Pretty Boy

Reviewed by: Ian & David

Copyright © 2007 ? All Rights Reserved

Studio : Bel Ami

After watching XL 3, (see our Review) we needed to have our confidence restored in Bel Ami, which is why we chose Pretty Boy. Seriously, the both of us enjoy Bel Ami a lot, and you get a little shaken when you find a dud among all the good stuff. Dave loves his porn, and I love watching Dave enjoy his porn.

I selected the movie, simply because I enjoy watching Josh Elliot. There is something about his look, his face, that always gives me a bit of a thrill. I am not all that enamored by porn, but watching Josh, well it seems to break through the jaded feelings I have. Now David on the other hand, he isn’t what I’d call a person taken by the stars, as he is by their penises and how many good shots he can see of it.

Pretty Boy filled that bill just nicely, for us both. I got to have a bit of a storyline in the video, and David got his fill of great cock shots, super cum shots, and some damn hot ass action, including a hot rimming scene with Josh Elliot and Matt Phillipe. It is what makes Bel Ami special, in my mind. The way they do have a loose story theme and how they manage to carry it through the entire video sequence.

This one, has to be about one of the best I have seen too. Maybe I am biased, or was just needing it to be great. Not really sure, but I know this, it sure as hell got us both rather horny, and that is what a porn video should do. Course, we have company this month, so poor David, he had to stay dressed while watching, which in itself was rather amusing to watch. Poor guy, he so desperately wanted to whip his dick out and jack off, but not in front of company.

To see him squirm, to adjust his own package while watching the expressions on Josh Elliot’s face was priceless. And that is also why I enjoy his videos. Of all the Bel Ami Boys, I find his expressions to be the most sincere. I mean when he rolls his eyes, or opens them wide to look at his partner, you see more than just a forced stare.

Is it an act?

Maybe, but I don’t know if anyone can fake that much enjoyment. A consummate actor could, perhaps, but who cares? All I know is he looks like he is really into the action, and not just sucking or fucking. The way he is constantly moving, touching, kissing, it just comes across as being like how one would act, when totally into the other guy. It doesn’t seem forced in anyway, but natural, which only enhances the action, least in my view.

Then there is the subtitled dialogue as well. I hate most of the conversations models have while having sex. It comes across as not just faked, but unreal. Yet, even with the subtitles, the words here seem totally natural. It doesn’t come across as something added out of the need to have words either. It is more like exactly what two guys would say to each other, while having intimate sex. The words are translated, but you know, it makes sense, and comes at points in the action, that well, seem natural.

There isn’t a lot of it, but when it does happen, it is great. It adds a sense of familiarity that you don’t see in many porn flicks. It draws you in too, and frankly, it makes the sex seem wilder, more natural. You just don’t think you are watching a video, but spying on the guys doing it.

There is also the set and photography that blew me away. There isn’t anything cheap about Bel Ami. The sets are well done, the locations are intermingled perfectly with the action. Sure there are some parts where you can tell it was spliced in, but only if you look real close. If you are jerking off, you aren’t going to notice. There is one close up shot of Josh’s penis, that was unbelievable. It was so close, so crisp and clear, that it was almost like you could reach out and touch it.

Which would have been nice.

This video clicked for me on all levels. It had a story, great acting actually, and I still can’t get over the way Josh Elliot looked. His eyes, his expressions, and how they were so perfectly shown, just at the right moment. There wasn’t anyone leaning back looking like they were going to fall asleep. You could see how much they were into each other, how much they enjoyed the sex too.

We rented this Video from our local store, but it is available in my Pay Per View theatre, here. You can also own this video from my DVD Store, if interested. I know our guest is also a Bel Ami fan, and he’s thinking of adding this one to his library. But whether you buy it or rent it, I think if you like twinks, enjoy lots of cum, then Pretty Boy is one you should at least think about renting.

David and I have seen a fair amount of movies, including Bel Ami, and you know, in all honesty, I have to say that so far this one is at the top of our list. It is refreshing to watch, and if our guest wasn’t here, the wife says it would have been at least a double if not triple cum shoot for him. Now that is impressive, given how the last flick barely got him wanting to jerk off.

Speaking of cum, the last scene with Josh and Matt, was unreal. The cum shots were unreal, and so clear, so crisp and damn explosive, that it was a trembler. Dave even shook a little, as Matt squirted his cum over those lovely balls of Josh Elliot, that were showing between his legs. Hell I think our guest enjoyed it too, considering how much time he spent in the bathroom right after the video ended.

Bedtime Stories III

Acting

Scene #1

To begin with, these guys aren’t what I would call Twinks. And given the opening dialogue and scenario, well no Academy Award Nominations for these two actors. Just seems to me that while it is nice to see sexy men partake in sex, there should be more to it than just a brief haltingly spoken few lines before suddenly one or both are getting their dicks sucked.

