Striptease

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.

** / *****

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!!

The summary line above came from my wife after seeing Andrew Bergman take a really funny book by Carl Hiaasen and turn it into a "Sincere Sally Field Gutsy Mom Works As A Stripper Even Though It Means Shame And Disgust Because It's For Her *Daughter*!!!" movie.

Ving Rhames and Burt Reynolds deliver deft, wonderful performances that are completely sunk by Demi Moore's Jawline Of Grim Determination. The book pointed out that the ones degraded by stripping are actually the men, who turn into drooling, brainless fools, while the women have the control and collect the money. The movie has to add a scene where the daughter sees the mother dancing (oh horrors!) and the mother has to explain her Sordid Living to the Innocent Babe.

Also, in the book, Erin is a top dancer who doesn't have the biggest boobs in the room, but who gets the best tips because she actually knows how to dance. So who do they get to play her? Bebe Neuwirth? Noooo. Demi Moore. All tits and no dancing talent.

Demi Moore was apparently determined to keep this movie from being seen as a comedy. The worst thing to say about this movie is that she succeeded completely.

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.

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.