passion here, with each man giving himself thoroughly. Making it more special is their flip-fuck. Logan takes a sensational ride astride Scott, and when he’s about to burst, he leans forward and Scott scarfs up the white pearls as they fall from Logan’s cock.
Are oral cum-shots controversial? Not for me. Yes, there have been cases of sero-conversion due to cocksucking. But a recent Swedish study reported in the Advocate looked at a small cohort of HIV-negative men in serodiscordant relationships, and found that after repeated unprotected oral sex with HIV-positive partners, half the men had developed neutralizing antibodies in their saliva. Meaning cum-ingestion may actually be a prophylactic.
But back to the movie. Lovers from opposing camps, Jake Deckhard and Antton Harri, pictured] come together under the stars, beside an open fire. A lovely interlude, which leads to Part 1’s brutal conclusion. Death comes twice: as Deckard swings from the noose, Sinz shoots him.
What will happen? One rushes into Part 2, Guns Blazing, yet the depredations of the plot between each sex scene are becoming unwieldy. The sex scenes in this part lack continuity, are clumsily initiated, and aren’t as tied to the narrative. Ricky Sinz’s scene with Damian Rios is a near-duplicate of his earlier scene with Jackson Wild, but a little jumpy. Ricky’s directors have done him no favor by letting him chew the scenery like the villain in a mellerdrama. Swigging from a whiskey bottle, puffing clouds of smoke from his cigarette, he all but twirls his mustachios. Perhaps the directors haven’t reckoned the believability of Joe Gage’s movies. His constant instruction to his players is, “Underplay.”
Two scenes featuring Rick Powers flow by easily but without real grab, despite Trystan Jaxx in one of them. Things pick up again when Scott Campbell takes on the heated exertions of whopper-cocked Antonio Biaggi. Scott’s hot, and delights in taking a cum-gulper OCS, a delicious favor which Antonio returns. Then Scott kills him.
Damien Crosse and Jackson Wild do their best in the next scene, but I’ve become impatient. Jimmy Tripps, a newcomer with tousled black hair and a weighty, veiny, uncut cock, has a tasty JO solo that culminates in his death. Sexuality has been dispelled as the story’s working out has taken precedent, especially during Scott Tanner’s long, unbelievable rape by McCree and Sinz. Following the rape, the violence is flogged until everyone is dead and I was entirely worn down.
Is TTLM the Best Movie of the Year? Half of it may be. Is it an achievement? Undoubtedly. Will you watch it? Of course. www.RagingStallion.com