Oct 30, 2011

[Movies] Eating Out: Drama Camp (2011)

Eating Out: Drama Camp (2011)It's weird to consider that this one of the few movie franchises that exist in the LGBT movie sphere. Seriously - think about other movies that have triggered sequels and you won't be able to think of too many apart from the likes of Another Gay Sequel or something.

It's hard to determine whether or not that's a good thing. On the one hand, it does sort of imply that most LGBT movies are truly original creative works - the types of movies that that are created to tell a particular story from start to finish. On the other hand, it could also be said that it means our movies don't have much longevity - as if the creative forces behind them tire out or move on to other projects, perhaps due to lack of profitability.

This movie is probably not a good example of a strong concept continuing to thrive with additional sequels. If anything, it's definitely feeling like the kind of movie that just keeps on going and going like old B-movie horror flicks only to generate as much money as possible for as minimal expenses as can be managed. Thus the writing continues to degrade with each new sequel as we beat this particular dead horse well beyond its best before date.

If anything, at least the guys seem generally hotter this time around.

Eating Out: Drama Camp is the 4th movie in the Eating Out comedy franchise. Like the others, it was written and directed by Q. Allan Brocka with additional writing credits for Phillip J. Bartell.

We sort of pick up where things had ended previously  in the last installment of the series - with Casey (Daniel Skelton) still together with his hunky boyfriend Zack (Chris Salvatore). And while things aren't necessarily ideal between the two of them, they've both managed to get into Dick Dickey's Drama Camp together with their straight director friend Jason (Garikayi Mutambirwa).

But as early as the ride to the camp Zack starts falling for "straight" camper Benji (Aaron Milo), further irritating Casey. Jason on the other hand has feelings for transgender girl Lilly (Harmony Santana) but is reluctant to let her know. Things have to come together one way or another as the camp is staging a gay interpretation of the ever classic Taming of the Shrew - and I bet you can guess who are almost destined to become the lead stars.

The movie plays around the usual sexual shenanigans that we've come to expect from these movies. As much as there used to be a message about people falling in love with one another because of who they really are and not what they look like, the superficial aspect still plays a very big role in things and tends to shift a lot of the focus away. Plus the characters use almost every excuse to strip naked in the movie and that rarely has intellectually meaningful results.

Of course this is a comedy, and a rather mindless one at that, so maybe I'm expecting too much. The story is largely shallow and doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it appears to be. And I suppose a lot of the appeal of the movie lies there. I guess it just irks me to some extent how we always assume that the characters are bound to become dissatisfied with their relationship and feel the need to jump off to another one at the drop of a hat. There has to be more to fostering realistic relationships than mutual physical attraction, right?

The movie plays out like a sexual farce and in that sense I suppose it's only fair that they made sure the guys were generally hotter in this movie compared to the last one. There were obvious attempts to recreate some of the hotter scenes from the first movie and a lot less overbearing fag hag action to distract us from the rest of the "plot". Oh, and I appreciated the whole transgender relationship angle - that was probably the most interesting aspect of this entire movie.

Eating Out: Drama Camp continues to prove that the more sequels spanned for a particular movie, the greater the chances that it's going to get worse and worse. And news is already out that they're making a fifth installment for this series. Oh dear. Either way, this sequel still gets by with 3.5 lame excuses to have the characters have sex one another on-screen out of a possible 5.




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2 comments:

  1. Hmm ... I haven't really seen any movies of this type yet, I guess. :)
    Wahehehehe ... maybe I should! Hot men? LOL. Yun ang reason? Haha.

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  2. I dunno if this is really your cup of tea, Chai, hehe. And this is probably no a great example of one of these movies worth watching LOL

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