By John Haze

“below the belt”
Bijou Video, 1985
Directed by Phillip St. John
Cast: David Ashfield, Michael Cummings (Kyle Adams), Nick Schultz, Scott O’Hara, Michael Ram (Bull Matthews), Jordan Moore, Grant West, Chad Douglas, Jim Steele

The transition from film to video was unkind to the porn industry. “Below the Belt” is a somewhat muddled release from the early video era when production values were at their lowest. If you follow the story, you’ll find yourself asking things like, “Did he really just say ‘that evil samurai’?” The director also resorts to the mean-spirited trick of recycling footage of Brian Michaels and Peter North to create the illusion that they are a legitimate part of this movie. They aren’t, and the effort to make it appear otherwise should offer some indication of the quality of the remaining footage.

But that’s only part of the story. Any movie that has Chad Douglas or David Ashfield or Scott O’Hara is at least worth a look. This movie has all three and, better still, has a scene in which David and Scott’s huge raw meat poles are crammed into the same eager hole at one time. It’s no surprise that their double-penetration warm-up gets their juices going. At the end, they seem to be competing to see who can shoot the most and the farthest. Scott wins, but it’s a scrumptiously close call, and this is only round one. Michael Ram also gives his usual above-average performance. Not all of Chad’s scenes here are as memorable as those in his other movies, but everything, including the camera work, picks up steam as this movie moves along.

“THE ROAD TO REDNECK HOLLOW”
Titan Media, 2006
Directed by Joe Gage
Cast Tober Brandt, Brendan Davies, Dean Flynn, Tory Mason, Sebastian Rivers, Logan Robbins, Trojan Rock, Riley Scott, Rodney Steele, Ryann Wood, Mason Wyler

There are cars and then there is the Jaguar. There are directors and then there is Joe Gage. If there are three men in a room and one of them is Joe Gage holding a camera, make it your business to see the other two. In the first scene of “The Road to Redneck Hollow,” big ruddy muscle-bear Tober Brandt comes into some sort of cabin—perhaps the firehouse, although his uniform is the only firefighting gear in sight. Sebastian Rivers has a wildness in his eyes as he observes Tober wriggling out of his uniform, so he offers him a massage. Tober takes a shower first, and if you manage not to spray your shorts on that image alone, then you’ll find that the scene only gets hotter from there.

The next scene takes place at a military academy, where Mason Wyler has no trouble talking his roommate out of his uniform, then his jockstrap. But little do they know they’re going to get caught by their (very) commanding officer, Brendan Davies. The cadets look a little too pretty and Brendan looks a little too ready for the leather bar to fit the setup, but these guys are much too hot for that to make a whit of difference.

This movie actually has an overall plot, though it is farfetched to say the least. And let’s just say that the next scene adds a whole new meaning to the term “Jack in the box.” But it works, and this ends up being as good a movie as any to come out in the past few years.