To TOP Off June Pride Month - A bit of gay erotica!

Seeing as this IS Gay Pride Month, here in San Francisco anyway, and that erotica, or pornography as some would call it, is also an art form that sits beside and within cinema and stage, I feel compelled to post my perceptions on the latest flick from the Colt Studio Group. [In the spirit of full disclosure, I must state that I have developed a close friendship with one of the performers in the following film. However, as some of you painfully know, that doesn't keep me from airing my opinions.]

"Dual: Taking It Like A Man" (director John Rutherford, US, 90 mins, dvd) is the latest video from that fabulously masculine erotic factory, recently rechristened as the Colt Media Group. It features seven performers divided into four sequences of pairs. (One performer pops up (ha!) twice.) Since such work tends to dispense with plot (there is NO dialogue), it is best to look at the individual sequences and then relate them together as a whole.

The first sequence is the hardest core of the four. It features Carlo Masi and Skye Woods in full leather drag, apparently set in an alley of sorts. First off, the production values are sort of artificial here. It harkens back to the videos of the '80s with it's harsh lighting and stiff angles that are necessary due to the scene being staged against a wall for all practical purposes. However, as the disc continues, this may have been the point, as the video progresses to more glossier, and ultimately polished production values. The artificiality also makes what could be slightly disturbing action easier to take in. Masi and Woods look great here and play the top/bottom - (soft core) S/M scene in predictable style. Personally, I find this style bordering on posturing, which I suppose is the point. However, once the action begins, it does lend itself to a certain carnal enjoyment. I do take exception to one short sequence in which Masi spits into Woods mouth and continues spitting on his face. I understand that it is a performance, however I can't really get behind this kind of degrading in sexual situations, whether real or fantasy, as I don't really like to think that some guys get off on watching that. That said, the sequence is short enough, that a simple chapter skip will get you into some really well positioned and staged fucking. Mr. Woods does indeed 'take it like a man' in the scene and is able to show off his great body while still being plowed by Mr. Masi.

Section two features Karim and Jake Andrews in a bedroom setting. The setting is cleaner and photographed in a much more natural light than Section one. The sequence begins with Andrews asleep as Karim enters, in what might be considered the 'morning after of a trick'. Or at least that is how I saw it. The pair are the oldest of the cast, however they're still quite hot! Karim is a very big man. He enters, ready for more of what I imagine he had the night before. Andrews is an exceptionally gifted 'bottom' and is able to orally fulfill Karim's every whim, in what I can only call, breathtaking abandon! The only hesitation I have during this sequence is cosmetic. Andrews has a distractingly placed tattoo that encircles just below his waist. The bed is huge, which allows a staging of mutual oral stimulation (ok! just say it! 69'ing!) that is really well choreographed and photographed.

Section three features Chris Wide and Gage Weston in another bedroom scene, set in front of a window that looks out upon the San Francisco Bay. Here, the scene steps up the intimacy as the two men have a really nice make out session before they begin to anally penetrate each other (aka, 'flip-fuck' to those in the know). Mr. Wide is the rebirth of Michelangelo's 'David'. He is nearly TOO gorgeous to be real. It is perhaps this perception of mine which may have detected a bit of woodenness in his performance. He is exceptional in print and I think he may need more experience in performing before a rolling camera as he doesn't seamlessly maintain the moment throughout. However, he is paired with a pro in Mr. Weston. Weston is fully engaged and sexy and knows exactly what to do, how he's going to do it and how it is going to appear on video. Their interaction in this scene would seem to be of those of two boyfriends, still in the 'honeymoon stage.' So far, the video is progressing quite well.

The Final Section features Luke Garrett and the return of Skye Woods from Section one. This is simply a fabulous finale to a quartet of scenes. Staged in yet another bedroom, but fabulously lit unlike the previous scenarios. Also, it is here that I really got into the music. I would need to go back and review what scores were behind the other three scenes to fully justify this statement, but the score in this scene helps it transcend the pure carnality that started the video. Garrett is just sexy as all hell (THOSE EYES!!!), waiting in bed as Woods displays his incredible body for him in a beautiful act of foreplay. There has been quite a bit of hype regarding Mr. Woods, and it is in this scene that it is justified. Where in Section one he seemed a bit out of place, here in his scene with Mr. Garrett and perhaps with the aid of Garrett's remarkably sensitive and sensual performance, Woods is able to open up and reveal the inner qualities that photograph so well in the first place. The two men perform with a great deal of chemistry and it is quite obvious how intent they are on pleasing each other. The staging places both men in their best positions. (Yes, a bit of pun is intended!) Woods is able to stretch and throw his massive legs out to gymnastic lengths, while Garrett does a fabulous job topping him without going to the gnarliness that the video started out with Mr. Masi.

Director John Rutherford has concocted a quartet of scenes in which male intimacy is explored from its most primal to its most sensual. These aesthetics are expressed in the production values, as well as the performances as each scene builds upon the previous. As far as I am concerned, Rutherford continues to raise the bar as far as what is pornography and what is erotic art. (He is the mastermind behind "Buckleroos".) There are those who might not get past the beginning of this video or start and skip around it, but by doing that, they will lose the sensual arc that Rutherford devised, and therefore devalue the video as a whole to being 'simply porn.'

The Extras:
There is a still gallery that is actually quite uniquely presented as a slide show. That is something that I wish major studios would do with their "Stills Galleries". The 'slide show' is wonderfully underscored, too.
There is a section that presents nothing but the orgasms. Personally, I have never been that pre-occupied with the orgasm, as much as how we get there. However, for those who are obsessed with 'the money shots', they are all here in one nice tidy little section.
Finally, there are previews of other Colt Videos.

The disc is 'priced for rental' as they say. However, I find it worth the purchase, as it lends itself to re-screenings.