Risky Business (1983)

Steve Nicks said she used to do cocaine and watch Risky Business everyday.

Megan Mullally plays one of the prostitutes at Joel's party.

Steve Nicks used to do cocaine pretty much all the time.

A perfect example of Reaganite entertainment. An upper middle class teenager becomes a pimp. His turn to crime/ exploitation of women is proof that money is more important than morals to the ruling class. All of a piece with selling cocaine to fund an illegal war in Central America which is what the government did during the period. The promise is it doesn't matter what you do as long as you maintain the status quo. The ends justify the means.

Were supposed to root for the rich kid who tries to escape the consequences of his actions by doing something even worse than his original crime.

Oh, those darn pimps! They're just so cute dancing around in their underwear.

36 years later we wind up with an asshole like Donald Trump in the White House. It's all connected, kids.

Many popular movies of the 80's had very serious right wing undertones/propaganda disguised as light hearted entertainment.

The original Indiana Jones movie may have looked like it was about a hero fighting the Nazis. But in the final scene, the Ark of the Covenant is stored in an enormous government warehouse--presumably filled with treasures plundered from other countries. And presumably filled with objects that have enormous destructive powers. What more perfect metaphor for postwar America, stockpiling nuclear weapons and taking resources away from the rest of the world?

Read Bronson Pinchot's bitchy recollections on Tom Cruise during the making of Risky Business.

Hated it. I thought the music was too overbearing

Sometimes in life, you just gotta say, “what the fuck.”

I say it every time the Moldy Pop Cultural Name-Dropping Troll tries to ensnare people into socializing with his boring, obvious-inclined ass.

Bitch, what?

In real life, Joel probably would have let the black tranny hooker suck him off and that would have been his night.

R7 and yet here you are

Tom Cruise and Rebecca Demornay "dated"

This is a terrific movie. Excellent performances, great music and a funny premise.

Recently, I became curious as to what else Paul Brickman (writer and director) had done after this impressive directorial debut.

Turns out...nothing. Brickman was immediately disillusioned with Hollywood and dropped out.

The tranny hooker was kind of elegant.

Mike Ovitz is sitting at the table behind Joel at the restaurant in the final scene.

Rebecca De Mornay's good in it.

It's interesting she got a major role like that in a studio release when she only had 1 previous bit part to her credit. But she was perfect for it, and they could tell.

Brickman did direct one other movie, Men Don't Leave (with Jessica Lange, 1990). It was a much less flashy film and wasn't a hit at all, but I remember thinking it was ok.

"No. I want you to wash my back."

Tom is hot as hell in this one yet it’s not a movie I enjoy watching repeatedly. The whole “Cat In The Hat” aspect of letting someone ‘wreck’ the house and getting it back to its original order just in the nick of time is annoying to me.

R18 There ARE certain movies you never need to rewatch. Not because they're bad...but because they're just neat and compact and minor.

RISCKY BUSINESS is one of them

ooops ... as is RISKY business, of course.

Rebecca was good in it.

I think Tom Cruise peaked after Risky Business.

It's not about any of that, R4 .

The only important takeaway is this:

Her expressions as he's building up the question are interesting...

R24 I think that's a hired doppelganger since it sounds nothing like her and has a sibling resemblance

#wheresrebecca?

She's more intelligent than most actresses. Maybe she personally invented a robot to make appearances for her.

Don’t get the ending. And is it me or are all of the characters irredeemably flawed?

Cruise sticking his hand into his underpants was hot.

DL fave RIchard Masur.

Tom Cruise peaked after this. This was the start of his career. Not the peak.

Rebecca Demornay was striking in this and perfectly cast. Loved her.

She outclasses him in every way possible.

And you can also tell she's an instinctive actress, while he's...pretty much just a lump.

Risky Biz is excellent. Holds up very well over the decades. Classic production design. And the very last scene ... where Joel asks if Lana liked him. De Mornay turns it out. She's got such a powerful, lo-fi intensity. The other actors, Bronson P and Guido the killer pimp. Wonderful

“Who’s the U-Boat Commander?”

Love the score to this movie. I can't remember where i put the soundtrack.

Cruise was smoking hot when young.

I HEART R4

Almost all of Curtis Armstrong's lines were in the promos for the movie.

This was not the peak for Cruse. It was the START of him being a leading man.

I think Top Gun was his peak.

What R39 said.

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle was good.

Did you know there were 2 endings? I watched this recently. The original is where they are in a restaurant and it's basically saying goodbye. If you noticed at the end when he is sweeping the leaves and getting the house ready, a newspaper flies by with a headline about AIDS. The director said that ultimately it was to show that that was where Rebecca was heading (AIDS) where Tom was heading to Princeton. It didn't test well, so they went with the theatrical ending in the park.

