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Naked Fame
by Tla
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$19.99 |
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$17.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
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$2.00 (10%) |
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DVD
Publisher: Tla
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
Actors: Chi Chi LaRue, Colton Ford, Blake Harper
At the age of 40, wildly successful gay adult film star Colton Ford decides to leave porn behind and to pursue his dream: music. He definitely has the talent, but can he successfully use his porn past to build up a new career as a singer-songwriter? Christopher Long's intelligent and appealing documentary, Naked Fame, attempts to answer that question, following Colton and his life partner, fellow adult film star Blake Harper, as Colton moves from the film studio to the music recording studio. This documentary explores the inner-workings of the music industry, capturing the intense emotional drama involved in the pursuit of stardom against the stigma of a porn-star past.
| Customer Reviews: |
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| Intersting film |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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This is quite an interesting video. A documentary of the making of a music video and a small history of his life as a gay porn star, and trying to branch out into the mainstream. His lover is included more than I had expected and the video does go into some detail on their life together. This video shows all the problems he had getting the music video made and the acceptance of a male disco diva. If you are a fan of Colton Ford (Glenn) or Blake Harper (Peter), this will be interesting viewing. He does sing quite well and has a great voice. Too bad he did not catch on.
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| It's Just Me |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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I love Colton Ford and I was hoping the bio documentary would give me a deeper understanding of the guy, but it did not. There were some moving moments courtesy of Colton's partner. Basically, Naked Fame is glossy, surface marketing designed to promote interest in Colton Ford as a recording artist.
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| Fallen Idols |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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"NAKED FAME"
Fallen Idols
Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride
"Naked Fame" (Here TV!) is a documentary about Colton Ford and his attempt to shirk his title as a porn star and become a rock and roll singer. Some of you may know Colton as a gay porn actor who is married to another former porn star, Blake Harper. There was a time that you thought you saw them in every porn film. But time, like our hero, changes. If we look at the ladder of entertainment, we find porn on the bottom most rung and singers near the top. It is not easy to climb those rungs but Ford wanted to try. Ford and his partner exited the porn business together but they soon found out that the title porn star was not an easy one to doff.
This documentary is as much about leaving the porn industry as it is about pursuing a new career. Although the movie dispels some of the fantasies we may have about porn, it reinforces others and this could be why the movie has had very limited success. We all love our fantasies and when Ford and Harper were stars they fed our fantasies perfectly. The moment we learn about their other lives--their lives outside of porn, we are disgruntled. Do we care that they like to cook? I doubt it.
While the movie demystifies a lot about the porn industry, it also reinforces some of the rumors of drugs and Viagra. Our porn stars cease being gods and become mere mortals and this is what we are not too anxious to know. The beautiful people are not supposed to have the same kinds of problems that we have.
As a documentary, the movie is very well done. The problem is that one of our idols is knocked from his pedestal and once that happens it is hard to like the movie. Ford's uphill battle to release a single is admirable. His parents support him fully, divas appreciate him and Harper stands by his side. Obviously Ford has yet to fulfill his goal, we haven't heard about a number one single yet.
I have to give the guys a break, however. They have the guts to try--not only to eschew their past but to put themselves out there for public scrutiny (although they surely were both public and pubic in porn). As I watched the film I began to think of it as sort of a morality play but for a gay audience only. What is the moral? Don't grow up and be a porn star.
This is an interesting movie. I have been in the dark about the music industry so the whole marketing business was brand new to me. (It wasn't quite the same as the payola in "Dreamgirls"). The background on the porn industry was disheartening but real I am afraid. It intrigued me to hear the truth but it saddened me to lose the glamour.
Colton and Harper were close to their 40s when the change began. They obviously both realized that the younger stars were coming along to take their places so they exited at their prime. The entire foundation of the first 20 years of their life had eroded away and they had to find some way to pay the rent.
Colton Ford, who we learn has the real name of Glen. comes across the screen as vain and narcissistic. His personality is not particularly likeable (you could not bring him home to mom) and quite honestly the fact that he did not succeed musically did not bother me at all. And the movie is unfinished as it does not explore what happens when he realizes that he no longer has a career in porn and will not have a career as a singer.
