Striptease

I read the book first and I can only say that I feel sorry for its author, Carl Hiassen. The book was an extremely funny satire of capitalism, politics, gender roles, etc. and the film was just an excuse for the lead actor to show off her surgically enhanced body. I mentioned the book in a university tutorial for my course on literary satire, and no one would believe me that it was not trash because they could not separate it from the movie which followed it. Too bad - the book is good enough to have warranted a script that stays true to the original story rather than exchange wit and sophistication for extended dance sequences and the lubricatory possibilities of yogurt.

It may not have mirrored the book, but it has its own charm. I haven't read the book, so maybe that's why I can judge the movie on its own merits.

Ving Rhames is terrific-- honestly, has he ever had a clunker of a performance? Demi is luscious (the dance scenes, and the cute scene where she's getting dressed/dancing after a shower), and Burt Reynolds is hilarious. I really loved the congressman character meeting the right wing group slathered in vaseline. "Fresh, hot, lint!" indeed! Give it a whirl... it ain't Citizen Kane, but it ain't Battlefield Earth either.

Striptease (1996) is a movie that I recently watched for the first time in a long time on Tubi. The storyline follows a mother going through a divorce who loses visitation of her daughter due to a lack of steady income. She becomes a stripper to build the security she needs to get her daughter back and establish herself. The stripper life will throw her a series of twists and turns.

This movie is directed by Andrew Bergman (It Could Happen to You) and stars Demi Moore (Ghost), Burt Reynolds (Deliverance), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2), Paul Guilfoyle (Airforce One) and Armand Assante (Gotti).

This has an absolutely awesome cast that was well selected and fit the storyline perfectly. The strippers were gorgeous. Burt Reynolds was hilarious, and the Vaseline scene is legendary. There's some good humor throughout the movie as Ving Rhames was fantastic and the anaconda scene always makes me crack up. The soundtrack was solid also. The storyline was fairly straightforward but did a great job of depicting strippers as ordinary people with ordinary problems.

Overall, this gets way more criticism than it should. This is entertaining and worth a watch. I would score this a 7/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Demi Moore reinvented herself from a hot cutsie girl in the 80's to a powerful sexy woman in the 90's. She used that power to create some pretty dynamic roles at the time, G.I Jane being her best effort.

Striptease is not the greatest movie but it does have enough highlights to make it an ok watch. Rhames is enjoyable as is Reynolds.

Moore however owns the screen on this one. She had power at this time and she knew it and was happy to wield it. Good for her.

Striptease

Dire, but strangely fascinating, Demi Moore vehicle about a single mother who turns to a life of stripping in order to gain custody of her daughter. (Robert Patrick is the drug-stealing ex-husband who gains custody of the child.) Ving Rhames is a bodyguard and Burt Reynolds has a nice co-star role as a sleazy political candidate. This movie was extremely bashed when it came out, but it's better than "Showgirls," and sort of watchable. If you don't expect much of a story, then this is for you...be warned, however, that there is a lot of stripteasing in this film.

** / *****