In the annals of gay porn history, I've always thought "Flesh & Blood" (1996) to be a true standout, an ideal marriage of plot and sex from the master of that form, Jerry Douglas. He's in hyperdrive here, not only giving the viewer an exhausting eyeful of superlative sex, but a story and ensuing dialogue that is vivid, but not overshadowing. He knows all of the lines and when to stop from crossing them. Given the porn role of a lifetime is Kurt Young, a personal favorite now and forever, who meets all of Douglas' needs here in playing twins as well as it's ever been done in gay porn. The rest of the cast is a Who's Who of mid-90s porn, and they all find themselves wrapped up in the special aura of "Flesh & Blood," led by their two commanders, Douglas behind the camera and Kurt so magnificent in front.
Kurt arrives at his deceased twin brother's apartment, in dark hair and a mustache, to find perky blond Bryan Kidd, willing to tell Kurt all about his dead brother's life. Bryan relates a touching story of when he and Kurt (as Kurt's twin brother) had been together a month and exchanged necklaces on the roof before having sex. Here, Kurt is sans mustache and looking like the golden boy amazing stud who still makes me swoon: longish flowing hair, flashing eyes, an easygoing face, perfect nose and lips, rock-hard freckled body that is muscular but not overly so, and a giant straight cock. Bryan discusses what he loves about Kurt as he licks each part until getting down to the cock and blows it with spirit. They go into a 69, which is shot beautifully as Bryan continues his ardent suck and Kurt adds a touch of sexy-eyed sensuality to the moment. Bryan asks Kurt to "make love to me" (which it seems they've been doing all along) and this is Kurt's cue to suit up and slide into Bryan's cute ass. Amazingly, the entire length of Kurt's imposing shaft fits into Bryan's ass, but he doesn't race off to finish, instead applying that same slow-burn to his fuck, which keeps Bryan completely interested. The second position is missionary, where Bryan can stare up at dreamy Kurt and kiss him as Kurt sticks with the passionate fuck. Bryan cums being fucked and then jerks an enormous blast out of Kurt. After Bryan tells his story, he's quite emotional and cautions Kurt that if he stays, he'll fall in love all over again with this second twin.
Into the narrative flies Jeanna Fine, who finds Kurt as beautiful as his brother. The luscious brunet has quite a different story to tell, saying that Bryan ruthlessly hit on Kurt and that they never had an affair. Jeanna is a completely natural actress who acts like she belongs on a soap (and this is shot on the same tape as soaps). She claims that the dead Kurt was completely straight and that they were engaged! She has one story she gladly relates, starting with a romantic dinner the two of them spent for his birthday. She describes a scenario where Kurt wanted the waitress to come home with them, the typical "straight guy" fantasy as she says, but the flashback shows that the waitress is actually blond waiter Hawk McAllistar. As Jeanna watches the action, Hawk goes down on Kurt with a big gulping mouth to achieve a superb deep-throat. Jeanna looks both amazed and jealous. Kurt sucks Hawk's thick uncut cock wonderfully, though in these pre-Viagra days, hardness wasn't always a sure thing. Far more successful is Hawk's work on an always-throbbing Kurt, with Jeanna darting around the action looking for a place to fit in (and stroking the phallic ear of her stuffed bunny as the guys prepare for more). Jeanna gets to watch as they 69, her eyes looking down the double-cock alley along with the camera. Kurt and his hand do exquisite work while Hawk rattles off more deep-throating so easily. Kurt gets his ass rimmed for just a bit and then Hawk whispers that he plans to fuck Kurt. "Not in front of her you're not," Kurt coos, keeping Jeanna's fantasy alive too. She not only provides the condom for Kurt to use, but puts it on him. She then has the treat of watching Kurt plow Hawk with less lover-like zeal than in the first scene and more innate nastiness. It's an easy slide in for Kurt, who finds Hawk's ass more than welcoming. When they fuck missionary, Hawk is cradled in Jeanna's lap and Kurt stares at her as Hawk is climaxing. Kurt cums as well and kisses Hawk sweetly, with Jeanna looking on. The addition of Jeanna to this scene adds a tense layer to an otherwise typical one-on-one scene, one of those touches that makes Jerry Douglas the artist he is. Sadly, it's almost as though Jeanna believes the story she is telling Kurt about his dead brother.
