Bad movie. That's a pity because it had a nice gay content and because I saw the flick on the airplane to Brazil, holding my hubby's hand (oh, come on, that's cute).
Here, Pierce Brosnan is a thief about to retire somewhere in the Caribbean. Salma Hayek is his criminal partner and will retire as well. Woody Harrelson is a friendly FBI agent who does not believe the couple will actually retire, so he sort of stalks them.
We have lots of gay content for our gay movie review. The first scene with gay content happened very early in the movie. In the scene, Pierce Brosnan kisses a beggar, whom we initially think is a guy, but we soon find out the beggar is Salma Hayek -- with some bad make-up. Well, we knew about that "surprise" from the trailer of the movie, but it was nice anyway. After the kiss Pierce complains about her fake beard -- it tickles (I think Pierce looks like he can take more than a little little tickling, but whatever).
Later on we have quite a bit of homoerotic content, which turns out to be real nice for us. In one scene, Woody Harrelson asks Pierce to rub sun lotion on his back, which he does, a little reluctantly, but he does. Then, Woody offers to Pierce his own lotion-rubbing services. Just like a good closet case would do. Soon after that, they are fishing, and Pierce asks Woody to grab hold of his rod, something to do with a big fish he just caught. It was all kinda hot.
Then, Woody gets drunk and Pierce carries him over to his hotel room with the help of a bartender (played by the cutie in the picture, Troy Garity). Pierce gets Woody tucked in, all cute. A good male bonding scene. But then, Pierce warns the bartender that he will kill the bartender if he tells anyone he tucked Woody in. The threat was certainly not nice, even if it was a joke. That joke lowered the lightshed score, which would have been even higher otherwise.
In any event, it's great to see a guy being comfortable touching another guy, and we see a lot of that in After the Sunset. That is good for us gays because I think a lot of the homophobia straight guys have stem from the guy-on-guy mental image. Straighties find the image icky -- the "icky" gay sex, so it is nice for straighties to see a little guy-on-guy onscreen. It's a good start, don't you think?
Then, later, Pierce is leaving a bathroom stall dressed in a diver's outfit (there's a costume party going on) and there are a few gay guys hanging out in the bathroom. One of the gays compliments Pierce's diving costume and Pierce just thanks. Super nice.
We also had some lesbian content. When Woody is wiretapping Pierce and Salma, he realizes the couple is getting hot and heavy. We hear Salma talking about a female friend of hers who is coming over to join in the lovemaking, all supposedly to have Pierce feel more relaxed. Salma says she does anything to make Pierce happy -- which in this case can be taken as a strong suggestion of girl-on-girl action. Woody gets all riled up listening to the conversation. I have mentioned before that I am not really sure that having guys so into lesbian action is a good thing, because that can actually reflect female objectification -- instead of reflecting or promoting a positive light for my dear lesbians. I don't have my mind set on that yet though. I'll let you know.
While I'm at it, I also have a bit of problem with older male leads, like Pierce, getting it on with much younger female hotties, like Salma. I know that that actually reflects real life -- we see it a lot, but it does bother me a little. Women must hate that, and they have every reason to hate it.
Finally, the movie is shot in the Caribbean, and I think it missed a big opportunity to let straighties know about the homophobia in the region. I don't think political activism and the gay agenda must necessarily be a part of every movie plot, but since this plot did include a small discussion on poverty and politics by Don Cheadlle, it would have been nice to have a little discussion about homophobia. In any event, Don Cheadle is a bad guy in the movie and maybe it's just too early to expect bad guys to be gay friendly.
The hottest scene in the movie (including one hot pic) is discussed after the jump. My discussion of the scene will reveal a bit more of the plot (but I will be far from giving away the ending or anything really major).
Pierce and Woody sleep together! They s-l-e-e-p together. The scene is actually a little on the hot side, but no actual sex takes place. Here's the deal, Pierce is dumped by Salma, and he goes to Woody's hotel room to get some sleep.
The FBI and the local police wake them up, and with that we have another bit of negative gay content. Seeing them naked in bed, this FBI dude mentions that he knows about the FBI's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, but says that that -- having a criminal and an FBI agent in bed -- is pushing it too far. That reminder is hurtful to us because the discriminatory Don't Ask Don't Tell policy is wrong on so many levels and has put so many nice gays out of their jobs. Accordingly, the policy is something that should be changed immediately and not be the butt of a silly joke. The FBI dude says the "too far" line in a way that implies the discriminatory policy makes sense. I also lowered the lightshed score because of that.
Anyway, having Pierce and Woody shirtless in bed is pretty powerful because it helps settle the two-guys-can-make-out image as natural in people's minds. Pierce Brosnan and Woody Harrelson, shirtless, in bed. Yay!
In another scene, during a little fake under-the-sea chase, and after Woody and Pierce had slept together, Woody mentions that just the other night they were spooning and now Pierce is running away from him. That was cute. All very positive I thought.
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