Okay -- so apologies for having to post Perez's video, but a trailer has yet to be posted! And I'm not surprised, how to market a sequel of a flick in which only one of the four actors playing the main characters returns? If you saw the original Another Gay Movie (2006), you'll remember it's nasty / sloppy / assholeriffic sense of humor -- which is back in full blast in this follow-up. Sadly, though, what made the first movie shine was the original cast, particularly Michael Carbonaro playing Andy -- what a cutie! But the film opens with Nico (played again by the wonderful Jonah Blechman) waking up from a bad dream (the original film) to find his mother comforting him -- while making a quip about how some nasty agents won't let their talent appear in two gay movies in a row (lest audiences think the actors are -- gasp! -- actually gay!). It's cute.
But the film takes a nose dive pretty quickly. The casting here is pretty awful, which is a real disappointment as their timing and queer sensibilities are crucial to pulling off the slapstick script. After seeing a short featuring Aaron Michael Davies earlier in the festival ("Lloyd Neck"), I was excited to see if Davies could pull a feature length gaytastic film off. But despite his pretty face, he mostly just looks uncomfortable most of the time, clearly not prepared for the film in which he was cast.
The script was clearly written with the original actors in mind. Jake Mosser, who plays Andy this time around, attempts to pull off the goofy-cute lines that made Carbonaro's performance so incredible in the last film -- but Mosser has none of the perverse boyish charm necessary for the task. The same is true for the forgettable Jimmy Clabots playing Jarod. He's a pretty muscle boy, but clearly not an actor.
When Stephens realized that 75% of the original cast wasn't returning, he should have scrapped the project and written an entirely different movie. It would have been SO easy! In the last film, the boys were graduating high school and off to college for new adventures. The film could have easily picked up with Nico and his new group of college friends -- done and done! Instead, Stephens cast a few pretty faces and tried to squeeze them into characters built by other actors. The result is just a disaster.
And I just have to say, Perez Hilton is a blogger -- not an actor. Though he's credited with a "special appearance," he keeps popping up throughout the film in all his painful glory. He has no on-screen sensibility or comic timing. A cameo could have been funny, but plugging him into at least five scenes was an unfortunate decision. Future gay filmmakers of America, I beg of you: make cameos short and sweet, and don't hire Perez Hilton.
Okay, so with the bad news out of the way, let me just talk a bit about the glory that is Jonah Blechman. In the first film, I have to admit, some of his homages to black and white film divas fell awkwardly flat -- but this time around, he's perfected the concept. In what has to be the best scene in the movie, Nico has a tap-dancing dream sequence in which he sings of the glories of watersports, complete with a yellow umbrella. It's a deliciously perverse nod to "Singing in the Rain," and it works. It's funny. It's queer. It's kind of revolting. Which is exactly the recipe that drives the humor behind this series.
I went into this film expecting it to be pretty bad. But I wasn't prepared for just how bad it was at times. There are a few gems to be found. Twink pornstar Brent Corrigan, playing a merman who appears to Nico several times in the film, is just a little box of cuteness! You just want to squeeze him! And Amanda Lepore does a fabulous turn as a cunty stewardess on "Trans America" airlines. But cameos should add sparkle to a film, not provide its most memorable moments. Despite a few laughs, this film just plain sucked.
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