Rating: 
Summary: Don't party too hard...
Review: I really enjoyed this film.
Great music, good looking guys, lots of club scenes etc.
BUT... more importantly, the film shows the story of an ex-cop, who was forced to leave his job becuase he is gay. He moves to LA, and becomes immersed in gay culture in a heavy way.
Drugs, promiscuous sex and all night partying - every night.
It starts to take its toll.
Its an interesting look at a particular group of gay men (Circuit boys) and the effect the drugs etc have on their lives.
The films not without emotion, and is acted well; a good script and delivers an important message.
Excellent extras as well which includes lots of deleted scenes.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad movie- brilliantly accurate.
Review: It is pointless to say anything about the quality of the film, because the script is bad, the production values are dreadful, etc., but it amazed me by the end of this film how terribly accurate it was. It all may have seemed cliche-ridden, but every cliche was dead on.Some of the performances by the actors are actually quite brilliant, considering if they were not on drugs while filming, how well they filmed drug usage. I was at the ready to laugh at this movie with my boyfriend (having done the "circuit" ourselves), but we were both shocked by the end how we were emotionally drawn in by the ravage, and the profound toll that was taken on theses empty people. This is not a movie to purchase, and certainly nobody who has not been involved in the party scene would understand it, but for those of us who have been there and (for lack of a better word) survived, it is a wrenching vision of what truly does happen. I am absolutely shocked that this movie was even made, because it couldn't have been any more real if it were a documentary. There really is no loving or hating of this movie. The people who stated that it is an unfair and ugly portrait of the gay community are missing the point. The fact is - this really does happen. Illicit drugs, unprotected sex, AIDS, the Dionysian impulse for the party never to end, the derpression, the overdoses, it astonished me how he fit it all in there, and how right he was about virtually every single thing. The sad thing is, is there really any hope for these people? And I count myself and boyfriend as two of the fortunate who were able to "escape", while still being drawn to it. Kudos to Shafer for an unflinching view of circuit life, and for not Hollywood-izing or compromising in any way. Also, for reserving judgment, because what could have been a moralizing self-serving look at how we can "change" things and make them better, was better served in the end by simply showing the viewer, and allowing him or her to make the decision for themselves. A surprisingly mature and elegant choice from an inexperienced filmmaker, when it could have gone completely the other way. Unfortunately, the movie is technically so bad, with a dreafdul script, and mediocre performances, that it might be laborious for all but the retired circuit boy who needs a reminder that its not all beautiful muscle boys who want to sleep with you who are a "community" (quoted from the movie, not me), but a selfish, dark world, where there is no out but death.
Rating: 
Summary: Five Star Rating is for photography and verisimilitude
Review: Maybe this movie isn't a true portrayal of the scene all over the place, but it documents well, a real part of gay life that came about in the 70's and lasted until who knows when. It isn't like the flames and heat of the 70's and 80's, because there was a more primal sense of discovery, and the "forbidden fruit" aspect of life then was a perk to us Circuit boys that isn't as available now. We weren't following a pattern, but making one. I think this movie will become a piece that stays in the Gay Canon and one which will be as lasting as VALLEY OF THE DOLLS was/is. I particularly liked the empty, lovely, and bad hustler. He was so totally close to the hustlers of the French Quarter I knew years ago. Only, he had more energy, and was cleaner, and more sophistocated--but, just an innerly empty. That emptiness is a reality that he really portrays. Like flashing photography? Like dancing kissing gay men? You like to know what a White Party or Red Party is about? It is a hard world for a true muscled, lovely, slightly aging hunk, and this will make you laugh and cry. The tragedy portrayed, was valid. I think the sad side is we all know a bunch of guys who died along the way. Older gay men will like this, especially couples who lived the days of wild abandon.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fun, Fleshy Ride!
