The Movie:
The 1983 movie 'A Night In Heaven' is the story of a school teacher, Faye Hanlon, played by Leslie Ann Warren, who falls under the seductive spell of her hot young college student, Ricky Monroe (Christopher Atkins) who moonlights as a male stripper named Ricky Rocket. After failing Ricky in her class, she goes out with friends to a male strip show only to be shocked to find her student performing there. Ricky makes his teacher the focus of his striptease, which gets her all hot and bothered despite the fact that she is married. Meanwhile, Faye has to contend with her increasingly rocky marriage, particularly as her husband deals with losing his job at the Space Agency. Things get complicated as the flirting turns more heated and her husband begins to suspect her infidelity.

This movie really capitalized on Christopher Atkins' post-'Blue Lagoon' sex symbol status, in a decidedly m...Read the entire review

The Movie:
'An Early Frost' was a groundbreaking television movie that was shown on NBC as the AIDS epidemic was finally hitting the public conscience in 1985. It was the first film ever about AIDS. 'An Early Frost' was the top rated show on TV the night it premiered, pulling in 1/3 of the television audience, and went on to be nominated for 14 Emmy Awards (winning 4 of them), as well as winning a Golden Globe Award. It stars Aidan Quinn, along with such acclaimed actors as Ben Gazzara, Gena Rowlands, Terry O'Quinn, Bill Paxton, Sylvia Sidney, and John Glover. The screenplay was written by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, who went on to be the creators and producers of Showtime's "Queer As Folk."

The film tells the tale of gay lawyer Michael Pierson, who is diagnosed with AIDS, and shows his struggles with his lover, family, and himself as he copes with the reality of his impending death and th...Read the entire review

The Movie:
'Queer Duck' was originally a series of Internet shorts developed by Icebox, shown online on Showtime's Sho.com starting in 2001. The programs, as well as this full-length feature, were written and produced by Mike Reiss of 'The Simpsons' fame. Queer Duck's character was notable for being voiced by actor Jim J. Bullock, and it featured a theme song sung by cross-dressing diva RuPaul. These shorts were popular for creating a gay-centric cartoon world where the humor contained many insider gay cultural references, quickly developing a popular following among techie queers.

'Queer Duck: The Movie' is the expansion of the production into a full feature-length comedy. The movie keeps the crudely drawn "pre-school" animation style of the 'Queer Duck' shorts, as well as bringing back Queer Duck's zany cast of friends and lovers, like Openly Gator, Bi-Polar Bear, and Oscar Wildcat. Joini...Read the entire review

The Movie:
This video documents the making of the 2004 all-male adult film 'BuckleRoos', one of the most award-winning adult films in history. It is basically a "making of" featurette expanded to full 97 minute feature-length. The DVD has been marketed to a general audience and is available through mainstream retailers as an unrated documentary, rather than as an "adult" film relegated to specialty stores only. The question is, can what normally would just be a bonus "extra" tacked on to the DVD release of the feature film be interesting enough and have enough value by itself to succeed as its own separate DVD release? And, would such a DVD have any appeal or even make sense for those who have not seen the feature film?

'Exposed' follows the basic format viewers have gotten used to from seeing "behind the scenes" featurettes included in so many of today's DVDs. We begin with the directors ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
'A Bigger Splash' is a "biography" of a period in the life of artist David Hockney. It is unique in seamlessly mixing documentary and fictionally filmed elements together in a way that makes it impossible to separate the two. Director Jack Hazan followed Hockney around from 1971 to 1973 as the artist struggled to overcome his breakup with his model and lover, Peter Schlesinger, and regain his creative spirit. Hazan takes these real-life filmed elements and combines them with fictional filmed scenes (starring the real-life friends and contemporaries surrounding Hockney) to weave together a tale that is neither fully fictional nor fully reality.

While all this sounds appealing as an inventive exercise in filmmaking, the final result is a film where the scenes simply do not come together to tell any kind of a rational or comprehensible story. One major problem is that the people fe...Read the entire review

The Movie:

'Garcon Stupide', which translates to 'Stupid Boy' is a French film about a cute but not-so-bright gay young man who drifts through a rather meaningless existence while trying to prove to himself and those around him that he is not as stupid as everyone makes him out to be. Pierre Chatagny, a first-timer in the lead role of Loic, has handsome, angular features and a toned, tan body. The picture of him on the DVD cover really doesn't do him justice and it is surprising that the studio thought that such an image would have any sex appeal to the target audience for this movie. Loic uses his good looks to get easy, anonymous sex through internet hookups, often with older unattractive men. He unexpectedly meets one man for meaningless sex, only to find that the guy is more interested in him as a person, which confuses yet intrigues the young man. A strange, mentoring friendship develops ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Bree Osbourne, a transsexual woman, is about to complete the final step in her gender reassignment when she is stunned to learn she is the biological father of a troubled 17-year-old son. They begin a cross-country road trip together that takes them on a journey of discovery, struggle, and acceptance.

