AMG Double Feature: Nude Posing Film Classics: Caliente Nude Wrestling Film Classics: Smack Down a review by Onan the Vulgarian Best of Phoenix Alternative Video Reviewer

	Directed by Bob Mizer.
	Athletic Model Guild, 3020 El Cerrito Plaza, Suite 114, El Cerrito, CA 94530. Toll-free orders, 877-AMG-DIRECT. Internet www.athleticmodelguild.com. Wholesale inquiries, 415-437-9800, ext. 807.
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Bob Mizer's legacy to the gay movement and gay pride cannot be underestimated. He was a pioneer in attitude as well as in action. This pair of newly-released DVDs from the Athletic Model Guild archives is based on material from the early 1970s, a time where photography was moving away from black and white, towards color, and a time when public mores permitted the posing straps to be dropped and male models photographed with full frontal nudity.
    Nude Posing Film Classics: Caliente features 21 Latino models — Pantero El Salvador, Cruz Reyes, David Herrera, Jesus Hernandez, Rolando Puma, Pablo Cruz, Jaime Martinez, Jesse Cortez, Felix Astorga, Jose Enrique, John Gonzales, John Morgado, Alex Cabral, Antonio Juarez, Roberto Garcia, João de Azores, Antonio Montez, Gordon Taylor, Francois Tomas, Russell Matthews and Tom Venezuela.
    They can be viewed in a seven-minute color slide show of still photos, or in a series of short posing sessions filmed live. Each model is identified, and in the film sequences, some have erections, but there is no sexual activity. There is some acrobatic and sexually provocative "play," however, such as ass-winking, BD/SM scenarios and lots of spread-eagle shots. The models are cheerful, fit and remarkably unself-conscious about what are some essentially silly props and poses. Each model poses alone, with the exception of one scene in which Russell Matthews wrestles with Pablo Cruz.
    Caliente has model selection, options to play films or slides, trailers, company and contact information.
    Nude Wrestling Film Classics: Smack Down has 18 wrestling matches, mostly two-man contests, with one three-man match involving as much spanking as wrestling, and one five-man melee. There is an additional 19th scene, in which cute blond Kurt Koenig gets out of the pool, watches his dick get hard, then gets up and dances. One of the scenes dates to the 1950s, two were shot in the 1960s and the rest are from the '70s. Four scenes are in black and white.
    These matches are obviously filmed for fun. There is plenty of frivolity on the set, and there are scenarios involving props and costumes, depicting everything from classical Greece to contemporary leather. But there's also real wrestling, none of it sexual in nature (although there will inevitably be a scene or two where you wish a camera had followed the models after Mizer shouted "That's a wrap," to see what happened next).
    My personal favorites are brothers Tony and Ron Warner, whose first scene humorously displays a placard that says "Warner Brothers." They appear in two scenes, one color and one black and white, but they wear posing straps in both. They both have matinee idol good looks, blond hair and tan lines. Besides wrestling, they display their gymnastic abilities with lots of forward flips, back flips, handstands and more.
    Some of the matches are enhanced by oiling the models first, while in others, someone off-camera sprays down the models with a garden hose. There's even a dog that gets into the action in a couple of the films.
    Smack Down has match selection, a wrestling slideshow, bonus slideshows of eight of the models, trailers, company and contact information.
    The DVDs are offered separately at the AMG Web site, or as a specially priced pair. Adult entertainment has contributed greatly to the development of civil liberties and First Amendment rights, with the late Bob Mizer and his Athletic Model Guild foremost "in the trenches" when you could still go to jail (which Mizer did) for merely photographing naked men. These films are not only terrifically entertaining, they are a great reminder of our porn roots.



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