With opening credits that are a playful homage to those of a James Bond movie and with a song to match, you immediately assume that this tongue-in-cheek indie feature will probably not be a run-of-the-mill gay themed movie. And you would be right. It’s a very contemporary take on an old-fashioned detective story where the private investigators just happen to be ex-boyfriends. Danny is a struggling black actor/waiter who is taking a night school course in being a Private Eye to prepare for his big TV acting break. Patrick, his ex. partner (also known as Pip) is a spoilt trust fund baby who has never done a day’s work in his life, and lives in an annex of his alcoholic control freak of a mother’s house in one of LA’s more prestigious areas. Danny is more than pissed that he has been quickly replaced in Pip’s affection by a hot new stud called Robin who he insists on been brazenly affectionate with in public.
One night when the two new lovers are out at a sex fetish party together they get drugged and robbed and wake up in the next morning with a massive headache and no Rolex watch or flash car. It soon turns out that this is the latest in a series of robberies specifically targeting gay sex parties frequently by LA’s wealthy (and totally white) ‘A’ list gays.
Pip persuades Danny to help him solve the mystery of these crimes as he doesn’t mind losing his dignity but he really does want the watch back. And this pair of very amateur sleuths also rope in Danny’s macho instructor Jimmy to help steer them straight (!) to the perpetrators.
The details of the actual plot are really not that important as what this comic caper is essentially about is a set up for some wonderful camp humor, and as the title hints at, a parade of very hot men. Often naked or scantily clad. In the height of every serious and potentially life threatening moment, there is always an excellent one liner. Such as when Pip is forced at gunpoint to get down he pleads not for his life, but for his jeans ‘the floor is dirty, and these jeans cost $300’. Or when Pip and Danny have escaped from being the targets of an angry gunman, Pip leans into Danny and asks ‘are you getting a woody?’.This cloud pleaser of a movie is the directing/writing debut of actor Doug Spearman (‘Noah’s Arc’) who obviously has a wicked sense of humor. When Danny is really angry after he and Pip have rowed again, he hurts him in a way that is much worse than any bullet for any gay man, when he retorts ‘you’ve gained weight!‘ Mr Spearman has done a good job with his casting too, with a very hot newbie actor Brian McArdle playing Pip and Marc Anthony Samuel (General Hospital) as his lovelorn ex Danny, and another newbie Trey McCurley as Robin. All of them had such great chemistry together, that made the whole piece work so well.
The one BUT….. was the performance of Joan Ryan as Pip’s meddling mother. It was a very hammy turn and the humor of her role totally misfired giving more than one awkward wince-making moment.
I applaud the whole concept of Mr Spearman’s gay comic film noir and think it made for a delightfully funny and rather entertaining movie that will definitely find a welcoming audience. How can you not grin when you listen to Danny uttering such lines as ‘I may punch like a girl but I shoot like a man.’
Highly recommended.
Labels: 2014, comic caper, crime, gay