THE FIRM and A FEW GOOD MEN were his peak.

THE COLOR OF MONEY might be his best movie.

Rock of Ages, Tropic Thunder were funny, honestly.

Magnolia and Eyes Wide Shut were interesting choices.

Edge of Tomorrow, Oblivion and Jack Reacher are the end of his career.

No clue what he could act in (or more importantly, as) after that.

Another interesting fact - the Risky Business house was just a few doors down from Beth & Buck Jarret as well as Ferris Bueller.

Rebecca is a terrific and underrated actress. She held her own with Geraldine Page in The Trip to Bountiful.

And that her acclaimed performance in the box office hit The Hand That Rocks the Cradle didn’t put her in the A-List is a shame.

Could he be the DL fave JOEL???? Wealthy, straight, sexually curious, clean cut, living in a wealthy neighborhood. I didn't see any caftan clad uncles, but maybe the tranny in the beginning could be his special friend?

Loved this movie.

Agree this was a watershed movie of the 80s that shifted the focus of all pop culture to money. I remember seeing it and the main emotion it created was envy - of Joel’s wealth and upper class lifestyle in a privileged suburb. Followed by the John Hughes movies which had a similar theme and the more blatant Wall Street. The appreciation of creativity and art of the 70s was steamrolled by the Reagan/Republican Greed is Good 80s. This movie is what I remember as a tipping point.

He never was much of an actor, he was a "movie star" but not a good actor.

His career tanked about 10 years ago and has yet to recover,

Character parts Tom!

While Top Gun, Cocktail etc were all "must-sees" back when I was a teen, Risky Business somehow slipped from our consciousness (I was 8) so that not only did I never see it, it never interested anyone I knew, except maybe one loser in college.

It still feels like a B-movie that is only known because its protagonist was played by a future major star.

For R4. I believe this article touches on much of what you've said, down to the faux-innocence of exploitative and criminal behaviour.

He's one of those guys who turns out to be blindingly beautiful while his sisters all grow up to be dour little frumps. Davy Jones was the same way---his sisters all had faces that could stop a clock. Oddly enough, each boy had three sisters.

One of many films in the 80s that I was too young to actually see, so I learned about it from the Mad Magazine parody.

One of the songs, I think it is titled love on a real train, is really haunting. I think it is by Tangerine Dream

Top Gun is such a dumb fucking movie. His ego had swallowed him at that point, and it is reflected in his smug face.

Sorry, I was 5 actually. So no that film didn't matter.

I never saw this movie. It wasn't something I'd be interested in. I did read that it had a much darker ending where the Tom Cruise character gets his comeuppance, but preview audiences wanted a happily ever after ending where he gets away with everything with no repercussions, so that's what they went with. I have seen the clip of Cruise in his underwear "dancing" to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" and I've seen the photos of him with his retarded, open-mouthed grin and Ray-Ban sunglasses. That was enough to make me never want to see it.

I assume you mean Davy Jones from the Monkees and not from Pirates of the Caribbean.

R57 you know a lot about a movie you've never seen before

R43 I thought he was quite good in Edge of Tomorrow - playing a sleazy version of how we imagine him in real life. Bill Paxton was great in that movie too.

*EXCELLENT* acting in Born on the 4th of July

I recently re-watched the movie, "Interview with a Vampire." I still maintain that Tom Cruise was the best looking in that film and by far the best actor in that film, imho.

Interesting acting in Magnolia, Tropic Thunder and Rock of Ages.

Good use of his persona in Color of Money, The Firm. Maybe even Eyes Wide Shut.

The wrestling movie was a bore.

R23 I guess he always enjoyed fucking up couches

I fell in lust with Tom Cruise in Risky Business, still wanted him in Top Gun, but it was all pretty well down hill from there. I won't even watch his movies now, if he made a great one now I wouldn't know it.

"You know a lot about a movie you've never seen before."

I never saw it. I only heard about it and seen photos from it. The damn thing was very well publicized and considered an "iconic" movie of the 80s. The 80s was a really fucked up decade.

It was ok when it was new, watched it a few more times, then burnt out on it and haven't wanted to see it ever again.

I liked his legs in Risky Business during the underwear dance scene. Pivotal moment for my 16-year-old self.

I thought he was great in Rain Man, actually. One of his best performances.

I think he’s been good maybe a small handful of times. I definitely liked him more back in the 80s. Have no interest in him now.

