Boy Toys (2010) User Reviews

Horrendous

[Davalon-Davalon · 1/10 · 14 July 2021]

This is not a film. This is a bad joke.

Apparently gay films from the Philippines must adhere to some unwritten rules: The lead is always "from the provinces," and is desperately poor. Because of that, he falls into either "macho dancer" territory, prostitution or pornography.

"Macho Dancer" was the first film that I saw from the Philippines. It was powerful because you couldn't make up the story line. It was filled with tragedy and was disturbing and moving. I have now seen at least 20 gay-themed Filipino movies, and none have come close to "Macho Dancer."

"Boy Toy" follows the "story" (there isn't one) of a young man living in a hovel, who can't pay his rent and somehow thinks he's going to be a star. He ends up "auditioning" for a "gay movie." The auditionees are required to deliver some hackneyed dialogue and to show off their behinds.

Once our lead "secures the part," we go through god-knows-what before the "filming" begins. The lead is paired with another man who looks like he's probably straight and is only doing this because he's desperate. When they are asked to do a sex scene, they do it robotically and it's filmed in a way that you can't see any dangly bits. The director keeps asking them to do again with more "passion" -- what this has to do with the movie they "auditioned" for is anyone's guess.

There is a put-upon assistant who clearly has the hots for the young lead, and we are led to believe that maybe they end up with each other... and that's nice to imagine, but... the rest of this film is filled with catty remarks from the director and other "crew" members associated with this disaster. (As usual, there doesn't seem to be any money to pay anyone and/or to even complete the production.)

As the "film" progresses, it leads up to this unbelievably bizarre "dance" where the young men wear what must be toilet paper "designs" and do erotic "moves." It is the only moment in the film where the young lead and his "co-star" actually generate any heat, despite the hysterical laughs that will come from seeing the toilet paper "costumes" (another "department" that clearly didn't have a budget).

The only thing in the movie that was worthwhile was a scene with the censorship board, which had the "power" to decide whether this travesty, which the director was fighting for, tooth and nail, could be released in its current form with its "hot" "sex scene." During this censorship board meeting (not the first one, the last one), one of the characters says something catty to the other one, and it was so funny I started howling. That, and the "toilet paper dance" were the only things worth watching this for.

The rest of it was a bad joke.

OMG, this is awful

[avenuesf · 2/10 · 9 August 2023]

I have to agree with the other reviewer here... I have no idea what the production company was thinking when they made this very poorly made film.

The plot device once again revolves around a young man who is auditioning for a gay film because he needs money for rent and wants to be a famous actor. How many times have we seen this?

Unfortunately, the scene detailing the auditions of the young man and others who are looking for parts in the film seem to go on endlessly and with no particular purpose... it began to appear to me that the filmmakers didn't have enough material to fill up a feature film's running time so they decided to make this aspect of the plot use up over a third of the film's length. I assume they thought it was sexy to show them repeatedly asking the actors to take their shirts off, but it became incredibly monotonous listening to the producer (whose name is "Sir Bong") chat endlessly with the director about each actor. Clearly the film needed an editor who was able to recognize this.

The second part of the "Boy Toys" involves the actual shooting of the feature, which consists of the actors standing on a stage that has a background arch covered in tin foil while they simulate kissing... and none of them look like they have any interest or enjoyment whatsoever in what they're doing. And yes... they do look like they're wearing toilet paper!

The final part of "Boy Toys" was the only scene I found interesting. The film's director defends the film to the Philippines censor board, who want to rate the film as an "X." The scene provided a good job of showing the discrimination and hypocrisy directed at gay people in the country. The depictions of the members of the censor board as well as the director's responses to their objections are also very funny and biting. Mr. Altarejos, "Boy Toys'" director, could have made a great feature had he focused on this topic alone.

I normally enjoy low-budget films and prefer them over bloated, big-budget productions, but this film clearly suffers from having an almost non-existent one. "Boy Toys" tries hard to be titillating but it's mostly pointless conversations with just a few embarrassing attempts at trying to be sexy.