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Best Friends More at IMDbPro »
| Index | 10 reviews in total |
14 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
An offbeat and interesting 70's road movie curio, 4 April 2008
Author:
Woodyanders (Woodyanders@aol.com) from The Last New Jersey Drive-In on the Left
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Mature, stable Jesse (a solid performance by Richard Hatch; Apollo on "Battlestar Galactica"), his more nutty and impulsive immature best friend Pat (an effectively loopy and intense portrayal by Doug Chapin), Jesse's caring fiancé Kathy (nicely played by the lovely Susanne Benton of "A Boy and His Dog" fame"), and Pat's fragile gal pal Jo Ella (essayed with sweet charm by the cute Ann Noland) all decide to embark on a cross country road trip in a Winnebago prior to facing the challenges of encroaching adulthood. Relationships between everyone become increasingly strained by this journey: Jesse has a fling with Jo Ella, Pat attempts to rape Kathy, and the whole thing culminates with the now deranged Pat terrorizing the other three on a beach while riding around on a motorcycle. As the above plot synopsis alone suggests, this film sure ain't your standard crude'n'sleazy Crown International Pictures drive-in exploitation fare. Granted, this feature does deliver the expected soft-core sex and tasty female nudity (Jo Ella does a wild impromptu tabletop striptease at a funky bar), but director Noel Nosseck and screenwriter Arnold Somkin focus more on low-key and incisive introspection rather than the usual seedy thrills. The gradual pace and character-driven plot take a little getting use to, but thankfully this movie hits an appealingly mellow and laid-back distinctly 70's groove early on and offers some poignant insights into the difficulty of growing up and facing responsibility. Moreover, there are quite a few bitter truths to be found in the tense and homoerotic friendship between Jesse and Pat. The acting from the attractive and personable young cast is uniformly strong, with Hatch in particular the stand-out among the bunch. Stephen M. Katz's bright, sunny, sparkling cinematography makes exquisite occasional use of fades and dissolves. Rick Cunha's catchy country-rock score likewise does the trick. An intriguing and ultimately pretty touching oddity.
5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
"We've been together for so many years...", 3 December 2008
Author:
kjjohn271 from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Quote is from the Beach Boys tune "Friends" which is what this movie is
about. First, let me say off the bat that the movie was watchable given
its genre. What kept bugging me, however, was that the character Jesse
(Richard Hatch)looked so familiar but I just couldn't place him (until
checking IMDb!).
This is a buddy movie between two very close friends who even shared a
stint in the air force together. However, Jesse is now ready to settle
down while his pal Pat (Doug Chapin) still wants to roam the
countryside with his buddy like old times. They cruise the southwest in
a rented motor home with their respective girlfriends. Although Jesse
plans on marrying his girlfriend Kathy and taking a truck driving job
in California, Pat has let his girlfriend Jo Ella know he has no
intentions on settling down.
The rest of the movie shows Pat becoming increasingly unstable about
Kathy's plans to marry Jesse and he increases his attempt to drive them
apart. He eventually gets his girlfriend Jo Ella to sleep with Jesse to
further his cause. The end could have been better as Pat causes Jesse
to accidentally shoot and kill Kathy. However, we are left with the 3
remaining "friends" just sitting on the beach without wrapping up
whether or not Jesse will join Pat in his travels. Jo Ella just hangs
around and we are left to wonder what will become of her.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
An Interesting Tale That Spirals Into Mayhem, 29 April 2011
Author:
BloodTheTelepathicDog from north dakota
Richard Hatch and Doug Chapin have been best friends all their lives.
They have done everything together, including enlisting in the Army for
service during Vietnam. The two served stints as paratroopers during
the war but the war had a different effect on each young man. Richard
Hatch wants stability and has proposed to his flame Susanne Benton
while Chapin wants the good times to keep on rolling.
Hatch, who was discharged before Chapin, goes to pick up his old buddy
with Susanne Benton and Chapin's on-again-off-again love interest Ann
Noland in tow. Hatch's plan is to have a relaxing road trip back home
in their rented RV--one last adventure with his closest chum before he
enters married life. Chapin on the other hand wants the adventure to
last forever and has no intentions of settling down. When he realizes
that his best pal is eager to enter the domesticated life of a husband,
Chapin tries everything to dissuade his chum from tying the knot.
STORY: $$$$ (The story is very strong until it takes that seedy turn at
the end, which I won't spoil for you. The characterization for all the
actors is quite strong. Richard Hatch's character is pulled from both
sides by the woman he loves and the best friend he has done everything
with. The story boils over near the end when Chapin gives him the most
uncompromising of ultimatums. Would any soon-to-be husband agree to
what Chapin proposes? I doubt it. Watch and answer for yourself).
