|
|
 |
By
Giacomo Tramontagna
A Lesson Learned
Rating: 3 Stars
Produced by Dan Cross. Written and directed by Mike Donner. Videography and editing by James C. Stark. Music by Rock Hard. Starring Rod Barry, Dino Phillips, Jackson Phillips, Dean Phoenix, Tanner Hayes, Kristian Brooks, Brandon Small, Chip Hardy, Nicholas Carlisle, Chris O'Connor, Gino, Terry Lee, and Chad Mason.
How to order
"What happens to Hamlet," asks English professor Dino Phillips, "when the ghost commands the throne of Denmark be cleansed?" He is lecturing to a class of zoned-out male undergraduates. His spiel will be recognizable
to anyone who has ever taken a Shakespeare course. Phillips, a good actor, rattles it off with aplomb. But it's ignored by students who are busy scribbling "Shakespeare sucks the big one" and passing notes to set up
assignations in the third-floor men's room next to the bio lab.
In the class are ex-Marines Rod Barry and Gino. C-student Barry is more interested in nerdy-but-cute Professor Phillips than in Shakespeare; A-student Gino is intrigued by the course but repelled by the
teacher ("He's a fag. They make me fuckin' sick."). Barry makes overtures to Phillips, hanging around after class to ask, "Was Hamlet in love with Horatio?" Phillips, who hesitates to get involved with a student, is soon having
wet dreams in which Barry recites Hamlet's "Alas, poor Yorick speech" naked. Complications lead to a climactic confrontation between Barry and Gino in that third-floor bathroom. When Barry and Phillips finally have sex, it's
in the back of a limousine driven by Gino.
The acting in A Lesson Learned is above the industry standard. Rod Barry, who has played a supercilious prick a few times too often, is likable and convincing here as a nice guy. Gino, familiar from
the Choke 'Em series of military jackoff videos, shows glimmers of acting talent in his non-sexual role as a homophobe who learns tolerance. Mike Donner's scenario provides a story line where sex arrives on schedule without
being pulled out of left field. The script turns over-explicitly preachy, but it's literate and well crafted. The five sex scenes, including two tearoom orgies, are directed with finely depraved skill.
You are not logged in.
No comments yet, but
click here to be the first to comment on this
Gay Video Review!
|