Rid of former boyfriends and girlfriends, Kurt locks himself in his brother's apartment, puts on the ring that Jeanna gave his brother and the necklace Bryan gave to the same man before going into the bedroom, where he doesn't know a stranger is lurking. By the bed is a photo of the two brothers, and something about the room has turned Kurt on. He has a raging hardon coming through his boxers, but before he can finish, he hears someone entering the apartment. He catches the super, Linus Ford, a cute hairy-chested guy who is there to get back some videotapes he and Kurt made. As with the other characters, Linus is not quite telling the truth when he explains that one tape shows him having sex with a hooker. Instead, Linus, a drinking buddy, is bombed enough to have sex with everyone's favorite dish, the deceased Kurt. The deceased Kurt videotaped it with a camera he had gotten. Linus is initially scared to go through with everything, but drunk, he pulls out his cock and beats off watching glamorous Kurt tape him. Kurt gets Linus to suck his dick, which he does as lustily as everyone else in this movie who has touched the magic piece. At Kurt's goading, Linus is able to completely swallow it. It remains a most impressive blowjob, with Linus peering up at Kurt with begging eyes as Kurt delights in being worshipped. To make things very realistic, Linus even grabs a swig of beer to keep his nerves going as he completes another astounding deep-throat. Linus has a messy cum-shot and then Kurt gives him the camera to capture the one he delivers, another giant splash to Linus' face. Kurt tells Linus that he has to eat his ass before he can fuck it, and eventually Linus agrees. Kurt's hole is tight, pink and shaved, another truly perfect spot on his body, and Linus buries his face between Kurt's cheeks with big desire. His munching gets Kurt to toss off another bombing cum-shot all over his own face.
As Linus is bemoaning the loss of his best friend, the building's owner, macho beefy Ace Harden, arrives. No doubt he'll have another layer to add to the mystery of the body outline on the floor right where they are talking. Ace is as comfortable in the apartment (going right to the fridge like everyone else) as Bryan, Jeanna and Linus. Occasionally, the deceased Kurt did some "errands" for Ace, and the flashback is once again the real story. He had Kurt pick up hookers Steve O'Donnell and Steve Pierce and bring them to a dungeon four-way. Ace and Kurt, tucked in leather jackets, light up cigars and Ace decides the boy-toys need some butt bananas. So, the lean Steves, O'Donnell the blond, and Pierce the brunet, are bent over so the bananas can be shoved into their asses. Scarred Ace takes particular pleasure in this act, though Kurt is having fun too, and the Steves kiss as their holes are invaded by the soft piece of fruit. With the bananas in there, Ace decides the boys need silver butt-plugs as well. Their asses full, it's time for them to suck cock (the moment where Kurt pops open his chaps with just a hip-thrust is grand). The Steves go into a 69, where O'Donnell has a particularly good time sucking Pierce's pierced cock. Kurt and Ace are rock-hard watching the guys suck, so the Steve's come over to blow their paying customers. They switch back and forth between the two very large dicks, both excellent suckers. Bananas and butt-plugs fit, so Kurt and Ace slide their cocks into the hookers. Kurt gets O'Donnell and Ace gets Pierce, but the fucks are kept parallel down to the speed of their movements, another of those only-Jerry-Douglas touches. Ace is a bit more brutish where Kurt is so ultra smooth in his expert fucking. The bottoms make out as they are fucked doggy, and then in even darker light, they are flipped over so the tops can switch bottoms. From there, it's a race to the finish for the bottoms, who cum before their tops. "Yeah, strictly business," is the way Ace describes his dealings with the deceased Kurt, of course stretching the truth as far as some of the asses in play. And, like all of the other characters, Ace basically asks Kurt to take his brother's place in the building.