Neither of the actors here seemed intent on pushing the supposed story line, and worse, the way they handled the props was, well funny and annoying at the same time. I mean come on, putting whipped cream on a hard cock shaft and then the other simply wiping it off? Like why bother?

Then we have the sex talk. I mean in the blooper section you see one actor actually asking the crew if real people talk like that. I mean no, real people don’t talk like that, yet here we are, these guys doing just that.

Certainly didn’t come across as real either.

Scene #2

Interesting background and the actors, well they just seemed to move around, changing positions and doing their thing. It wasn’t like they were even aware of the camera so I suppose that is a good thing.

No dialogue to speak of, and best of all, no cheesy sex talk either. Sure the odd grunt, moan was heard but really nothing else. No great acting but it was more plausible than the first scene.

Scene #3

I don’t get it, but if you hire guys for sex, least they should shoot a good load of cum, but not in this scene. Then too the acting was rather stiff, and well boring. It just didn’t fit with the scenario and the intro into it was rather muffled and slurred even.

I mean if you are going to have actors talk, make it so the viewer can hear and understand them. Then have actors who at least don’t look totally bored and uninterested when they are being sucked off. I mean, it just sort of ruins the concept a bit.

The introduction to this scene really sucked. There was no real set up for it, and it just didn’t help the action one bit. You sort of got the idea, but my first reaction was to wonder where the blond had gone to.

Scene #4

This scene was the one, which explains why it is at the end. The facial expressions of Matt Van Dorn were excellent, plus it helped that he was the only true twink in the whole video. I mean he at least looked the part. And he spoke with some enthusiasm that was lacking in the other actors.

It seemed like he took the time to actually learn the dialogue a bit, and added some expression to them. Plus the sex talk was a minimum and frankly thanks to him, the whole scene was more realistic than the others that preceded this one.

When you watched the action, it was believable. His expressions, the twisting of his lip and his eyes made it seem like he was actually enjoying it. Not like in the other scenes where it either looked fake or routine. This guy at least helped with the fantasy.

Intro/End

I gotta say I liked the concept but wish they would have gotten an actor who could act. There is no doubt this one couldn’t, nor was his diction exactly spot on either. It just sort of took away from the concept which in itself was of interest.

The beginning or introduction was stilted. He muffed a few words and added emphasis to some so noticeably that it was more of a joke than of making a point.

It just was poorly done and doubt if the actor did any rehearsal for it, which he should have.

The ending was lame. It just didn’t work given the actor and the lines or lack of lines. It was not a good way to end in my view.

Bloopers

Now they were sort of funny, but you never really saw what the errors were. In fact there weren’t that many shown, but after watching them right after viewing the movie, I liked the bloopers better than the actual video. I mean the actors were more animated, more fun to watch than when they were actually performing.

Bios

Poor quality of pictures but it was nice to be able to get some vital stats on the guys one just watched. Wish the pics were better and larger too.

Galleries

Now this was nice. To see some stills of two of the actors was a nice touch and the photos were not bad. They were teasing in a way that showed that perhaps there was more to the guys than what one could discern from seeing them in action.

Trailers

I liked them actually, and they did do the job they were intended to do. They made me consider renting them. Whether we will or not, well I don’t know if our video store has them, but we’ll see.

They showed a lot actually in a nice motion that sort of gave one a decent idea of the movie, but we will see if we get them how good the trailers were compared to the actual video.

Edit

Scene #1

Well it flowed but I don’t know, something seemed off and perhaps it was the action or such, or in the editing of the piece. It just had an awkwardness to it that wasn’t enjoyable. Passable though.

Scene #2

Rather impressed with the motion and camera angles here. It was different and the use of a totally black backdrop was different enough to keep one’s attention focused on the two actors.

There were some decent shots too of the cocks that added greatly to the whole scene. Now while the acting was less than stellar, the various motion and angles helped pull the whole thing off. It was good and would have been superb with more talented acting.

Scene #3

Not much to say, seemed to flow okay but the lack of acting skills sort of made the editing a non issue.

Scene #4

Given the differences between scenes 1 and 3 versus scenes 2 and 4 it sort of makes me think that there were different camera persons and that the editing was also done by different people.

Like scene 2, the action was well blended into the flow and there were some really good camera shots of dicks and action. The fuck scene was well shown for a change, and the cutting to facial expressions while maybe action had been edited out or whatever worked too. It didn’t impede the flow.

One complaint here is that if one actor is wearing jewellery, and you show a close up of it, then cut to a different view, and then go back to another close up, the jewellery should still be visible, not removed. Gives away that there was a stop in action and sort of ruins the flow for the real picky viewer.

