Boogie Nights (DVD)

Burt Reynolds makes a triumphant return to form (a long time coming!) in a movie he never wanted to make, indeed turned down at one stage and ends up with a host of award nominations and critical praise. ‘Boogie Nights’ is about sex or at least the sex industry but it is also about much more. THE PLOT In mid 70’s California a young man Eddie Adams decides to make the most of his attributes, a particularly large ‘organ’ and an ability to quickly ‘recover’ and perform again. He dreams of becoming a actor and fancies himself as martial arts expert like his idol Bruce Lee but we all know that there is only place ...  Read the complete review

When a film opens with an ambitious, uninterrupted three-minute tracking shot, you just know the director will throw on the style, and hopefully produce a great film too. While not quite the masterpiece some claim it is, Boogie Nights is nevertheless a very impressive movie, especially considering it was only Paul Thomas Anderson's second feature-length film. Although it could be argued that Anderson is just being flamboyant with this stunning opening shot, the flip side is that he's simply introducing a large cast of characters as quickly as possible. Weaving its way through a vibrant 70's nightclub, the camera introduces us to Jack Horner (Burt ...  Read the complete review

What's your special skill, mine is being able to eat roast potatoes without chewing them, its not big and its not clever but its something that I consider a skill. Well this film is about somebody else with an incredible god given talent. Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) is a guy who has dropped out of school and gets a job working at the notoriously decadent Studio 54 nightclub in 70's New York as a bus boy, he is a good looking kid and takes a shine to a pretty lady who asks if he will come home with her, strangely an older guy, Rick Horner (Burt Reynolds) comes with them and asks if he can watch them having sex as he is a porn director, he is astounded when he ...  Read the complete review

Boogie Nights is the second feature film from Paul Thomas Anderson who is fast emerging as one of the original talents on Hollywood who actually makes films with a bit of substance and manages to pull together excellent ensemble casts. The film is set in the 70's and Californias adule entertainment industry. A renowed director Jack Horner (Burt reynolds) is on the look out for the next big star and he finds that in a young man who takes on the name of Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg). The film goes through the years and follows the lives of everyone associated with the business. We have a female porn star (Julianne Moore) who's lifestyle and career has ...  Read the complete review

Better than any movie about the porn industry has any right to be, 'Boogie Nights' is a big, sprawling drama with numerous characters, situations and themes, woven together by an inspired writer / director, Paul Thomas Anderson. Mark Wahlberg is porn star Dirk Diggler, endowed with a massive penis, and thus plunged into the semi-glamorous world of the porn industry in the late seventies. Loosely based on the life of John Holmes, the film does airbrush some of porn's less savoury aspects; there are references to drugs and violence, and the film-maker's backer turns out to be a paedophile, but there's no real consideration of Aids (which killed Holmes), ...  Read the complete review