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Grunts
Rating: 4 Stars
Produced by Michael Brandon. Written, edited, and directed by Chris Ward and Ben Leon. Videography by Ben Leon. Music by J.D. Slater. Starring Jake Deckard, Roman Ragazzi, Steve Cruz, Ricky Sinz, Justin Christopher, Antonio Biaggi, Victor Steele, R.J. Danvers, Luke Haas, Billy Berlin, Max Schutler, Trey Casteel, Aaron Summers, Mason Garet, Dominic Pacifico, Rafael Alencar, Brodie Sinclair, Orlando Toro, Kamrun, River Fiasco, Jay Mack, and Live Wilder.
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When the 2008 GayVN Awards were presented last February, Raging Stallion harvested a truckload of prizes for this expertly strategized military marathon -- best picture, best director, best actor (Jake Deckard), best supporting actor (Ricky Sinz), best sex scene, best editing, and best art direction, among others. Grunts may or may not be the best Raging Stallion production to date, but it's probably the best men-in-uniform porn since Jerry Douglas's Honorable Discharge (1993). It's without question the most elaborate. The three-part epic runs a whopping 556 minutes -- not counting a welter of bonus material. Raging Stallion is marketing Grunts in separate installments -- "The New Recruits," "Misconduct," and "Brothers in Arms" (each with its own bonus disc) -- or as one deluxe six-disc package. Available on standard-definition DVD since late November, it's just been released in Blu-ray format -- a first for gay adult video.

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et in a boot camp for Iraq-bound Army recruits, Grunts begins with one of the rare basic training sequences in military-themed gay porn that actually has a ring of authenticity. (Since the 21-man cast includes at least four veterans of various branches of the service, there was no shortage of technical advisors on the set.) The resulting testosterone bath will delight fans of military erotica, and may leave others -- especially those who find the Iraq war about as sexy as dog vomit -- with a slightly queasy feeling. But Grunts inches further into bad-boy satire as it goes along, culminating in an orgy produced by the release of "hydrospastic nitrate," the active ingredient in an experimental "gay bomb" intended to break enemy soldiers' will to fight by turning them into sissies. The gas, of course, just makes everyone somewhat redundantly horny without impairing their machismo.

The gay-bomb orgy is too murky and shapeless to be all it could be, but much of the sex is superb. The sex scenes, however, never get better than the first one in "The New Recruits," a pas de deux for hairy, muscular Roman Ragazzi and tattooed dynamo Ricky Sinz. (The segment won -- and deserved -- the 2008 GayVN award for best sex scene.) There's no weak link in the cast, and Jake Deckard, Raging Stallion's 2007 Man of the Year -- and GayVN's Performer of the Year, has never been better. But the principal discovery here is Sinz. The most interesting portion of the plethora of extras is an interview with this former army staff sergeant who served two tours in Iraq. His insights into the shambles perpetrated by the Bush Administration put the misbegotten war -- and Grunts -- in perspective.