ACTING: $$$$ (Very strong. Everyone is convincing in their roles. Doug
Chapin is brilliant as Pat who would do anything to keep the good times
rolling. He adeptly plays the devil on Richard Hatch's shoulder. He
uses every ploy he can think of to get Hatch to call off the wedding,
including setting his girlfriend on Hatch. Hatch is equally strong as
Jesse who wants the stability that comes with a job and family but
struggles to let go of his best buddy even when all hope is lost. Ann
Noland shines as the free-spirited Jo Ella who is eager to settle down
with Chapin but when he rebukes her, her world is leveled and she seeks
to restructure it any way she can. Susanne Benton, from A BOY AND HIS
DOG, is great as Jesse's prim-and-proper betrothed. When Ann outstages
a stripper at a bar, Susanne jokes about going up there with her but it
is against her nature. Her nature, the good girl next door--the type
you marry--is in stark contrast to Ann Noland's free-spirited Jo Ella).
NUDITY: $$$ (Ann Noland has a striptease scene as the aloof dame takes
her top off in the most foolish of settings. With nothing but rowdies
about, and just two guys to protect her, he shucks her top with a
devil-may-care attitude. Ann also has a sex scene in the RV with Chapin
and an outdoors romp with Hatch. Susanne Benton, by contrast, refuses
to accompany Ann on the stripper's stage and gives the modest gal nude
scene in a shower--keeping her goods for one man. Not only are Noland
and Benton's characters in contrast but so are their bodies. Noland is
a lithe-bodied lady while Susanne boasts an ample chest).
4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Great!, 22 December 2009
Author:
IcyRoses from Bayside, San Andreas
I usually like films that focus on a few characters rather then many or
even a lot. And "Best Friends" focuses exclusively on 4 characters.
Jessie (Richard Hatch) and Pat (Doug Chapin) have been friends since
perhaps childhood. And they've done everything together. In the
beginning we get a montage of pictures showing they've been through
everything to the prom to the war. And this is how the movie gets it's
edge. Jessie came home from Vietnam before Pat did, and it's pretty
obvious the war has affected Pat, not Jessie. But, anyways, Jessie and
his girlfriend Kathy (Susanne Benton) decide to drive to California to
meet Pat when he gets off the airplane. See the thing is they want to
take a cross country trip/vacation, and along comes Pat's estranged
girlfriend Jo Ella (Ann Noland).
The movie starts off perfectly normal, when everyone see's each other
again, it seems like this is going to be a fun road movie. But, soon
tension starts to amount. Kathy is clingy to Jessie, and Pat is
jealous. Plus, Kathy and Jessie has a much better, loving relationship,
then Pat and Jo Ella. Pat is stilted and wants to enjoy life, Jo Ella
wants to settle down and be married.
Things get even more heated when Jo Ella makes a fool out of herself by
taking her top off at an Indian bar and a fight emerges with the group.
Pat wants to protect Jessie (who was hit) but Kathy won't let him. It
seems like Pat is becoming more and more obsessed with getting Kathy
completely out of the picture and having Jessie to himself.
Then, the film takes a hard left turn. Pat sits Jo Ella down and tells
her he has no intention on marrying her. Her life is immediately
shattered. He then lies to her and tells her Jessie has been interested
in her all this time and she should try to sleep with him. And then
another turn comes when Pat sees Kathy alone and tells her Jessie would
be a horrible husband and would probably cheat on her.
Jessie and Jo Ella sleep together, Pat tries to rape Kathy, and Jessie
beats the holy hell out of Pat. This sets up the last half of the
picture where Pat and Jessie try to regain their friendship, through
what else, trying to find younger girls to have sex with.
In an ultimate turn of events in the movie (which I won't reveal for
you loyal readers out there who will go see this), each one of the
four's life are effected by the horrible tragedy that occurs at the
end. It's a moment full of empathy, regret, and sadness. Pat ends the
picture by saying "We've been together for so long.....we can have it
all....." "Best Friends" was mismarketed as a grindhouse/drive-in film
in 1974, so the company that released it decided to release it in
theaters in early 1975, and I'm sure if it had the proper advertisement
and some Academy members actually took the time to see it, it would
have got some kind of Academy recognition.
The part of "Best Friends" that keeps coming up is, Ann Noland. She
easily gives one of my favorite performances of all time as Jo Ella.