But, would it be such a bad idea? This is what we're left wondering when Kurt makes the radical decision to shave off his mustache, something else that makes him hard (really, what doesn't?). So, he decides to hook up his deceased brother's video camera and tapes himself beating off on the couch, as the mysterious stranger from the bedroom watches. Like everything else he has done here, Kurt wows with his jack-off. His long-lashed shamingly handsome face doesn't show it, but his cock does. It's as hard as it's been and he sure knows how to manipulate it. The self-pleasuring doesn't go on very long before Kurt has shot a load. It's then that he hears a noise in the bedroom and opens to the door to find ... well, what do you think? His dead twin brother, distinguishable only by a heart tattoo on one arm.
The up-'til-now deceased Kurt is beating off and very seductive. What follows is a spectacular scene, shot so that it actually seems like Kurt is having sex with himself. Every angle is carefully studied and the lighting and bodies help shield what is really going on. First, Bad Kurt (he's the one that was everybody's boy and faked his death) sucks off Good Kurt, who gives himself over to the pleasure despite his better judgment. Kurt is winning with a blowjob. So far, most of the sucking has been done to him, so it's a nice treat to see Kurt front and center handling cock orally, because he does it so damn well. The Kurts switch places and Good Kurt sucks, but of course the result is exactly the same, since it's still Kurt sucking. The editing tricks used to get them to kiss are excellent, but the 69 tops it all. Here's where sheer cleverness takes root. This is so brilliantly rendered, that it's hard to tell who is who (and indeed, in the behind-the-scenes interview, filmed in 2006, Kurt admits to being fooled by a recent viewing). But, beyond the camera tricks used, it shouldn't be overlooked that Kurt is giving a bravura sexual performance. Bad Kurt fits his brother with a condom and squats down on his twin. What's interesting here is that Kurt Young as a performer doesn't have to bottom. The way this fuck is shot, it's just at the ass. You see close-ups of Kurt's face as the riding twin, but never long shots. However, then Jerry Douglas tricks us again! Kurt does actually bottom, for the first time in this story. It's easy to get caught up in the camera tricks, but the sex itself is rendered so sweetly and carefully, the performers really overcoming the problems of position to give off a technically awesome set of fucks. After both brothers have flip-flopped, it's time for the cum-shots, and thanks to technology, they can appear to be standing right next to each other doing it, so that they cum simultaneously on each other's cocks.
Bad Kurt then explains the reason he faked his death and even how he did it. It's criminal genius on the part of Bad Kurt. There is a huge shock that ends this scene of sterling acting on Kurt's part, playing both characters so sincerely. The twists keep coming after that as the reasons for the whole fake death get even more convoluted.
A memorial is planned for the dead brother, with the entire cast invited, including the hookers from the dungeon scene. Jeanna is sent out for wine, leaving just the boys. Kurt pops in the video tape of the jack-off session on the couch and the men all start to disrobe. All of the story's sumptuous cocks are presented again. They all watch Kurt's video jack-off and do the same to themselves. There is some kissing, but that's it before Hawk sprays a load on Kurt, followed by Steve Pierce, Steve O'Donnell, Linus, Bryan and Ace. Kurt, sitting next to his image on screen, has the very final shot, a towering blast that really ends the movie with a huge exclamation point, before one last twist, of course.
"Flesh & Blood" is still a classic. The Jerry Douglas style, a ferocious attention to details both sexual and otherwise, is a standard to which all porn of this genre can be measured. Kurt's performance is dead-on and so carefully done, going from the confusion of the brother investigating his twin's death to the raunchiness of the dungeon scene and the playful manipulation of the others in their sex scenes. He's versatility personified. The other guys chosen fit their characters perfectly, both in clothes and out. It's the out of them part that really dazzled here. It seems that everyone delights in the bounties of Kurt, and since he's in every scene of this spectacle, everyone gets to benefit.
DVD features: Chapters; cum-shots chapter; director's commentary (Jerry Douglas provides insightful interesting commentary); interview (Kurt Young, filmed in 2006, and, man, does he look great, but besides that, he's warm and modest, not to mention charming); trailers ("A Man's Tale," "Delinquents," "Hole Patrol" and "Wrong Side of the Tracks"); and no regional coding (playable worldwide).
A DVD Review by Brent Blue