Best Friends (VCA) Review

Reviewed by Peeping Tom  on  7/27/2001

Cast: Julie (Juli) Ashton, Keri Windsor, Felicia Ryder, Maya (Wendy) Divine, Heaven Leigh, Renee La Rue, Evan Stone, Jon Dough, Randy Spears. Directed by F.J. Lincoln. Date of Production: 2/2000 (DVD released 9/2000). Running time: ~ 1 hour, 54 minutes.

I wanted to like "Best Friends" more than I did; not least among the things it has going for it are good sex scenes, but I found the movie curiously flat, and I predominantly blame this effect on the plot and acting. I don't watch plotted porn for complex, interwoven story lines, but a reasonable effort is always appreciated, and may even help me enjoy a movie a little more than usual (e.g., Masque). Conversely, a lackluster story and/or setting can really drag something down for me. Unfortunately, "Best Friends" falls into the latter category; the resulting movie is a mostly nondescript affair, despite some fine sex scenes.

The story is a minor variation of the old "cool guy tries to get nerdy friend laid" formula (see "Talk Dirty to Me", et. al.). Jon plays Harry, the cool guy from L.A., while Evan plays Nick, the long-haired goof from Michigan, out for a good time (but not too good of one) before his impending wedding to his sweetheart back home. I can accept a familiar story, if there's a bit of flair in the execution; I looked for signs of life in the plot in vain. As for the acting, it's okay at best, poor at worst (Jon being particularly uncharismatic), with some of the dialog seemingly lifted straight out of "Porn Scripts for Dummies." (After a certain point, I thought I was going to hear the words, "Fuckin' Harry!" all through the duration of the movie.) The ending threatens to get completely unbelievable, but mercifully doesn't swerve into this territory, and the story ends on a plausible, if saccharine, note.

Oh, yes, the sex scenes (or more bluntly, the point of all this typing): they're good to very good. I liked all of Juli's appearances, but I can't claim much objectivity in this area. I also enjoyed both Maya's and Heaven's turns with Evan, and thought that Felicia and Renee were decent in each of their scenes with Jon, despite my initial lack of interest. Condoms are used in all the male/female scenes.

The movie begins with Juli encountering Randy in a western setting (complete with Morricone-styled soundtrack; Il Maestro won't be losing any sleep over fear of the competition). There's a lot of kissing and undressing to start it off, a very big plus in my opinion. The sex closes with an oral cumshot; Juli sucks on him a little afterward.

Renee takes Jon back to her trailer, with the expected results. They have a hard act to follow, but do reasonably well. Jon cums on her face at the end, and the scene ends abruptly.

Juli tries to entice Evan into a three-way with her and Keri; acting like a complete doofus, he declines, so the two ladies go on ahead without him. There's some toe sucking, mild spanking, and ass play (Keri uses a dildo on Juli); both of them seem really into one another.

After having too much to drink, Evan strips at a party for a friend of Juli's (I guess those Midwestern dudes can't hold their liquor.) Her friend, Maya, can't resist Evan and the two of the have a hot sex scene in front of the other female guests. He cums on her breasts.

Felicia and Jon, having supposedly gone to Las Vegas for the weekend, have sex on an upright piano (a theme in VCA movies, perhaps?). The sex here is a little more energetic than the previous scene with Jon, but Felicia's moans sounded on the fake side. Jon cums in her mouth, and she begins to suck him off, but this ends quickly.

The big scene with Juli and Evan finally happens at her home. It's very good, and the two of them truly seemed to be into the action. The sex includes anal, and ends with Evan cumming on her ass.

Evan and Heaven get together in front of the fireplace, starting off with an extended 69 (Evan rims her a bit and fingers her anus). The sex was almost as good as the previous coupling with Juli. Evan anals Heaven, and cums on her chest to finish out the scene.

The audio/visual quality was good, but lighting in a couple of the scenes was slightly dim. I did think that the music was pretty corny though, and sometimes inappropriate (the repeated singing of the word, "goodbye" in a reunion scene, for example).

I'm beginning to sense a trend for the extras on VCA titles; there tends to be a photo gallery, some scene access points for a few stars of the flick in question, a VCA promo or two, and a couple of trailers if you're lucky. Here, they include numerous chapter stops with additional scene access points for Juli, Keri, Renee and Heaven, a photo gallery, a trailer for "Bliss", and a couple of VCA promos.

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