स्ट्रिपटीज

The novel "Striptease" was everything you could ask for in a novel. The movie is the complete opposite and a major disappointment for me. I thought Demi was a decent choice and also applauded the casting of Robert Patrick as her good-for-nothing ex, and Ving Rhames as a bodyguard at the club.

However the entire thing ended up being a mess, and I can only hope I can erase the image of Burt Reynolds in his boxers, smothered with petroleum jelly from head to toe, from my mind.

Read the book!!

Different people watching this film see different movies. T and A people see naked and think great. The rest see this as crap. Except for Carl Hiaasen fans. I'm one of the latter and since I've read the book I can't help but see this as an attack on political corruption and environmental folly.

After losing her job as an office clerk for the FBI due to her ex-husbands recent criminal proclivities, Erin Grant (Demi Moore) resorts to stripping to support herself and her daughter as well as the high legal fees of a custody battle with said ex. When a corrupt congressman takes a lewd interest in Erin, she is drawn into a profitable but dangerous situation involving Florida sugar growers.

Become a Carl Hiaasen fan and see this movie for what it really is and delegate the stripper bar to just the setting, much as a spaceship is in a sci-fi movie. It's not a great movie, but when can see the content rather than the package, it is worth far more than a 4.3. Burt Reynolds character is worth much more than that. It deserves a 5 or so. I give it a 6 just for Hiaasen.

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.

** / *****

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.

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.