Friends with Benefits (2009)

James Avalon's craftsmanship overcomes the paper-thin content of "Friends with Benefits", a Penthouse feature that has a generic title used for many films ranging from Mila Kunis to a Paul Thomas porno. I liked the cast and performances enough to put this one marginally into the plus column.

Each cast member speaks his or her piece directly to the camera, recounting their successful use of an "Adult Friend Finder" website to meet and hump like-minded adults, no one wanting any sort of ties or commitment. This differs from the increasingly popular dating services with which souls seek mates for life.

So hedonism is the underlying theme of Avalon's opus, hardly subtle given the ensuing content. In sum, we have a very cute unknown Tristan Kinglsey getting sexual initiation from brainy professor Steven St. Croix; perfectly cast Charles Dera as an over-sexed stud who is truly full of himself, rewarded with a threesome including two busty women: Madelyn Marie and Tessa West; a very Avalon style BDSM segment with convincing dominatrix Isabella Sky dominating the ever-cute Mia Presley, both sporting great fetish gear (hawked like everything else on Penthouse's website).

Also Victoria Valentina brings huge breasts to meet her match with huge dicked Lee Stone in a sort of porn equivalent of Mothra vs. Godzilla. All that's missing is the two cutesy miniature Japanese girls from those dubbed epics.

Finale is a different sort of scene, in which the porn talent is given fictional names for a change, as two couples use the website for swinging. This foursome type of orgy has an entirely different tone and acting style than the rest of the feature, making me wonder if Avalon shoe-horned a script fragment from the bottom of his drawer to fill out the "dating service" program.