The angles were well woven into the action, and obviously some care was taken to make it all fit together. Out of the entire movie, this scene perhaps had the best camera shots of assholes, penises, and balls than the others put together. It all flowed well too.

Intro/End

Well there wasn’t much to either to do, but the camera angles or shots were bit jerky overall. It just didn’t have a flow, appeared forced really which kind of ruined the whole set up. That and the poor acting made it uninviting.

Story Line

Jerky at best is all I can say. While I liked the concept itself, the acting failed to pull it off, except perhaps in the final scene, which really had no build up to it.

I suppose the idea of someone reading a story to get in the mood is a valid one, after all we all do it I think. What sort of put me off was that the actual set up of the first three scenes wasn’t well documented or presented.

The acting was to say the least uninspiring. The dialogue was stilted for the most part, performed by the actor (Eric Hunter). Due to his playing to the camera at times, in obvious fashion, and placing improper emphasis on some of the words, it just didn’t take for me. It would have been good if performed right, but better without it as it was performed.

The final two scenes were not well introduced. Scene #4 actually had no tie in really, least not like the previous three scenes. Still it was the better of them all due to the acting. It also was a bit more realistic, and had they spent more time developing that scenario than the previous one, well might have been a real hit.

Simply put, good concept but execution was lacking.

Overall Impression

It was different enough to maybe warrant the price. I know though that I am way too jaded to give this one anything close to a perfect mark. It just isn’t up to what I want to see. Kind of makes me wonder if these movies are what people want, or just that no one is really sitting back demanding better.

For myself, this was a bust however for Dave it was okay. He wasn’t thrilled by it, but he got off on it. Not like he gets off on the Bel Ami movies, but then those are the class of the twink video set.

I will say that in a Bel Ami flick, Dave can get off more than once, but he did struggle to get off once on this flick. It was more of, well its nearly over so might as well whack off impression.

For us both, the saving grace was Matt Van Dorn, not just because he is hot, and has a nice twinkish body, but because of his more polished acting compared to the others. Whether he is that good or not, in other flicks we’ll have to see, but in this movie, he was what saved it.

Also this was not a bareback movie, it showed the actors using condoms which I thought was good. I wasn’t thrilled by the rather impersonal manner that they applied the condoms. I wish for once, I’d see a movie where they showed how much fun using a condom could be, not make it seem an annoyance.

The only rim job was in Scene 4 and was okay, and there were no real props to speak of. I mean maybe a toy or two might have helped some of the scenes, or even for use in the introduction of each scene. It might have added to the story line even to simply have some of the various novelties visible.

Pleasure Express (Falcon Studios)

Reviewed by The Gaystoryman

Copyright © 2006 ? All Rights Reserved

Introduction

This is an interesting set up actually, one that is followed quite nicely through the entire movie. I will call it a movie because believe it or not, there is sort of a story line to the entire video production.

Kind of wish other studios would learn from this one, to a point. After all this is still porn, not a cinematic epic but the concept is about a group of young individuals taking a train ride.

Should note, Johan Paulik has a cameo non sexual role here. Frankly he is simply shown in a train window and that is it. Wish there would be more but I have to say that the other real cast of actors weren’t bad. Also George Duroy of Bel Ami fame directs this one or Produces. Can’t recall actually and dumb me, I didn’t make note of it.

Scene 1

You will find that in most of the scenes, there is a great deal of eye contact and expression. The video itself stars European Actors, and I am assuming from countries like the Czech Republic, and as there are no subtitles, I’ll also assume that dialogue either wasn’t considered or simply not used. Hence the eye contact.

Note > I want to say that I clearly understood the expressions and eye contact signals used by these actors. I wish the North American variety would learn some of it for their own use. A movie doesn’t have to have copious amounts of dialogue and eye motion, facial expressions, can and do convey a great deal, when properly used. These Twinks obviously knew that.

This scene starts with a duo and develops into a three way. The set used follows the train story line. It is replicated well, in fact through the entire video the sets are indeed well done. There are some signs that it is a set but only if you are really looking for those things instead of concentrating on the hard bodies and cocks.

There is also a novel approach used in all of the 7 different scenes. It is a camera shot of a train going down the tracks. It isn’t the same scene either, but rather different footage for the most part. It all adds to the concept that this takes place on a train journey.

These train footage pieces are used to break the scenes up, as well as to signal either the introduction of another actor, or to a change in the action. Whether that is to signal that actor 1 is now being sucked instead of doing the sucking, or whether to a change in action from sucking to fucking.

While the addition of a 3^rd actor in scene 1 was nice, and he was hot, it just didn’t really fit into the mood of the scene. Least not for me, and to be honest the latter stages of the action became rather boring. It showed in the actors faces as well.

