The theme of hooking up ties eight gay short films together in this third best-selling compilation. The stories range from a period piece -- "Shakespeare's Sonnets," set in the 1940s & starring Vincent Kartheiser



& Jordan Brower



-- to the edgier, contemporary "Little Boy Blues" with Malcolm Gets.



Other entries are "Postmortem," "David," "Latch Key," "Cabalerno," "Between the Boys" & "Boys Grammar."

This included:

1. Cabalerno - a coming of age short, so to speak. A clumsy young guy films a good looking young skater as he performs his skating maneuvers. As the "cameraman" comes to terns with his newly found sexuality, we are given a short view of his sexual awakening. 2.5 stars

2. Shakespeare's Sonnets - features a young fop at Harvard who entices his young schoolmate to leave the bonds of conformity. 2 stars (Dale-3, David-1)

3. David - A young good looking mute lusts after an unemployed businessman and the awakening they experience is exhilarating. 4.125 stars (Dale-4, David-4.25)

4. Boys Grammar - Through the use of violence in an exclusive prep school, two boys find each other and love. As short as it is, this movie packs a wallop as the young guys suddenly accept themselves for who they really are. It is graphic and a disturbing look at the ritual of hazing. 3.75 stars (Dale-3, David-4.5)

5. Latch Key - Two brothers come to terms with their adolescent sexuality. While the older brother is upstairs with his girlfriend having his first sexual experience, younger brother is downstairs with a classmate watching straight porn and mutually masturbating each other. As they are both about to experience their first reciprocal sexual climax, Mom returns from work and both stop their activity. The ending is a super surprise that you do not want to miss. 5 stars

6. Little Boy Blues - stars Malcolm Gets of "Caroline in the City" and "Adam and Steve" and is a study of what loneliness can drive a person to do. While mourning the death of his lover, Gets has unprotected sex with a stranger who is obviously only using him. Almost scary in what it has to say, this short is extremely well done. 3.75 stars (Dale-4, David-3.5)

7. Between the Boys - Remember when you could not keep your hands off of your first boyfriend? This is about that. 4.25 stars (Dale-4.5, David-4)

8. Post Mortem - in which two ex-lovers meet years later to have a look at what went wrong between them and to decide how to move on. I found this to be very sweet and tender but painful. It is bittersweet and hopeful and allows the viewer to decide how it ends. 3.875 stars (Dale-3, David-4.75)

Rated NR 1 hour 35 minutes 2006

3.65625 stars. An interesting collection of film shorts. As usual for this series it has some great ones and not so good ones.