Aaron Albeit a Hero

Silly Bunny Pictures has a new offering, the indie feature "Aaron...Albeit a Sex Hero." Always one to support the artists I enjoy, I purchased it from the Silly Bunnies website. After all, he needs money to work on the next movie, so I wanna do my part so I can see more of his movies - at the heart, a fairly selfish act. The movie was written, directed and produced by Paul Bright, who decided on this outing to stay behind the camera, save a brief cameo. Enough, now let me get on with the movie.

Aaron...Albeit A Sex Hero is a heart an action movie, good vs. evil, with a twist. I enjoyed it greatly, finding it incredibly crisp for what I have come to expect from an indie feature. Our hero is hot, smart and gay. Aaron, played by Matthew Charles Burnett, is struggling a bit, in a bad job after a bad experience in the last. Jesse, whose 'real' name is Jesus, is a major stud who doesn't gel with Aaron at first, neither able to say the right thing as Aaron introduces himself on Jesse's first day. He is played by hot Papi Rafiel Sotto. The fates have different ideas, however, as they are repeatedly thrown together and discover new things about the other and themselves. Much like the arid setting, the story is steamy and sweaty, and kept my attention from start to finish. The script is pretty tight, with little superfluous baggage that often infects an indie film. Sure, it has its quirks, with things like spontaneous lesbian orgies, icky spiders, snakes and scorpions, and still maintain believability. The characters created are very true to life, like people I know in my own town. The acting is surprisingly good, and Mr. Burnett and Mr. Sotto are sexy and real, and have excellent chemistry together. The bad guys were everything they needed to be, hot and a bit trailer trashy, and ultimately tasty. The ladies of the tour group are funny and charming.

Where Angora Ranch oozed charm and humor, Aaron sweats out sexiness and excitement. Aaron has a much tighter script, and moves at a much quicker pace. The DVD comes with extras, like the trailer, a scene by scene go-to feature, and a behind the scenes mini-film hosted mainly by Mr. Bright. He is funny and informative. It was a great purchase.

The idiotic title alone should be enough to send up warning flags - "albeit"? Gimme a break! The concept isn't bad - but the script certainly is. The sound is downright awful (not unusual with indies). But if you can't hear the thing it better be a Marcel Marceau documentary or you start off frustrating the viewer. The videography (you can't really call it cinematography) is slightly better, but not much. The settings are unattractive (except for the establishing shots) - ditto the costumes, wigs, make-up and most of the cast. The only saving grace I could find is lead Matthew Burnett, who is kind of attractive and kind of charming, but kind of given an impossible task - make something watchable out of this mess. He is worth watching in future - albeit with better sound.

I'm giving it a 10 in the appropriate category of nearly amateur tiny indy films shot in the sticks, in this case Austin TX and environs. I have no relation to anyone in this film and have never seen any of the talents' other work.

The film is a romcom and suspense-action-drama that actually hangs together.

The only truly dreadful aspect of the film is the audio, which was hissy and at times a little garbled throughout, though I could hear it all, and was impressed with the incidental music.

The sex/romance between the two leads is natural, sexy, and neither over or understated. All of the acting is at least serviceable, which is maybe easier when pulling from an underutilized talent pool like Austin.

The plot is convoluted, but believable and entertaining.

The lead actor, Matthew Burnett, manages to be charming, dorky, exasperated, non-Hollywood looking, charismatic yet very sexy all at once ... and a top.

I've seen too many $200 million films that basically only managed to give me a headache. This one made me smile and one line even made me laugh out loud.

So, WATCH IT.

This one is pretty crazy....or maybe it's just those tour bus women....

Great characters and a plot that draws you in...who, what, when, where, why????? Some interesting shots of the things that threaten Aaron....that bad tarantula is truly scary! So are some of those tour bus ladies though also....

The two main stars shine and the chemistry starts slow and then heats up quickly along with the degree of danger.....simmer down now!!!!! The chase scenes are well-done...woods at night are always evil!

Anyone who enjoyed Paul's other films should definitely check this one out!

Honestly, the only thing I can deduce from these 10/outstanding reviews is that they are coming from people associated/friends with the cast or crew. The only reason I'm giving this one 2 stars is because Paul didn't star in this production, and actually left it to others to actually "act" (I'm sure they did their best). Still, I wouldn't recommend this for anyone...not even a shut-in whose only alternative was watching the "snow" on a TV with a broken antenna.