Scene 2

For the most part, in this and the other scenes, the camera angles were good. They changed often enough to make it all seem fresh and the lighting as well was pretty good. I suppose what struck me the most, was the attention to the set design. I mean honestly, it felt like being on a train. They even added sound effects of a train going over the rails, you know the clacking sound trains make.

I wasn’t all that impressed with the actors in Scene 2 and it wasn’t super long so that was okay. I did notice that the sound effects, the grunts and groans was out of sync with the actual action. In the first scene it wasn’t that noticeable, but it did become more noticeable in this scene.

I wouldn’t call it a total washout, but it was a bit annoying by the end of the scene.

Scene 3

I was taken aback at this one. It didn’t start off like the others with any facial close-ups and then I realized that this was a solo scene. The two actors shown in the beginning were the intro or change of pace. They were what perhaps led to the solo action that came about.

On that note, it was a nice change up. Also once the solo action began, the good facial shots were visible. The camera angles kept up a nice perspective for viewing as well. I mean it worked, and while the actor was okay, his expressions above average, he just wasn’t my type. Now if he had been Johan, wow, what a scene that would have been.

Still it was a nice interlude really. Something many videos fail to do or if they do try, they fall short. This one worked. It also got the interest revved up a bit.

Scene 4

Just as Scene 3 was a good break, this one fell flat for me in virtually all aspects. The camera angles were good but it went way too fast. The cum was there before one could really get into the two actors. The anal action was okay and the whole thing, well seemed rushed too much. Sure good facial shots but that alone isn’t enough.

Not on the par with the 1^st scene, and at this point was the best of the four.

Scene 5

The previous scene convinced me that the sound effects were added after the filming. This scene solidified that belief. I don’t know if that is a good thing or not, because the sync has to be pretty close and frankly, it wasn’t.

I mean a guy showing his head back, his mouth open and you get a grunt? Or the mouth is shut tight as are the eyes and you get a scream? Sorry but that defeats the purpose. Better to have added music only if that sync is that far off.

This scene was okay. The facial expressions by the actors was good. It looked more natural, less rehearsed and the camera angles changing helped as well. What I liked was that there was more kissing, more touching in this scene than in the previous ones.

Guess I am a romantic, but damn it, no one just strips, then gets on their knees to suck cock. There is foreplay and that generally means kissing and touching first. Besides it helps to get the limp dick a bit harder. Well it should that is.

The sound effects for this scene were better than Scene 4. They were more natural sounding and in sync. When it works, its great, when it doesn’t it really does tend to ruin the whole effect. This one worked.

I enjoyed the fade in and zoom shots as well. Bit more camera technique in this particular scene as well. I liked it and I also think that it was a nice touch to not have it in all the scenes. This approach worked for me, anyhow.

Scene 6

Yeah that surprised me too, to have so many scenes, but you know I guess the adage of giving value for your buck is what drove this video. I mean the sets were not your normal porn set. They actually looked real and were not cheesy.

However I am not too certain about recycling the actors into other scenes simply to add more scenes. The actors here were already shown and if one didn’t like them, well there would be no value.

For me, these were two of the better looking ones, so for me it worked. Now if your tastes are different, you might be pissed off. Still it was good, solid quality of camera work and good action too.

This particular scene had one of the better cum shots too. That is always nice at the end of video, but wait, this isn’t the end.

Scene 7

I know, another scene? You would think you were perhaps watching a Bel Ami flick given the number of scenes. However I kind of was impressed by this. Again it recycled the already shown actors, and even a scene scenario, but added a twist to it. It included a 3^rd player to the scene, and did so in a rather natural manner.

However, it was for me a bit much.

It was a good 3 way action though and those aren’t easy to find. So on that alone it perhaps was a good addition to the video. There was some good back and forth action that was well documented too. Again a nice plus to have at the end.

Ending

Again, this was well done. I enjoyed seeing the actors with their names at the end. Made you want to know who was who and who to look for in other videos perhaps. I like that aspect of it, and it certainly is something I’ll keep an eye out for as there were three I liked quite well.

One I notice is in a later Bel Ami production, which will get me renting it. Again a good market ploy, one I wish other studios did.

Overall the music wasn’t over powering either. I mean it isn’t your typical porn music and wasn’t so loud that it made you wince. It was better blended in than the canned sound effects of grunts, groans, and moans.

Most, but not all, of the actors were simply stiff in their action. I mean there were few smiles, few twinkles to make you get fully into the fantasy they spent so much effort on attempting to create. I would have liked more animations between them, but some is better than none.

Compared to most North American offerings though, there is not doubt in my mind that these actors were 100% better. The eyes tell a lot and they were well used in this film. I liked that, along with good looking men.

The cost of the sets certainly showed too. I believed they were on a train, and if the goal is to create a fantasy, this one succeeded.