Ann Noland's Jo Ella is multi-layered. She is seemingly happy and
carefree, yet she worries about her future nearly every day. She stays
"Best Friends" most interesting character. The scene right before her
and Jessie have sex where she throws leaves on him and seems playful,
then starts crying and says "We're not getting married..." She is
heartbreaking! For it's mellow and tense atmosphere, hippie soundtrack,
and surprisingly great acting, including Ann Noland's shattering Jo
Ella, makes "Best Friends" one of my favorite movies!
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Best Friends, 20 September 2009
Author:
Scarecrow-88 from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Pat(Doug Chapin) returns from Vietnam and his best friend from youth,
Jesse(Richard Hatch)introduces him to fiancé Kathy(Susanne Benton). Jo
Ella(Ann Noland)is Pat's former flame and the four of them decide to go
on a cross country escapade before Jesse and Kathy get married. Pat, as
the others slowly learn, isn't the same man he was before Vietnam, and
his obsessive desire to have Jesse all to himself, friends without the
interference of others, yields destructive consequences.
Fascinating character study documents the desperate lengths a friend
will resort to in regards to maintaining a relationship with his pal
from childhood. Doug Chapin is a revelation as the obviously disturbed
Pat, jealous of how Kathy has "ensnared" his buddy's love. I think
there's an apparent homo-sexual subtext involved as Pat will commence
in destroying the bond between Kathy and Jesse by any means possible.
Jo Ella becomes an unfortunate tool used in this process, but when a
sexual incident with Jesse doesn't erode their pact, Pat will
eventually threaten to both rape and harm Kathy(..including a
despicable action where Pat purposely leads Kathy towards an area where
a slithering rattler is located).
Truly a sad picture(..through Chapin's stellar performance, you can see
the traumatic damage of what war can cause, his psychosis fueled
further by Jesse's love to another) with a tragic conclusion as Kathy
yearns for Jesse to drive their RV home as it becomes clear that Pat is
unstable and dangerous. The inevitable climax, after Jesse denounces
Pat's demand to have Kathy to himself, is haunting and grim. Good
performances, with a gripping narrative that explores the corrosive
nature of a friendship that interrupts the bliss of a couple whose love
is tested in every conceivable way. Beautiful photography and scenic
locations where our four travel enhance the story.
What will remain with me is the fact that in not departing from his
troubled, unpredictable friend, Jesse places Kathy in grave danger, not
understanding(..or maybe, accepting, is a more appropriate word)just
how serious a threat Pat really is to her.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Surprisingly solid existential-psychological thriller is more than just exploitation fare, 25 July 2009
Author:
OldAle1 from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Handsome (and frequently shirtless) young Jesse (Richard Hatch) arrives
at an army discharge center with his fiancé Kathy (Susanne Benton) and
her rather flaky friend Jo Ella (Ann Noland) to pick up his best buddy,
Pat (Doug Chapin). Pat and Jesse have been friends since childhood as
we see in the opening montage of B/W photos. Now they are both out of
the army, an experience which (very subtly implied) seems to have
affected Pat a bit more than Jesse. The two and their girls are going
to drive across the desert with an RV and then Jesse and Kathy are
going to get married and settle down. But Pat has some different ideas
in mind....
This is definitely the most psychologically interesting, and best acted
and overall most professional entry in this group of films (from the
"Drive-in Cult Classics" DVD set) so far. Hatch and Chapin are both
pretty solid, as the just-grown-up man starting to take responsibility,
and his younger friend who refuses to and Ann Noland's Jo Ella is
convincingly on-the-edge; only Benton's Kathy really comes up short.
There's clearly a lot of homo-erotic subtext here -- though Pat keeps
explaining that he just wants to screw around, pick up girls, that he
doesn't want to settle down with Joe Ella or want Jesse to settle down
either, it's obvious that he can't envision a life in which Jesse isn't
his main partner, sexual or not. There's a fair bit of nudity here for
the exploitation angle, but it's not really gratuitous, rather pretty
ordinary as you'd expect with a bunch of young people on the road; even
the strip club sequence where Jo Ella impulsively gets up on stage and
starts taking it off in front of a bunch of mostly Native Americans on
a reservation, leading to some momentary troubles, is very natural and
feels quite realistic. Only at the end, as Pat goes really psycho and
terrorizes the rest of the quartet on his motorcycle at night,
resulting ultimately in an (apparently accidental) death does the film
really falter -- it seems to be striving for some kind of existential
ending on the one hand, and a more obviously satisfying and cathartic
resolution on the other, awkwardly melding the two -- though the last
moments I thought were pretty fine.