Blake Harper whose real name is Peter fares better. He obviously loves his partner greatly ands we see him as sweet and sympathetic. It cannot be easy for him to support a career that was not meant to be.
If you take the movie seriously you will dislike intensely. Ford has little talent and aside for a few moment of clarity, the movie is repetitious and somewhat boring. Ford throws his life wide open for the world to see and we don't seem to be all that interested.
Those of you who have followed my reviews know that I always have something good to say and I will say this. Unlike some of the reviews that I have read of "Naked Fame", this movie is not useless. I have seen much worse. Great? No it is not. Entertaining, it is to a degree. It has good points and bad points but all in all, it is worth seeing. If you disregard the self patting on the back and the mutual admiration society of the two men, you may learn both about the porn industry and how to make music.
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| Proof that porn stars... |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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...are surely made to be seen and not heard.
Let me preface by saying I'm sure that Colton and Blake are nice people on many levels. Ok, now that that is out of the way....
Wow - I have never seen a culture more superficial and self-serving and self-entitled than the slice of LA that is presented here. And I am in NYC.
There are chats about what to wear to music meetings that are really only about choosing among an array of nylon track pants and tank tops with logos like "69" on them. How fresh and original. (There's this entire culture of gay men in LA and Chelsea who apparently all subscribe and live by some secret dress code and no one ever stops and says "Hey, we all look alike - and a little silly." )
Yes Colton can sing somewhat but after 90minutes of hearing about his "struggles" and his belief in himself....Oy, enough already. Get a real job if your broke. And just a little humility would be very attractive.
The scene where his boyfriend, Blake - whose sole purpose seems to be just sitting near Colton and smiling admiringly - starts crying because he was groped by a porn fan was insane. He's a porn star in a club filled with drugged dancing gay guys and he's looking for respect? Sorry but after a life of showing off and ASKING to be lusted after (no matter what deep seated low self-esteem that stems from - yawn) to expect us to feel sorry for him is ridiculous. Not 2 minutes later, two passersby see him sobbing, recognize him and one comments how he masturbates to his film work. This pleases Blake who says that at least they treated him like a person. Priceless stuff.
Later, he gets the respect he supposedly yearns for when he finally relents and lowers himself to take a job as a nurse (poor stud - so unglamourous. no lights and makeup) but that is merely seen as a concession to help his beloved Colton pursue his naked hunger for fame. Nevermind that he might be helping people who have more urgent needs. And I liked Blake despite all of this. Or maybe liked is the wrong word.
The manager, who turns out to be more creepy (though less egotisitcal) than the film's subject, is some odd looking man who seems to have had so many procedures done to his face that he looks like some androgynous alien crossed with that Joyce Wildenstein cat-lady.
So despite my opinion of the subjects (yes they're probably very very nice people behind their issues) this doc is certainly interesting as an example of how truly repulsive and downright unattractive vanity and the hunger for fame can be - and that's true even when there is talent involved.
Definitely watch the extras - there is a 30 min "studio session" where they break down the lyrics to Colton's song like "unzip my jeans, climb into my sling". It's all truly hysterical because they are actually serious.
Then there's the video for what is quite possible the worst cover ever: "Signed Sealed Delivered". You'll watch and wonder how they managed to discard of any trace of a melody.
Fun stuff - seriously.
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| A Documentary with Embellishments the Wears Out its Welcome |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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For the first fifteen minutes the story of NAKED FAME is interesting: two late thirties male porn stars in a seemingly healthy relationship decide to leave the Porn industry and try for the world of singing and acting. The two very buff and preening men are Colton Ford and Blake Harper. With the aid of Kevin Aviance and Marc Berkely, Colton makes a dance track that is then marketed in New York with the hopes that Colton Ford will become an instant star - a unique disco singer touting his background as a Porn Star for PR.
The remainder of the film is grumbling and in-fighting and commentary by Porn Producer ChiChi LaRue and the film slowly sinks into repetition and doldrums. Not a bad idea for a film if there were a bit more depth revealed in each character's drive to move away form a successful career (though one greatly influenced by the youth both characters have lost) into an alternative one. It is just that a one-note song wears thin quickly. Grady Harp, November 05
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