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Brawlers
Rating: 3 Stars
Written and directed by John Bruno. Videography by John Simms. Edited by Mr. Pam. Starring Tamas Esterhazy, Matt Majors, Tommy Blade, Mark Slade, Shane Rollins, Jon Galt, Tyler Michaels, Trey Casteel, Nick Marino, Ray Stone, and Cal "Speedy" Reynolds.
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Falcon's recently dormant subsidiary Mustang Studios reawakened earlier this year with the two- part Trapped, and now hits its stride. " Movies from Mustang Studios," a Falcon spokesman announced in December, "will feature strong, natural, and approachable men in darker and grittier situations." Brawlers, a John Bruno blue-collar roughie made for Mustang, fills those specifications conscientiously.

"There's nothing like pain," declares an unseen narrator. "It makes you remember you're alive." Inspired by David Fincher's 1999 feature Fight Club, Brawlers involves a secret society of men who hold monthly fist fights in a crud-streaked subterranean space. The rules are (1) everyone has to fight; (2) everyone must "look hot"; (3) losers do whatever the winner wants; and (4) everyone must complete missions assigned by their leader.

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Told to fuck his best friend, Tyler Michaels invites hirsute muscle cornucopoeia Cal " Speedy" Reynolds over for beer and TV, pins him down and kisses him, and ends up getting fucked. Commanded to pick a fight in a bar, Shane Rollins kayos burly Ray Stone, whose thighs are like jumbo Smithfield hams-- and who doesn't mind that by the time he regains consciousness he's being sexually mauled by Rollins and diabolical Tamas Esterhazy. The latter returns to obey an order to fuck his boss, big, handsome Mark Slade (who gets better as he gets older). Finally, after a ritual fight, there's a sequence accurately described by its chapter heading as a "tag team bathroom orgy."

John Bruno's direction seals the edginess of this release, although the illusion of fisticuffs owes a lot to Mr. Pam's deft editing. John Simms's videography makes everyone look as if he hasn't bathed for a week. In this context, that's a complement.