Overview:
Gay porn and straight porn may be differ in a few key areas, but there are more similarities than some people (especially homophobic straight guys) would think. First of all, everyone loves a juicy ass. Gay guys love ass because, aside from the mouth, that's the only hole they can fuck. Have you ever seen a guy try to fuck another guy's ear? I have and, let me tell you, it's not all that exciting. Straight guys love a round, sexy ass, too, just for a slightly different reason. Sure, most hetero dudes have wanted to fuck a chick in the round and brown, but few ever get to. Some resign themselves to this fact (married guys), while some run off in pursuit of a slut who's totally down with assfucking (single and recently separated/divorced guys). Sure, some guys just like the look of a girl's tight ass as it bounces up and down on their lap while they fuck her reverse-cowgirl style, but you can bet that inside every ardent pussyholic there's an anal sex fiend just dying to be unleashed.

Another similarity between gay porn and straight porn is that Italian men with big dicks get laid more often than skinny white dudes with average peckers. Sure, black guys get to stretch out tons of pussies, but there really aren't all that many black guys in gay porn. Europeans, however, get an assload of roles - pun intended. Let's face it, fellas, whether you're gay or straight, it'd be pretty sweet to get laid as often as a handsome Italian man like, oh, Lucas Kazan for instance! If you're a relative stranger to gay porn, you might not be aware of just how accomplished Mr. Kazan actually is. Kazan has been honored with dozens of awards for his films, including Academy Awards for Best Director - Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and On the Waterfront (1954), in addition to Golden Globes in the same category for those two films as well as Baby Doll (1957) and America, America (1964). You would think that these prestigious decorations would be enough for any man, but they obviously didn't satisfy Kazan's burning desire to make an unforgettable mark on the international film industry. After an incredibly lengthy period of relative inaction, Kazan started making homosexual erotica in 1998, acting as producer, director and star in many features. In 2007, Kazan's work paid off and he was awarded GAYVN awards for Best International Video, Best Foreign Release, and Best Foreign Actor for his film The School for Lovers. His crowning achievement followed in 2008, which saw him inducted into the GAYVN Hall of Fame, a mere nine years after the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences bestowed upon him the Lifetime Achievement Award. That brings us pretty much up to speed, so how about we get to the fuckin'?

Lucas Kazan's tour page promises "1000s of XXX photos", "XXX castings and reality porn", over 250 streaming videos, and weekly updates. The webmasters really do mean XXX, too, as the preview images show that there's quite a lot of hardcore action on the site. "Free iPod Downloads" are touted, as is the model roster, filled with ripped, hunky European guys who look like they could suck a golf ball through a drinking straw. There are a couple of guys that lean more towards the "Twink" classification of gay models, but they're in the minority. The design of this free area is clean, simple, and elegant, with muted tones evoking a feeling of serious sexual excitement instead of just frivolous, meaningless "good times". Logging in to the members' area, you'll find pretty much the same page layout. The main page features a tidy little menu bar with links to Members Home, Cinema, Models, and Reality, as well as a Help and FAQ section and a Contact page. The very same page also includes featured displays for the Cinema, Models, and Reality Series content, each showing the two most recent updates by way of a preview pic and the name of the model or models. That's pretty much everything on the main page, kinda scant, I know, but that just means we get to the really juicy stuff a lot sooner.

The Cinema section should be where Kazan excels; he is, after all, a celebrated writer/producer/director/performer. There certainly seems to be quite a lot to enjoy here, with a dozen scenes linked from the What's New section alone. On the left side of the page there's a vertical text menu that allows you to jump straight to the different Vignettes, Hard, and Soft movies. Regardless of what kind of movie you're viewing, you'll have the same format and quality options. Downloads aren't available at all, so you'll have to make do with streaming scenes instead. Small, Medium, and Large are your quality options and, if your connection can handle it, I strongly suggest sticking with the large as its two, more diminutive, cousins are less than impressive at only 320x240 and 400x300 pixel resolutions. The 640x480 resolution large video looks much better, with some of the clearest images I have yet to see in a streaming Flash video of this resolution, let alone on a gay porn site. The hardcore content obviously goes further than the soft but both are very enjoyable and should be appreciated by their intended audiences. You'll get some nice ass play, sucking and fucking in the hardcore, while the softcore movies focus on the men's faces and body, and show sex without explicit penetration images.

Models is a section that offers both photographic and video content, browsable by the models' names. Portrait images give you a good look at each hunky European guy on the roster from which you'll be basing your selections. Clicking on any model will take you to his profile page where you'll find some biographic notes, a members' rating, filmography, and links to all his content, both photo and video. Photo resolutions fall in the range of 400x600 and although they are not particularly high resolution, they are crisp and clear.

The last section of Lucas Kazan's website is the Reality Series of scenes. Comprised of casting couch audition videos, Ettore Tosi's Private Sex Files, and unrehearsed sex scenes dubbed "In Bed With?". As with pretty much all other videos available on Lucas Kazan dot com, these reality porn scenes are available in streaming Flash format only, with the same resolutions as the videos in the Cinema section. While most of Kazan's work makes great use of the different European environments, combining shots of magnificent architecture, natural landscapes, and human bodyscapes, his reality scenes tend to focus more on his amateurish models and their combination of excitement and nervousness when performing one of their first pornographic scenes, making these less overtly glamorous movies very enjoyable indeed.

Lucas Kazan is a man of refined and elegant taste; he hopes the members of his website are, too. Not surprisingly, membership fees to his site are a little steep, hitting $34.95 for monthly non-recurring access. Knock five bucks off that price and you'll be tied to a recurring monthly membership. Is it all worth such a high asking price? Read on and find out!

Pros:
- Quality is very good (for streaming video).

- Photos look clear and strong, with great scenic imagery enhancing the European flavor of the models.

- The site features a gorgeous design that makes it a pleasure to use.

- Did I forget to mention that the models are absolutely delicous hunks?

Cons:
- (How do I put this?) With buff, naked men running down the beach and splashing each other in the breaking waves, many of the movies come off as, well, pretty darn faggy.

- Aside from some iPod-compatible trailers on the tour pages, none of the videos are downloadable, which is a huge mistake from where I sit (a slightly dilapidated sofa-bed).

- There's definitely room for some more content.

- Most of the softcore movies still contain fucking, just with the penetration framed out.

- No downloads and no zip files? Boo!

- Updates claim to be weekly but they are not dated.

Conclusion:
Lucas Kazan is a highly revered and regarded filmmaker for good reason. Aside from some excessive, uh, silliness in his movies, they're some of the most well produced and visually impressive gay porn flicks that I've ever seen. His website also looks great and is a breeze to use. The studly European models are very hot and really get into the exotic locations, allowing their surroundings to inform their performances. Really, the only major disappointment Kazan has forced on his members is by disallowing his movies to be downloaded. Surely, in this day and age, webmasters and producers understand that porn fans want, nay, need to save the movies they so enjoy watching. After all, what if they want to beat off to Kazan's Across the Ocean in the bathroom stall of a Eurail carriage, where there's no broadband connection?