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Countdown
Rating: 4 Stars
Directed by Sven Jungbluth. Videography by Kiki LaReine and Ralf Martin. Edited by Lenny Eriksson. Music by DJ MM. Starring Thom Barron, Franko Potente, Christoph Scharff, Wolff, Tim Vinzent, Will Ride, Karl Johnson, Timmi, Josh Ford, John Hawk, Lupus, Will Wonder, Wade, Jake Corwin, Damion, Felix Groth, Ben, Eduardo Cortez, Max Schneider, Mahla, Anthony Spell, and Darius Akin.
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Chip Daniels of Centaur Films can be thanked for treating American audiences to this joyously deranged, German-made gay kinkfest, a 2002 European release that represents Cazzo Films at its best. Countdown pays impudent homage to Tom Tykwer's 1998 hit Lola rennt, better known in the US as Run, Lola, Run. The nominal star is Aryan hunk Thom Barron; the German title was Bei Anruf Thom ("Thom Calling"). But the protagonist is played by a slim, rangy newcomer dubbed Franko Potente in tribute to German actress Franka Potente, who starred in the original film.

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Dozing in his apartment, Potente is awakened by a cell-phone call from Barron, who has stationed himself in a men's room in the Tiergarten, Berlin's cruisy central park, where he's awaiting sexual service. Since Potente's car is being repaired and he's too broke to take the U-Bahn, he has to hot-foot it to the location. Barron gives him two hours. On the way, Potente blunders into, passes through, or dashes past a den of horny skinhead cell-phone thieves; a beauty salon sheltering a bisexual threesome; a Turkish snack bar with a masturbating proprietor; a dance bar where an interracial orgy unfolds; the lair of a psycho sniper who drugs men with tranquilizer darts; an art gallery where gay sex functions as living sculpture; a men's room concealing a rough three-way; and a taxi carrying a gay couple around town as they enjoy free-wheeling public sex.

Potente's odyssey plays fast and loose with local geography, but Countdown does Berlin's gay ambiance justice. Sven Jungbluth, a gifted first-time director, packs nine sex scenes into 100 minutes, offering something for everyone without slackening the pace or rushing the action. There's a self-referential emphasis on voyeurism that peaks as Timmo and Lupus (that's his name) slurp each other's cocks in the back seat of a moving cab as its driver watches through the rear-video mirror, and people passing in cars and on motor scooters glance inside the taxi and laugh in amazement. The final sequence contains a time reversal out of Lola rennt, a plot twist, and a gorgeous, uninhibited model named Christoph Scharff. This is one of those videos fans will watch repeatedly until it wears out.