Having the GayVN Awards presented locally was a big shot in the arm for all the local companies, but reinvigorated is hardly the word for Raging Stallion head Chris Ward. He's cultivated my friendship (and the reviews that go with it) since the beginning of his 10-year career, and first thing Monday morning after the Awards he conveyed to me with righteous affirmation his born-again sense of commitment to a profession he loves. Now we're both recharged and ready to serve the industry in our respective best ways.
Yet refreshing his company is second nature to Chris. He's continually expanding the scope of Raging Stallion by mentoring new craftsmen (I just know apprentice director and videographer Ben Leon is going to learn how to frame his shots real soon), and by prompting performers to become creators. Michael Brandon started his own film line, with great success, and then Taurus began directing. Now we have the first directorial efforts by popular performer Collin O'Neal and master videographer David Hempling.
Collin's got a taste for exotic men, and has started a round-the-world tour. So far it's got two editions, Collin O'Neal's London and Collin O'Neal's Lebanon. With Dan Fox providing excellent videography, and Matthew Moore's sensible editing, these are both enjoyable trips, and marvelously free of sightseeing — Collin goes right for the action. I must profess I like visiting London best. That's not just because Collin is in two of the scenes, and I'm enamored of his solid body and even more solid, creamy-colored cock, but because he's paired up for one scene with the fantastically handsome and gorgeously hung Milan Gamiani, who partnered Michael Lucas so sensationally in Encounters 2: The Point of No Return. I slavered over their mutual cock worship, and grooved on Collin's banging the crap outa Milan. The hirsute Milan's slow undulations as he impaled himself on Collin's boulevard-broad cock had me grinding around in complete empathy. Top it all off, Collin cums buckets, right into Milan's yearning mouth, after which the lucky lapper mouths the sticky, still-stiff cock as he churns up his own tough popper (caveat: a good friend knows his sero-conversion was caused by ingesting cum).
In the first scene, fierce dude Jean Franco tops Forneus, a smooth-bodied, muscular, bubble-butted power bottom. Their eye-opening RC fully reveals the impressive swath of cock that spreads the Forneus sphincter. Later on, we meet man's man Luca, husky Edu Boxer, and, in two scenes, Fred Colcci, a smooth and especially meaty younger guy. None of these pairings evince any real chemistry, but they apply themselves well and give good sex.
Back seat
When Collin gets to Lebanon, where the majority of the guys are circumcised, he makes it with Said, who's a slightly funkier version of your typical Raging Stallion leathery kinda guy. I like Said's reality quotient, his stubble, his fur, his topping of the stolid-as-ever Francois Sagat in a bombed-out building, then down by the riverside, the former top's sitting down upon Collin's cock, a seat you'd take if you had the chance. The movie's high point is an extended oral scene followed by a good butt-banging, with a back-alley dream of danger named Marco, and the willingly roughed-up Martin Mazza. A somewhat negligible episode with Youssef and Samir mixes a light-skinned black man with an undefined white guy. But then there's a juicy threeway finale with Collin, Francois Sagat, and a caramel-colored muscle stud named Jacko. This fireplug's the Lebanese equivalent of a Marine. Jacko's full, round rump is pummeled by both his partners, but the finale comes with Francois cumming while riding Collin's cock. It's not as creamy as if Chris Ward had staged it in one of his more lush fantasias, but it's close. JD Slater's ersatz belly-dance music, his tabla and oud wranglings, would have been bettered by a more contemporary and smoother world beat, but aren't too irritating. Altogether, the movies make one look forward to Mr. O'Neal's further travels.
The fisting action of Stretch returns us to a gym somewhere in San Francisco. I'd hoped the craggy-faced, darkly-whiskered David Hempling might forgo his excellent videography career to perform. Instead, he's directed his first feature. In three extended-length scenes, Hempling presents two husky adults, Francois Sagat and the delectable star Alex Coursi, along with punchy Taurus and a quartet of younger fisters: Joey O'Bryan, Tim Rusty, Brandon Aquilar, and a skinny, take-it-all newcomer, Julien Arnaud.
My viewing partner on this occasion was the ever-enthusiastic Miss Love Pat. After we'd watched for a while, I remarked that with Hempling's satisfyingly detailed set-ups, he'd brought something new to fisting, and freshened the genre immensely.
Miss Pat agreed, chirping, "It's like it's, you know, domesticated."
"You mean that in a good way, though?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah," she gushed. "It's not all about power and hyper-butchness and how far it can be pried apart. It's got some hot kissing and some steamy wrestling and some wiry young kids bouncing around on dildos, and just oodles of hot sex leading up to the fisting, so it's not a fetishized thing, but part of making out."
"Wow, Miss Pat. You oughta be a reviewer," I said.
"Maybe you should retire," she quipped, lobbing at me an eponymous Love Pat. As Gertrude Stein said, "You gotta take your friends largely." www.RagingStallion.com