King Cobra

"King Cobra" tem muito a oferecer, desde uma história verdadeira e intrigantemente sombria a um elenco de estrelas. 7/10

"King Cobra" tem muito a oferecer, desde uma história verdadeira e intrigantemente sombria a um elenco de estrelas (James Franco, Garrett Clayton, Keegan Allen e Christian Slater). É um olhar divertido, mas assustador, para a indústria pornográfica gay, com boa música também.

The tongue is not the only thing in the cheek of this entertainingly brisk and breezy look at the gay porn industry. Telling the story of the murder of a porn king at the behest of some disgruntled stars, the film is never as shocking as its subject would suggest but is always entirely watchable. Director Justin Kelly has assembled an unusual choice of actors for this specialised venture many of whom had their heyday in the 80’s and 90’s. Even with all the male flesh on display the real revelation comes in the shape of Christian Slater who is really quite surprising here, especially given his fairly conventional output of the last few years. Aside from Slater, Molly Ringwald turn up looking great. Ditto Alicia Silverstone who seems a bit off key as the mother of up and coming porn star, very well played by Disney ingénue Garrett Clayton. The star of the show however, although not necessarily the best performance, is James Franco who acts as well as produces. He succeeds once again in further muddying the water with regards to his involvement in these types of unconventional projects.

I am a big supporter of gay themed films and The Gateway Theatre that over the years have played many of them. I was happy when “Philadelphia” with Tom Hanks became a ‘cross-over’ film and though I didn’t like “Brokeback Mountain” I cheered when crowds filled the theatres to see it. Other movies like “Milk”, “A Single Man”, “Maurice”, “In & Out”, “Boys Don’t Cry”, just to name a few, were box office hits portraying real, believable, gay people that attracted all demographics to see them. This month “Moonlight” about a Black kid/teenager/man is seeing many people who ordinarily wouldn’t come to see a ‘Black’ and/or “Gay’ themed film. This is a roundabout way for a review of “King Cobra” and a hope that it doesn’t become a crossover film—it wasn’t at the performance I attended. Supposedly based on a true story about a competition in the porn industry between 2 DOM (dirty old men for those who don’t know) and the twinkies they pursue. There is a lot of gratuitous nude butt shots and is basically soft core porn though tame compared what you can see on cable TV on Showtime/HBO, etc. And no frontal nudity in a film about porn?!?! Why is James Franco famous? I had to look up his credits to see where I might know him from and I think I saw him in Spiderman but I wouldn’t bet on it. Luckily Christian Slater had a dynamite role in the new TV series “Mr. Robot” and has done a few good film roles before this because I have no idea why he made this film unless he needs money for one of his kid’s college education! What the heck are Alicia Silverstone and Molly Ringwald doing in these throw away roles? Is it punishment for something? The less said about the younger actors the better and hopefully they will get out of the film business—porn or otherwise! Skip “King Cobra” and if you have gay friends tell them not to see it. Maybe The Gateway Theatre can get a good gay themed film soon and if anyone wants to see an excellent film about the porn industry rent “Boggie Nights” from 1997 which got Oscar nods for Julianne Moore and Burt Reynolds and shows Mark Wahlberg who knew how to play a twinkie porn star! (I GAVE IT 2 STARS FOR TWO OF THE BUTT SCENES--YOU CAN SEE BETTER BUTTS ON THE INTERNET!)