Review

After such a promising beginning with 35 & Up #1, this should be better than it is. Going against it is totally uninspired direction (no wonder it’s uncredited), a pitiful script, a gawd-awful soundtrack and inconsistency of a cast that ranges from complete amateurs to guys who have been working on the lower rungs of the porn ladder to genuine legends near the end of their days.

Each scene follows the same scenario: Apparently we are at some resort - actually little more than a patio, lawn furniture, and high fences that keep out prying eyes but not traffic noise. One guy somewhat dressed comes up to another just in a towel and asks, “You know where I can meet some real men, not some twinkies?” The other replies, “Yeah, right here.” He takes his towel off, sucks the guy and then bends over for a lengthy doggie-style fuck that is shot almost exclusively in profile. The bottom flips on his back for a little more anal before both men shoots a modicum of man-juice.

So what’s going for it? For one thing, there’s very little editing, so while there isn’t much variety of camera angles, each individual shot lasts a long time, especially in the fucking. It may not be the most inspired sex you’ll see, but it’s genuine, and the men develop a rhythm that you can jerk off to easily. For another, there are enough key moments, when we can forget all the problems and sit back to watch some hot full-grown men get down and dirty with each other.

Scene One is the weakest, which is why fast-forward buttons were invented. The top is Marcus Moore in his first video, and the bottom is Bacchus regular Scott Mann. Neither guy sparks much sexual heat, and neither wears his age well. Moore in particular needs to work out a bit more and get some work done on his raccoon-eyes.

If he did, he’d look a bit like Patrick Ives, the undisputed star of the three-way in the next sequence, and owner of the best body of the video. Ives has been doing porn since 1994, and he deserves a better career than he’s had. Sort of a poor man’s Lance Gear, he has genuine sexual magnetism and is both an expert cocksucker and a very butch bottom. Looking very sexy in a skin-tight powder-blue bathing suit, he kneels in front of another first-timer, the rather non-descript but well-hung Neil Sanders, and takes him down to the root. The third player is ex-barrio-boy Joie Torres, and the two men tag-team Jordan’s cock with their mouths and assholes.

The heat ratchets way, way up in scene three with dark-haired Ethan Cooper (a half-dozen Bacchus videos to his credit) and bleach-blond Jared Scott (Manhattan Sex Party 2, among a few others), who must have been a helluva twink in his youth. Both are attractive men; at a bar you would hit on either of them in an instant. For the first time, we see guys who show that they’re really enjoying each other, sucking face as much as sucking cock. Both men swallow each other with gusto, with Cooper at times straddling Scott’s face. The positions and camera angles for Cooper’s fuck of Scott are the same as before, but it’s much more fun - for one thing, the thrusts are much longer and deeper, giving us more to look at. These guys are naturals.

For the final scene, Bacchus pull out all the stops, with the legendary work-horse Paul Carrigan and performer-director Doug Jeffries. Have these bodies seen better days? Yeah. Do we care? Nah - they’re both still incredibly sexual animals, and they are real pros; they know how to play to the camera. Jeffries energetically fucks Carrigan’s manly face, and then leans down to chow down on one of porn’s best-known poles. He then turns his expert attention to Carrigan’s hairy hole, first rimming, then fingering, then fucking. Jeffries has a lot of cock to give, and he stuffs it into Carrrigan with an intensity that will leave you limp and satiated. It’s a joy to watch, and redeems the video’s earlier deficiencies.

Note on the DVD:
The DVD features some extras that are fun but incidental. They include a compendium of blow jobs and cum shots, chapter selection and previews of other Bacchus Releasing titles (featuring lots of twinks, which is a bit odd, considering the feature). There are also interviews of most cast members, but in this reviewer’s copy, the sound broke up halfway through, making the Scott, Cooper, Jeffries and Carrigan interviews virtually unintelligible.

The third installment of 35 & Up has its ups and downs, but Ives, Cooper, Scott and Jeffries make it worthwhile. And no matter how old he gets, Paul Carrigan will always be a marvel of a man.
-Jameson Rodgers