Review: Much like Stuart Halpern's "When Boys Fly", "Circuit" directed by Playgirl centerfold-turned-director Dirk Shafer, tells the story of the underground circuit parties. But whereas "When Boys Fly" achieves as a documentary, "Circuit" falls a bit short, but is still quite entertaining as a fictional account. Most critics agreed the films downfall was gratuitous flesh, flat dialogue, and a thin storyline but were they really expecting Oscar material? This is a circuit party! Bring on the glamour boys and pulsating music for god's sake! Who wants to watch a film with average "joes" spewing Shakespeare and listening to classical music? Not me. I'm here to have fun! Jonathan Wade Drahos plays Johnny, who comes to Los Angeles as a former police officer who was being harassed due to his lifestyle. His captain tells him he should move to somewhere more accepting, so off he goes to West Hollywood to stay with his cousin Tad (Daniel Kucan). Tad is an aspiring filmmaker who's shooting a documentary about the "circuit," and has been getting financed from a sleazy party producer (William Katt). It's not long and Johnny has found his own place, and eventually meets up with an aging male hustler Hector (Andre Khabbazi) who introduces him to drugs, music and circuit parties. Johnny is resistant at first but before you can say, "lets dance", Johnny is doing drugs, shooting steroids and is dressing like a club kid. Enter Nina (Kiersten Warren), a stand up comic and ex-girlfriend of Johnny's. He runs into her at a club and offers her a place to stay. It doesn't take long and she sees what's happening to Johnny and her warnings fall on deaf ears and it isn't until a tragic event that Johnny finally wakes up from this nightmare world. Some cameos round the film out with Nancy Allen as a sympathetic cashier at the parties who helps Tad, Jim J. Bullock as a washed up movie star, and a performance by Paul Lekakis, remember the dance single "Boom Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room)? Paul plays an exotic dancer/performer Bobby, who is living with AIDS and who takes penis-enlarging injections before he performs. Can you say "ouch"! This was his first film I believe and he does a fine job. But the one standout is Hector. Totally obsessed with his looks, he gets cheekbone implants and at one point makes love to himself in a mirror; he portrays a sad and troubled soul. Shafer does manage to include some interesting camera effects, hallucinatory visions, half-naked men grinding on the dance floor, and some actual scenes from various circuit parties. DJ Tony Moran and Centaur Entertainment's Nick DiBlase provide the pulsating soundtrack, which I enjoyed as well and is available on disc. Yes, the film is filled with hot men, plenty of gratuitous nudity, drugs, and may be thin on story and dialogue, but just kick back and take if for what its worth, it's a fun, fleshy ride. Welcome to the world of the circuit parties!
Rating:
Summary: engrossing glimpse of one aspect of gay life
Review: Not being a circuit guy myself, i enjoyed watching and alternately being excited and horrified by the proceedings. As a movie it is definitely above average - and especially the character of Hector is finely wrought.... well worth the time to see this movie once....
Rating:
Summary: Party Monsters
Review: Saw this movie a while ago, and had a blast watching people have too much fun. The music is great, and the build-ups for each party are very well done. Basically, the actors go from one circuit party to the next. As they go along, they do more and more drugs. Unfortunately, they do too much drugs and suffer a bit. But the movie leaves you with the realization that parties and drugs make for a better more fun life, if taken in moderation. Just like work.
Rating:
Summary: One of those guilty-pleasure movies...
Review: that turns out to be great.
The characters are many and well fleshed-out (literally and figuratively) and the story is compelling and interesting.
There are some movies that just bore me because I don't CARE about the characters. This movie is not one of them. I was rooting for just about all of them, even as they spiraled down past anybody's help (or almost, in some cases.)
The movie-within-a-movie was a wonderful showcase for the characters to explain their point of veiw and showed them often at their most vulnerable, for all their posturing about how invincible they thought they were.
There is A LOT of drug use. Perhaps it is accurate. It was hard to watch because you could see the characters deteriorating.
There is a wonderful touching scene between John, the main character (who looks like Clark Kent) and Hector, his hustler friend (and perhaps his true love) in a limo toward the end of the film. Okay, so I LOVE Hector. Sue me.
There are also wonderful performances by the character of Nina, who is John's college girlfriend (now roommate) and Paul Lekakis, of "Come On Over to My House" and "Boom Boom Boom" fame from the '90s.
The movie is done very well overall. There are some noticeable issues with the synchronization of the sound, but that's a minor flaw.
Well done and interesting. Recommended overall.
Rating:
Summary: Bad movie- brilliantly accurate.
Review: The acting was poor but the film's message was profound and thought provoking. Always a plus is the beautiful well-built leading man along with an excellent excellent sex scene! I'd rent it just for that!
Rating:
Summary: Good film! (besides the acting)
Review: The acting was poor but the film's message was profound and thought provoking. Always a plus is the beautiful well-built leading man along with an excellent excellent sex scene! I'd rent it just for that!
Rating:
Summary: Perfect Bodies
Review: The gentically perfect. Love them, hate them. Envy them, want to be them, and yet, not be them. These are guy's that refelect effortless confidence. A kind of engery that comes to men who are very good looking or seldom filled with self doubt, as Dennis Lehane wrote in Mystic River. All of these guys are in this film and every TV show and film made. The ones who make the money, the ones teenage boys and girls put on their walls, are perfect in face and body. Circuit tries to show that this life, while sexually free of any morals, can be as empty as the space between the Earth and the moon. Still, they choose to live this life and I am sometimes jealous I cannot (me of no high cheekbones or flat chest and stomach. I'm just normal, which means I write about this than live it). I was surprised at how good the film is, even if the story is a little flat. Jonthan Wade Drahos, an almost bizarre version of Peirce Brosnan, Andre Khabbazi, Brian Lane Green and Daniel Kucan do fairly well with the thin material given, and all are very, very, very beautiful. But the film wanders too much, trying to tie all stories together, while hoping to make a point. And William Katt and Karen Allen, well, both of them look sort of out place in the film. But, in the end, who is the audience for this film? Even before I saw this, I was aware that this life is very self-destructive. And the Circuit queens will tell you that drugs are the only thing that makes sex interesting (one of my friends told me that if you don't do drugs, circuit parties are essentially boring. Nice). It's worth a look, but it's message is as mixed up as drug crazed pretty boys.
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