There are limits to male bonding, and Anthony Spinelli's Endangered, which is an Odd Couple derivative, explores what can happen when those limits get tested for their tensile strength.

Tony Tedeschi and Jon Dough, two of porndoms most capable performers, play fast friends who grow even faster on one another's nerves when Tedeschi's wife, Melanie Moore, tosses Tony out on his ass because he "lacks charisma". Tony comes knocking at his buddy's door late at night as playboy Jon is banging away at girlfriend Taylor Wane in a humorously-contrived, imaginatively-framed sex scene: a spoon position lensed from overhead. Great angle. Great pairing. Great Caesar's ghost when Tony comes barging in. It's very funny.

Tony starts to grate on Dough in more ways than one. Like Felix Linger, he's anally compulsive, and Dough eventually goes near-insane as his surroundings take on the smell of "a fucking orchard" from lemon wax polish, not to mention the fact that his intimacies are continually getting disrupted. Score, here, the best matchup of the video between Dough and Diedre Holland as she puts her limbs to the pliancy test in a sensuous bodyhug on Dough.

Tedeschi's three workhorse pairings derive from the point-of-view of a bewildered guy tossed back into the shark-infested singles scene. He meets Teddi Austin and Bianca Trump in separate encounters, and though the physical intimacy engenders its sparks as far as the viewer is concerned, Tony's left with feelings of remorse and emptiness as he pines for Moore (a fantasy sequence).

As much as 1 liked Spinelli's Mainstreet U.S.A., from last year (which garnered several awards nominations), I find Endangered more to my personal taste for its taut, brittle, absurdist comedy. In a short span of time, Endangered manages to convey many different levels of human emotion, plus tell an effective story, deliver superb sensuality and excellent cast chemistry.

If you haven't considered a Spinelli section in your store, now might be the time to consider one. There are plenty of titles like this one to make it worth your while.