Best Friends is a part of the 8-movie 2-disc set of "drive-in" movies just released to DVD. They're packaged as obviously being filled with sex and some racy and dangerous scenarios. This one is probably not the best of the lot, not by a long-shot. The whole film's story is predicated on the fact that a) these two guys have been friends for 12 or 13 years without any kind of snafu, b) that nothing, *nothing*, has come between the two until Pat (Doug Chapin) is released from jail (I think it's jail, wherever he got the burn) and Jesse (Richard Benton)has found a girl he wants to settle down with, and most important c) that Jesse has never, not once, picked up on the homo-erotic tension from a lecherous being like Pat until this road trip to California.
That was three facts, but besides the point: this is trashy soap-opera stuff, acted with at best 1 1/2 dimensional prowess by its cast (it's not hard to see why Chapin, who could potentially be OK in bit parts or one-scene appearances and coincientally never acted again after thi, way overstays his welcome as the shifty 'friend' with the "tude" on the motorcycle), and with one exception- a disorientating fight on a beach- is filmed with barely minimal competence. I guess Susanne Benton is a nice eyeful, as is Ann Noland who, by the way, has a one-scene 'slip-up' with Jesse on a picnic blanket that is not used at all for any of its dramatic potential. It's not particularly horrendous (although Kathy's line "Jesse, he's trying to kill me!" during the climax had me howling), but don't rush out to see it first among the Drive-in collection.
That was three facts, but besides the point: this is trashy soap-opera stuff, acted with at best 1 1/2 dimensional prowess by its cast (it's not hard to see why Chapin, who could potentially be OK in bit parts or one-scene appearances and coincientally never acted again after thi, way overstays his welcome as the shifty 'friend' with the "tude" on the motorcycle), and with one exception- a disorientating fight on a beach- is filmed with barely minimal competence. I guess Susanne Benton is a nice eyeful, as is Ann Noland who, by the way, has a one-scene 'slip-up' with Jesse on a picnic blanket that is not used at all for any of its dramatic potential. It's not particularly horrendous (although Kathy's line "Jesse, he's trying to kill me!" during the climax had me howling), but don't rush out to see it first among the Drive-in collection.