Movie Talk: Chi Chi LaRue's Wrong Side of the Tracks Parts 1 + 2 (2005)

I finally pushed through and watched all of Wrong Side of the Tracks. This is probably one of Chi Chi LaRue's most narrative films, considering he tends to be a director that prefers his features to be more sex forward. Don't get me wrong, this movie is VERY sex forward, with plenty of man on man action filling the 5+ hour runtime between both films. Part 1 comes in at 2 hours 50 minutes, and part 2 comes in at 2 hours 23 minutes.  There is just also a story that holds it all together.

First, if you are fan of Johnny Hazzard, you will like this movie. He is featured in a majority of the sex scenes in both films (4 scenes in part 1, and 2 scenes in part 2). This is probably some of his best adult work. While the script doesn't really push him as an actor, he does what he has to do to sell what we are watching. If you want to see him act, check out Tiger Orange, one of his mainstream acting jobs that I actually thought he did excellent in. I am a fan of Mr. Hazzard, so I did enjoy getting to see him headline two major releases. If you want to see why he got so popular so fast, some of his work in this movie will make it clear. 

The general plot is that Johnny Hazzard (the character has a name, but I cannot remember it for the life of me) is trying to get out of his dead end town, and away from his rapist step-father. So he packs up and heads out to the big city, leaving his boyfriend and his gang of well groomed hoodlums behind. But not until after having sex with his boyfriend, and then participating in a small orgy with the gang of tough street thugs who look like they belong in a knock off of Backstreet Boys. Along the way he meets plenty of hot men to have sex with, and becomes a street hustler. Hustling is going fine until one client pulls a gun on him. That is where part 1 just abruptly ends. Part 2 picks up right after the ending of part 1. Johnny survives, but the client is most likely dead, so he leaves his hustler life, and ends up shaking up with a rich dude with a bitchy boyfriend. Rich dude and him hit it off, but can Johnny stay? Or will he have to keep looking for a chance to make it on his own. Will rich dude's dad ever respect him? Also, why is rich dude older than his dad? Will anyone care that Johnny killed a man? No, no they won't. 

The plot is pretty much an after school special, but with a whole lot of gay sex. I didn't hate it, and I thought part 1 in particular was pretty heavy on the atmosphere, even if it was lighter on the actual story. Outside of the gang of thugs who look like like they are going to tell me to stop playing games with their hearts, everything feels grimy and risky.  The scene with Johnny's stepdad is actually pretty upsetting. So I should probably put a trigger warning on this one, as the attempted assault is flashed back to several times, and in some of the flashes pretty much proceeds into an actual, briefly shown sexual assault. 

If I had to decide which part I preferred, I would say part 1. While the narrative was thinner, I thought the tone was better. It was definitely rougher, but the edge suited Johnny Hazzard pretty well. The first film also has one of the best sex scenes I have seen in a long time. At one point Johnny is hitchhiking, and is picked up by a guy in a van played by Tyler Riggz. Instead of the scene being creepy and sleazy, it ends up being really intimate and hot. Like, I was blown away by the chemistry between those two. I don't normally go into detail on the sex in these movies, but this scene was worth mentioning. It actually won a GayVN for Best Sex Scene. The rest of the sex between the two movies is pretty good, although the weird, random coked up sex scene in the motel in part 1 was kind of odd. Even if the guys, or the action is not your bag it is filmed so that everyone at least appears to be into what is going on, which is not always the case in gay porn. 

So, does Wrong Side of the Tracks work as a movie? Yes. It has a narrative through line, and some character development. There is a fun non-sex cameo by Sharon Kane, who I had just seen in the straight porn film Sorority Pink. It is well shot, and it obviously was a movie that Channel One and Rascal threw some money behind. Chi Chi LaRue knows his craft. He was making gay porn films well before this, and continued making them well after. He knows how to get good performances out of his performers, and how to make the movie look good. There was a reason he was such a juggernaut in the gay porn industry in the 2000's.  This was one of his bigger releases for Rascal when the studio was just getting started up, and it feels like a big budget feature through and through.

I am going to say that I enjoyed these movies. They really are just one very long film chopped in half due to the insane length. It isn't perfect. The run time is insane, and part 2 drags a little bit, but the cast is excellent, and there is a pretty nice variety of performers. For the price you can find these at to purchase digitally, I would recommend giving this one a shot if you want to get a taste of early 2000's gay porn at its best.