Pledgemaster plows into fertile ground for gay fantasy – the mystique of the college fraternity, with all its potential for hazing, sexual hierarchies and hormonal explosions. Pledgemasters is too tame to live up to expectations aroused by its title. The domination is mostly symbolic, the submissions come too easy, and Steve Hammond's riding crop is mostly for show. Ah well, I'm sure Ed Meese would still be plenty offended.

Strictly on visual and performance merits, Pledgemasters scores in the mid-range for Falcon and well above most competitors. Falcon gets the absolute best out of superstars Mike Gregory and Tom Steels, and there's footage of in-house exclusive Race Jensen hot enough to blow your TV tube. Only Alex Stone doesn't seem to register, in an unfocused three-way with Chris Ladd and newcomer Brad Mitchell that suffers from choppy editing far below Falcon's usual standards.

Most memorable is the image of Steve Hammond waiting to chastise an unruly pledge, sitting stone-faced in a leather chair toying with his riding crop – the stuff that erotic myths are made of. Can this be the same man who won last year's AVN Best Actor Award playing a heart-broken lover in Touch Me? This guy can do anything.