This past weekend I enjoyed watching the 1994 Australian film The Sum of Us, which tells the story of a comfortable relationship between widower Harry and his gay son Jeff and their individual searches for the right mate.

Years before he became a household name in Hollywood, Russell Crowe delivers a strong and sexy performance as the son, a plumber in Sydney, exuding extreme masculine magnetism and an emotional vulnerability.

If there is anything worse than a parent who disapproves of your sex life, it may be a parent who approves too much.

Jack Thompson plays the open-minded straight father, who is so eager to help his son find Mr. Right, he is actually a bit of an annoyance with his well-intended interference. This dad goes to gay bars with his son, makes sure the young man’s dates know the safe-sex rules, and brings home gay porno magazines and leaves them around the house. The apparent reason for this attitude is that his own mother, upon widowhood, embarked on a 40-year love affair with a woman.

The Sum of Us is a classic to be sure and an absolute must for your collection!

1 comment

Shelter is a moving film about the young Zach (Trevor Wright), who sacrifices his dream of going to art school to support his frail father and his trashy sister, who constantly manipulates Zach into taking last-minute responsibility for her 5-year-old son.

Usually finding happiness surfing with his buddy Gabe (Ross Thomas), he starts hanging out with Gabe’s older brother Shaun (Brad Rowe), whom he has known since childhood. They go surfing, they talk and one night they drink a lot and Zach experiences his first kiss from a guy and his world is turned upside down.

To Zach it may be easier to stay in his rut, conforming to other’s expectations. Shelter is more than a coming-out, coming-of-age movie – it is the difficult story of finding oneself and having the courage to face who you are and follow your fate and destiny.

Shelter is a highly recommended film for your collection. It has a real plot that draws you in, making you feel for the characters, especially with the wonderful chemistry between Trevor Wright and Brad Rowe. This is a film about love, and learning to be true to yourself and those willing to ride the wave with you.

Comments are off for this post

Season Three of the addictive Dante’s Cove is now available on DVD – the gay man’s version of “Charmed” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. The series blends full frontal male nudity, semi-graphic sex, horror and the supernatural in a watchable camp adventure.

Kevin (Gregory Michael) is now Ambrosius Vallin’s (William Gregory Lee) love slave and boyfriend. His jilted boyfriend Toby (Charlie David) is now free to pursue a relationship with his friend Adam (Jon Fleming). New added man-candy this season includes “Noah’s Arc” star Jensen Atwood and “Amazing Race” winner (ex-Lance Bass boyfriend) Reichen Lehmkuhl.

This season is even more sexier and darker than the two previous seasons with many surprising twists and turns leading up to a stunning finale. Order your copy of the silly but completely fun and sexy soap opera Dante’s Cove.

Comments are off for this post

Recently I watched the 1976 film version of The Ritz, Terrence McNally’s mob farce set in a gay bathhouse – a goofy and dated gay comedy. It is worth buying or renting just for the cast.

I will admit that I had a past crush on Treat Williams, especially watching him in the 1984 movie Once Upon A Time In America and the television movie A Streetcar Named Desire. The young 25-year-old Treat Williams parading around in a towel at The Ritz is a fuck-fantasy to behold.

Rita Moreno is a hoot as the divine Googie Gomez. Throw in a humorous Jack Weston who takes forever to figure out it’s THAT kind of bathhouse and F. Murray Abraham as a Read Queen (my knowing him more as Antonio Salieri in the movie Amadeus). Jerry Stiller is a straight mobster, with his wife Kaye Ballard. There is also “Cheers’” John “Cliff” Ratzenberger, and Paul B. Price, hilarious as the chubby chaser after the straight Weston. The Ritz has plenty of bathhouse slamming doors and mistaken identities. It is also very interesting to see what passed for gay cheesecake thirty years ago – in his day, Treat Williams was nice eye candy.

If you haven’t seen The Ritz, you will have no idea why this is hysterically funny.

Comments are off for this post

About seven years ago I had enjoyed watching a live performance of Naked Boys Singing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida – with nude men singing show tunes and high-kicking like muscular Rockettes.

Last night I enjoyed watching Naked Boys Singing and wholeheartedly recommend the DVD, which re-stages the popular musical revue, brought to us by the producers of Latter Days and Adam & Steve.

The opening musical number, “Gratuitous Nudity”, is performed by the entire cast of ten men. At first it is disarming to see so many good-looking naked men on stage in a non-sexual way – but quickly the nudity becomes the norm and the music takes the spotlight.

The 16 original songs celebrate the male anatomy and the gay lifestyle. “The Naked Maid” is about one man’s time cleaning homes naked for rich gay men. “The Bliss of Bris” celebrates a circumcision ceremony as the gathered family admires the young man’s penis, which had me wildly laughing! “Window to Window” is a particular favorite as two men do a striptease for each other across a street – the sexy song using nudity not as a gimmick, but as a plot point. The emotion in “Kris Look What You Missed”, in the lovely voice of Jaymes Hodges, brought a tear to my eye. “Fight the Urge” takes the audience into the high school locker room where an erection could spell doom. “Perky Little Porn Star” is a lot of fun just by the lyrics alone.

