King Cobra

It can be an introduction to pornography industry. Or nice mix of sex and crime. Far to be bad, it is just a superficial film, with not special story, having more the mark of James Franco obvious fascination for subject , giving , as consolation prize, the presence and decent work of Christian Slater and Alicia Silverston. So, the only sin remains a posible high expectation about King Cobra.

I watched because I like crime shows. This one was set in the gay porn industry and a young man (very well played by eye candy Garrett Clayton) made famous by it and his unscrupulous producer. The movie was combination story about the young man's ascent in the porn industry, murder of one of the protagonists, a rival producer and his lover. 2 central plots around each of the 2 producers lives that converge at the murder.

I thought all the male actors were good in this especially Clayton that is convincing, starting the movie off as a naive youth and in the end maturing into a clever man - nicely done. It was off beat for sure but I liked it.

I think male nudity would have been gratuitous. Franco held in balance the crime story and male sexuality well in this movie.

Overall, this was an enjoyable watch. Both Garrett Clayton (Brent Corrigan) and Christian Slater did a good job ...but James Franco's over-the-top acting made this seem cheezy and unbelievable. Furthermore, while they seemed to have a good budget for top-name actors, the production of this seems rather "unpolished."

I originally gave this 6-starts; then took off another star once I found out the real "Brent Corrigan" is NOT a fan of this film and he feels "they got it wrong." So while it may be "based on true events" ...it seems to be very loosely so.

There isn't much anything special about this film that describes a bit of the superficial world of the gay porno movie industry. Based on real events, "King Cobra" doesn't add anything more than other films on the topic. The highlight of the movie is the good performance by the entire cast but from the beginning, we already sensed a tragic end, we just didn't know which character.

When I looked at the cast, honestly I wasn't sure what to expect.

To my great surprise the cast delivered big time. I was very impressed with Slater, Franco and Ringwald (I wish she had more screen time). There have been numerous movies about women in porn so for me it was 'nice' (not really the word) to spend time on the other side of the fence, learning that the issues many women face in the industry are mirrored by men in gay porn as well.

As for being a representation of the truth, after a little reading, I feel it stayed close enough, but with additions and omissions that is pretty normal for a 'based on' movie.

I do believe its worth a look (particularly for the performances) but it won't be for everyone.