Felicity Huffman will stun viewers with her shocking transformation into Bree, with an unforgettably believable performance that earned her an Academy-Award nomination. Impossibly attractive Kevin Zegers gives his own incredible performance as Bree's grungy hustler son Toby, in a role full of youthful angst and vulnerability. The two lead actors both carry the film into "classic performance" territory on the strength of their chemistry and their ability to totally immerse themselves into their characters. The film also features wonderful performances from Fionnula Flanagan, Burt Yo...Read the entire review

Movie:
Aging drag queen Beverly Jackson is unable to land a role in a local gay play, and she is determined to seek revenge against those who rejected her. She starts a cult by gathering together a dimwitted gang of Hollywood newbies to help her, despite the lack of any actual plan for carrying out her scheme. Meanwhile, Shane and Ray, two young and cute employees of a gay playhouse, get caught up in Beverly's diabolical plot while learning to accept each other and overcome their inhibitions.

This uproariously funny gay-themed film expertly blends a classic boy-meets-boy love story with a screwball revenge plot by a spurned drag queen. The result is a sexy comedy that anyone will enjoy, as long as the film is approached for what it is: a cheesy, silly farce that should not be taken too seriously. Director Damion Dietz (Neverland, Fag Hag) concocts a tale that recalls the insane campi...Read the entire review

The DVD Vanilla / A Little Comfort actually consists of a double-feature of two short films, Vanilla (47 min.) and A Little Comfort (39 min.). These two films from 2004 are extremely different and really have no thematic reason to be included together as one DVD release. Since the two films vary tremendously in quality and features, we will review each film separately, although our ratings by necessity weigh in both films together.

VANILLA

The Movie :
Vanilla is an American-made film that tries to evoke a surreal, mysterious style. It is the story of Jeff, a young 17-year-old aspiring photographer who finds the body of the Bay City Strangler, a gay serial killer. Jeff feels compelled to create an art project about the Strangler and his victims, and begins to have dreams where he converses with the ghosts of the victims or gets to view the murders ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
'3 Guys, 1 Girl, 2 Weddings' is a light-hearted French comedy that can best be described as a gay 'My Best Friend's Wedding.' This is a story that has been told before, even in other gay-themed films: Gay boy loves his straight best friend. They are happy with the boundaries established in their relationship. A woman arrives in the straight guy's life. Suddenly, the comfortable friendship shared by the two buddies is threatened by this new arrival. The gay boy feels himself losing the special relationship he has as the straight guy falls increasingly for the new woman. The gay boy realizes more and more how much he loves his straight friend and will do anything to break up the new lovers. Will he succeed at ending this intrusion on their friendship? Even better, will he actually be able to "turn" his friend and realize the true love of his life? This all leads to the inevitable con...Read the entire review

The Movie:
'Night Watch' (Ronda Nocturna) is a very strange film. It follows Victor, a street hustler in Buenos Aires, through a night while he aimlessly wanders the streets and has seemingly random encounters with various denizens of the night. He spends time with fellow hustlers, friends, the homeless, and clients, but nothing leads to anything nor do the various encounters relate to each other. Some encounters are short, such as people asking him what bus to take, and others are quite extended, such as the taxi ride and dinner Victor shares with an old friend, but none of these seem to relate to any central theme. This essentially leaves a movie with no plot and no conclusion. There are some surreal moments thrown in that are never explored further: We wonder whether these sequences are intended to show some kind of descent into paranoia or delusion by Victor, or if they are an attempt by ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
From the title, you might mistaken this for a military-themed gay adult film, but Private Dicks: Men Exposed is actually a 1999 HBO documentary where men talk about all things related to the penis. It is a companion piece to the filmmakers' own Breasts: A Documentary. While there are several brief nude shots of some of the dozen or so men featured, this is essentially a "talking heads" documentary where the men mostly appear clothed, or in their underwear, or only the top half of their body is shown. Anyone hoping for some prurient entertainment will be disappointed, particularly as many of the men are approaching senior citizenship or are quite out of shape.

Unfortunately, what's left is simply not very interesting. This may have had more appeal for the groundbreaking shock value of seeing male nudity when it aired on HBO originally, but on DVD, the film takes on a...Read the entire review

Surge of Power: The Stuff of Heroes has been marketed as "the first gay superhero movie" and as "a new high in low-budget camp," both of which will probably limit its mainstream appeal, which is a shame. First, the film is not really gay-themed, and more a comedy featuring some gay characters, similar to, say, Will & Grace vs. being like Queer As Folk where the plot is much more specific to gay life. Secondly, while the film is decidedly campy and effects are very low-budget, the cast and crew really step up and work with what they have to create an incredibly funny and appealing story.

The movie tells the tale of Gavin, a hapless corporate attorney who happens to also be a major comic book fan, debating the finer intricacies of the specific powers of his favorite superheros with his geeky friends. While visiting a "mad" scientist's lab, the inevitable explosion occurs which ...Read the entire review