Michael Lucas’ somber remake of the classic Fellini film, La Dolce Vita, ramps up the energy in Part 2, including a scorching scene between a hustler and his celebrity client (Brad Star and Ray Star, respectively).

La Dolce Vita: Part 2, a surprisingly introspective film directed by and starring porn auteur Michael Lucas, picks up without any recap of the events in Part 1. While viewing Part 1 isn’t really necessary – most of us are watching for the cocksucking and not the plot points – catching up with the sex and drama of the first film makes sense, if only for a sense of continuity.

New characters are introduced when Lucas, here playing a writer, is shadowing a celebrity and his wife around town for a feature story (Ray Star & Savanna Samson). Lucas is keenly aware that the angle for his story might be the celebrity’s closeted homosexuality. At a strip club featuring Brad Star, Ray’s primal urges get the better of him. He sends one of his assistants over to the go-go boy with a wad of cash and a request for a private show. Upset, Samson storms out of the club and is comforted by Lucas; the two leave Ray behind.

Ray and his go-go boy for hire waste no time, and the private show quickly escalates into what ends up being the best scene in both parts of La Dolce Vita. Brad Star’s bubble rump and smoothly shaved hole are spectacular here, and he plays the part of a rent boy to a fault. He wiggles and grinds his body in front of Ray, slowing peeling out of a designer g-string, sending his client past the boiling point. Unable to withstand the seduction a moment longer, Ray unleashes his spectacular cock and puts Brad to work between his legs. Brad Star, much like Jason Ridge, gives his best onscreen performances when he bottoms. He does here, with explosive results. But the money shots, each stud eating the other’s sloppy loads, send this scene into the stratosphere.

The film cuts back to Lucas and Samson roaming the city sidewalks, the most obvious tribute to Fellini’s original film, including the much hyped and publicized romp in a city fountain. Lucas’ hetero fling has less than stellar results. Strolling 'til dawn, he ends up getting punched in the face by a jealous Star while the paparazzi swoop like vultures.

The next evening finds Lucas and his embittered boyfriend (Cole Ryan) at a party hosted by Spencer Quest, here playing a society type with a taste for the barely legal. Quest cruises one of his guests (Jamie Donovan), a young college freshman with a cute face and lean body. Quest soon disappears from the party altogether, he and his protégé getting it on in Quest’s impressive walk-in closet. The match-up of an older 30-something with a sweet-as-candy twink works very well, although sex follows predictable patterns, Quest topping his pup after sumptuous worship of the boy’s cock and hole.

Looking for a little payback, Cole Ryan hooks up with another guest at the party, the donkey-dicked Chad Hunt. Watching the slighter, fuzzier Ryan be sent into orbit by the older Hunt’s established fuck technique is another coup for director Lucas. There are so many electric moments to savor here – the expression on Ryan’s face with Hunt’s tongue fluttering against his hole, Ryan sliding his mouth over the impossible length of Hunt’s piece, Ryan’s whimpers while Hunt plows his incredibly tight hole.

At this point in the film, the plot overrides the sex, and Lucas takes every opportunity to explore the inner torments of his character as the story plays out. In the final sex scene, Lucas heading to a sex club to have moody sex with an anonymous patron (Justin Christopher). But it’s actually difficult to enjoy the sex at this point in the film, maybe because the viewer finds himself entangled with the layered characters that Lucas has created. Even so, the second part of the film definitely performs better as a fuck flick than Part 1. The performances are strong and the sex, in spots, is over-the-top. Don’t miss this one.

The extras provided with Part 2 are excellent, especially a bonus sex scene between Cole Ryan and Erik Grant. It’s unfortunate that Lucas didn’t include this scorcher in the body of the main film; it has some truly electric moments between two men who have some obvious sexual chemistry. The scene takes place in a low-key sex club, other couples having sex within feet of Grant/Ryan. The animalistic setting is odd, yet erotically appealing. Don’t send back Part 2 without slipping the bonus disc into the player.

-- Dane Collins