Naked Boys Singing is a celebration of the cock – giving you plenty of eye candy to look at, eliminating the need for opera glasses, and offering the opportunity to use the pause and zoom buttons. And who knows, maybe you will find yourself humming “I beat my meat” after the entertaining and amusing show is over.

Comments are off for this post

Todd (Jonathan Bray) is a computer programmer struggling with the after-effects of a recent divorce – so his freeloading brother Barry (Jonathan Silverman) creates an online dating profile for him.

Straight-laced Todd then embarks on a blind date with a hot girl named Kelly, but he has been tricked by his brother Barry and it turns out that Kelly is the owner of a local hair salon – a sexy gay guy (played by OUT actor Wilson Cruz).

COFFEE DATE is an amusing twist on the predictable genre of romantic comedy, although it really is more of a buddy movie. Male friendship is a funny thing. It is easy when you are meeting friends in school or on the football team, but it gets considerably harder as adults. Both guys have a lot in common, leaving Todd with a friend where he least expected it.

Todd and Kelly decide to take revenge on Barry by reversing the joke. After their “date”, the pair saunters past Barry holding hands, pretending that they are an actual couple. The joke works too well.

Through a series of Three’s Company–style misunderstandings, everyone in Todd’s life becomes convinced that he is gay and no one believes Todd’s story that the whole thing is just a big misunderstanding.

As the circumstantial evidence mounts, Todd starts wondering whether he is the one who’s got everything wrong, resulting in a sexual-identity crisis – eventually leading Todd, after a half bottle of Jack Daniels, into Kelly’s bed.

COFFEE DATE is a cute, if predictable, movie. Gay Boy Meets Straight Boy, People Think Straight Boy Is Gay, Straight Boy Is Gay Bashed, Straight Boy Fucks Gay Boy, and Gay Boy’s Feelings Are Hurt. The only unpredictable element in COFFEE DATE is that Todd remains straight – even after a night of sexual passion with Kelly – the real gem of the movie with Wilson Cruz’s buff muscularity.

Make a date and watch COFFEE DATE.

Comments are off for this post

Dante’s Cove is a show that was created with an almost entirely gay and gay-friendly set of characters, airing in the United States on here!, a premium gay-oriented network.

The first season, which aired in 2005, consisted of an 84 minute first episode and a 106 minute second episode – shot in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The second season of Dante’s Cove was shot on the north side of Oahu in Hawaii, shooting near the filming location of the television series Lost.

The five-episode season, shot entirely on high definition videotape, was aired in the fall of 2006.

It looks like the upcoming third season of Dante’s Cove will be as fun to watch as the first two seasons. Good looking shirtless men will be making love while ancient curses drive immortal beings to wreak havoc on their lives.
Season three of Dante’s Cove, with six one-hour episodes, debuts in October 2007 on the here! network.

Comments are off for this post

Based on the 1995 novel by Matthew Rettenmund, BOY CULTURE balances its tale of relationship misadventures among the young – with some sharp insights into the way age, race, sex, money and lust shape the lives of good-looking 21st-century gay men.

Derek Magyar, referred to only as “X”, is the narrator of BOY CULTURE – a highly sought-after escort.

“X” carefully manages his exclusive client list of 12 (which he calls his disciples), invests his money wisely and always keeps sex and sex-business separate. He has separated them so successfully that he hasn’t had sex with anyone other than clients since his teenage experience with an older cousin that opened his eyes to his sexuality. He has since then been saving himself for someone he loves. Derek Magyar’s character establishes early on that he is unavailable – symbolically placing his jacket on the empty seat next to him at a bar, showing that he will not allow anyone to get too close.

Living with Derek Magyar are two boys that don’t pay rent: Andrew (Darryl Stephens of Noah’s Arc fame),

and the barely legal, very promiscuous twink “Blowy Joey” (Jonathon Trent). “X” has a huge crush on Andrew, and Joey has a huge unrequited crush on X, which makes the apartment a volatile place at times.

The spark that ignites change in BOY CULTURE is a relationship “X” has with a new client – wealthy and aging 70-something Gregory Talbot (Patrick Bauchau – best known for the character of “Sydney” on the television series “The Pretender”). Gregory tells “X” that he will not sleep with him until “you want me half as much as I want you.” BOY CULTURE is a film that examines how gay men interact as friends, lovers, or an uncomfortable combination of the two. Most of the men in Boy Culture are unable to commit to one person – they are always looking for someone better.

BOY CULTURE has the potential to become a gay cult classic. I enjoyed the film so much that I ordered Matthew Rettenmund’s novel. The next question would be – will the story be continued? Is BOY CULTURE star Derek Magyar up for X-squared?

Comments are off for this post