Offbeat and more serious than the typical Crown International drive-in
fare, this has a nice instrumental score by Richard Cunha and some
fairly dull country-rock songs interspersed; think low-rent Grateful
Dead and Allman Brothers. The photography of the day scenes ranges from
nice to excellent - the night stuff looks rather faky. Director Nosseck
has kept busy doing cheesy stuff like this and a fair amount of TV
work; this was his first film and shows a little bit of promise that he
seems to have lived up to, but not really surpassed. Star Richard Hatch
of course has played significant roles on both versions of Battlestar
Galactica; this was apparently his first theatrical feature and though
it's better than its reputation, it's not really something that was
going to make him a star. At any rate, another fun entry in this
fascinating cycle of cheesiness...
Squandered opportunities, 21 April 2012
Author:
fjaye from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
An interesting premise: two young couples decide to rent a motor home
for a long road trip before marrying and settling down. All kinds of
things could happen. Unfortunately, "Best Friends" fails to develop its
many story lines.
**Other reviewers have noted a strong homoerotic subtext, and I must
agree; Jesse and Pat spend an inordinate amount of time together, even
for best friends—especially with two good-lookin' babes in tow—but it
remains a subtext. I wasn't expecting gay porn here, but (for example)
they might have formed a united front against the women…which would
have certainly complicated the trip.
**Jo Ella's impromptu, and rather attractive, bar-dancing performance
is the impetus for a possible major-bar-fight storyline…but it doesn't
happen. Pat later exacts his revenge by clocking the guy with a plank,
and the plot moves on.
**Pat leads Kathy to a rock ledge where a rattler lurks and then "saves
her life"—but neither of them mention it again.
**Jesse and Jo Ella have a romp in the woods (after subtle instigation
by Pat), but we're never sure if they actually "did it", or not, and
it's never really discussed. Another vehicle for dramatic tension that
was abandoned.
**And after numerous similar dead-ends, we come to the conclusion of
the movie: Jesse has killed Kathy (who reminds me of Jane Curtin)…and
while Jesse weeps, Pat continues to babble about the old days, after
flinging clods of dirt at Jo Ella and chasing her away. At which point,
things just kind of…stop. No resolution, no nothing.
Given the subtext, I had half-expected Jesse to finally snap and kill
Jo Ella…so the two best friends could continue to roll along the
highway of life together. But no.
So many good opportunities squandered.
A strange drive-in movie, 17 February 2012
Author:
Wizard-8 from Victoria, BC
"Best Friends" is a real obscurity. It doesn't seem to be listed in any movie reference books. Also, it was never released on VHS, and it was only quietly given a release on DVD (in box sets containing other Crown-International movies) a few years ago. If you know what Crown-International typically released, you will see that their pickup of this movie was a very atypical choice. Although there is some nudity and sex, the movie never feels like exploitation - the events of the movie unfold in a very serious dramatic fashion. I can only wonder what drive-in audiences thought of it. As for what I thought, it is kind of slow-moving, but at the same time I found it strangely compelling; I was really interested in seeing how things would turn out for the four central characters. This movie is definitely not for everyone, but if you like dramatic and unconventional films from the 1970s (and like movies about road trips), you might find enough interest here.
1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Not Bad For A Drive-In Movie *SPOILERS*, 25 January 2011
Author:
Wayne King from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Jesse and his best friend, the fun-loving and reckless, Pat have just
gotten out of the army and are headed to Stocton, CA in an RV/mobile
home with their girlfriends. Jesse is ready to marry his sweetheart and
settle down. Pat reckons they're both too young to settle down and
should go out and relive their teen years of drinking and bedding down
girls. Pat ignores his own gorgeous girlfriend to try and convince his
pal to return to their days of good times and debauchery. The mood
turns ugly then deadly as it becomes obvious Pat isn't taking "no" for
an answer and Jesse has to defend himself and the girls against his old
war buddy/childhood friend.
I bought this at a flea market as part of a double feature of drive-in
flicks. It was actually very good. Better than most B- movies of the
time. The story was the typical "two best friends, one's growing up
while the other is stuck in a time warp and still wants to relive the
fun times of their youth" story. Though it looks cheesy and is a run of
the mill drive-in movie with lots of bare flesh, the story is timeless.
Lots of decent acting from all the leads, especially Richard Hatch, who
would go on to star in "Battlestar Galacitca" does a great job as the
level-headed, future- minded Jesse. Ann Noland also does a good job as
Pat's fun-loving but fragile and heart- broken girlfriend. She turns
out to be the soul of the movie. And she's got a hot body and a great
set of legs.
2 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
I wish that I had Jesse's Girl.... not, 16 November 2008
Author:
MisterWhiplash from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
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.
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