Caribbean Beat Review

Reviewed by Joe Shaver  on  11/27/2002

It was Kristen Bjorn more than any one else who first showed us that there was a world outside of America where exotic foreigners with incredible physiques engaged in man-to man sex, always with the emphasis on “man”. Beautiful scenery, beautiful men whose uninhibited enjoyment of one another’s bodies was awesome, big uncut cocks spurting as someone gave oral stimulation to the sides of them, cocks spurting great ropey loads with no one touching them, multiple cum shots with each participant coming several times per scene--made these films a unique addition to gay porn and became the hallmarks of Bjorn’s style.

Not all of Bjorn’s work is of equal quality, any more that the work of any artist is always of equal quality—yes, Bjorn is an artist. And although CARIBBEAN BEAT is not the equal of COMRADES IN ARMS or THICK AS THIEVES, compared to things outside the Bjorn cannon it is still a top-notch film. Although his earlier films had taken place in Brazil (MANHATTAN LATIN being the exception) this one uses the locale of the Dominican Republic where Bjorn had accompanied a companion to escape the dreariness of a New York winter. It is divided into sections dealing with the islands produce: coffee, bananas, cocoa, and sugarcane with scene three being “The Well” as water is essential to the other three. The film is treated somewhat like a Geography lesson where we see some hunky workers harvesting coffee beans and raking them out to dry. (However if my Geography class had been this fascinating I would have paid more attention.) Afterwards we have two coffee guys bathing in a river's pool where we get our first look at the more stimulating natural products these islands have to offer and witness a leisure play that would make any work tolerable.
It is the second scene, “Bananas”, that is the film's finest scene. It features two very black, very built, very hung twins—Carlos Luis and Luis Carlos Mendez, tag team wrestlers who agreed to participate in a threesome. They appear carrying stalks of bananas as the narrator intones that black bananas are the sweetest. Knowing that he needed an experienced bottom for these guys Bjorn imported an American Esteban Perez who was later to appear in Falcon films with the mundane name of Chuck Hunter (just as Mihaly Hurok appears in Falcon as George Vidanov and Miklos Olah appears as Fred Goldsmith—go figure). However you want to call him, Esteban is up to the challenge and the brothers get so carried away that they do what they said they wouldn’t—go down on one another. If ever a scene could be said to make a video, this is it.
Scene three with a threesome at the well is somewhat disappointing in that there is no oral or anal action but it is the prime example of Bjornian no-hands cum shots.
Esteban in scene two was so good that Bjorn kept him on for the foursome in scene four entitled “Cocoa”. As one can expect the studs are studly, but surprisingly some of the photography is streaked as a result of shooting into the sun and the conclusion of the scene is horribly grainy. I thought something had happened to my DVD player. The rest of the digital transfer is superb so I don’t know what the problem was here.
The final scene “Sugarcane” is the only scene to be filmed indoors. As Bjorn explains in the excellent commentary in the photo section this scene was actually shot in New York upon his return. This explains why it features a Puerto Rican (Enrique Rodriguez) and a Cuban (Jose Carerra). Rodriguez, the bulkier of the two has no pubic hair. Each tops and bottoms. Considering the fact that they hated one another, as Kristen tells us, the scene is quite hot. A case, I guess where “Fuck you” was taken quite literally.

I am glad Bjorn has added commentary to the photo section of the DVD. It is optional, but you won’t want to miss it. Glad too that he’s bringing out his entire opus on DVD. As stated earlier this is not one of the great ones, but it’s head and shoulders above most of the competition; and the scene with Perez and the Mendez twins is a knockout.