I thought he was great in Eyes Wide Shut. It’s a shame his star distracts from his performance

Hear, hear R66

He was good in Eyes Wide Shut because Kubrick punctured his cockiness a little. I despise the standard grinning idiot Top Gun Cruise.

Risky Business was the last time Tom Cruise was likeable and seemed like he would be cool. Every role since then he has been desperately thirsty for awards.

Tom Cruise is great when he’s a character—Born on the 4th of July, Interview with the Vampire are two greats.

R69 I agree. He was great in Rain Man.

R64 Just ask Oprah

"#wheresrebecca?"

Right here, bitch. Now get ready for me to jump over this counter and punch you in the brain.

"Are you ready for me...Ralph?"

You guys are really out-of-touch if you think THE FIRM or RISKY BUSINESS was Tom Cruise's "peak."

Cruise's peak was as a producer of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE franchise, where he's still raking in more dough than he ever made in the '80s or '90s.

Artistically, his heights were things like MAGNOLIA, EYES WIDE SHUT and KNIGHT AND DAY.

If all you care about is his physical peak, then you're missing the important $tuff that matters to society at large.

The masses loved his JERRY MAGUIRE and they will rate that above his '80s and early '90s stuff.

I’ll take All The Right Moves TC over Top Gun TC any day.

I think we should stop talking about it.

R82 you start

R4 and R48 - I think you are overthinking it - just take it at it's face - it is a far-fetched farce about coming of age.

Since Risky Business Tom Cruise always plays Tom Cruise. Hard to watch anything else he has done

The vague memory I have of this movie was that it was a dark version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off where everything goes very wrong. But since Ferris came out 3 years after Risky perhaps they tried to make a light-hearted version of it.

He plays the same character in every film.

Risky Business - Cocky Teen Top Gun - Cocky Pilot Cocktail - Cocky Bartender Interview with the Vampire - Cocky Vampire Mission Impossible - Cocky Agent War of the Worlds - Cocky Longshoreman (plus an annoying AF Dakota Fanning for bonus points)

All the Right Moves, R86.

I just watched All the Right Moves last week and forgot about the close ups of Lea Thompson's nipples, and Tom's big dark bush and thick circumcised penis.

All the Right Moves - Cocky High School Football Player

The Firm - Cocky Lawyer

Born on the 4th of July - Cocky Veteran

Magnolia - Cocky Motivational Speaker

He wasn't to bad in Eyes Wide Shut though. Kubrick keep the cockiness at bay.

That love scene in ATRM was quite bold. I remember seeing it on cable as a teenager and doing a double take - did they really just splice in a gratuitous and totally unnecessary cock shot? Gave me some nice wank material even though I generally wasn't a big fan.

"[R4] and [R48] - I think you are overthinking it - just take it at it's face - it is a far-fetched farce about coming of age."

R4 here. I am taking it at face value. It's sad that you don't value critical thinking. Entertainment doesn't exist in a vacuum and understanding pop culture in the context in which it's created doesn't lessen my enjoyment of it.

But you do you, hon. We're all here to have a good time, hopefully.

"Hi I'm Megan Mullally"

It's one of those films where all of Tom's flaws as an actor work to his benefit. He HAD some charm, but he's never improved as an actor.

[quote]r72 He was good in Eyes Wide Shut because Kubrick punctured his cockiness a little. I despise the standard grinning idiot Top Gun Cruise.

Nicole Kidman acts circles around him in that. He's practically frozen, while she's alive.

Interview was the first of his movies I didn't see. I used to go to every opening night. It was mostly downhill for me from that point. I saw Jerry Maguire, Eyes Wide Shut, and Magnolia, but only when they came out on video. And the rest of his catalog is just hazy. I'm in a crowd scene in Minority Report because I chose to walk a certain direction when getting out at a subway stop on the DC Mall. Hottest day in years, and these people are all shooting in winter coats. Poor Tom. Rich Tom.

[quote]Nicole Kidman acts circles around him in that. He's practically frozen, while she's alive.

He was probably just comatose. Kubrick to a year, A YEAR to shoot that mess.

He was not wearing the RayBans while he danced.

I love the movie but I do not love Tom.

Wasn't that TWO years, R96?

R4 is right, and yes, the point of such movies (and the attitude tha goes with them) is to have viewers dismiss them as harmless fun.

I thought the usage of M̶u̶s̶i̶c̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶1̶8̶ ̶M̶u̶s̶i̶c̶i̶a̶n̶s̶ ... I mean "Love on a Real Train" was extremely effective.

[quote]r96 He was probably just comatose. Kubrick to a year, A YEAR to shoot that mess.

Yes, it was indeep a mess. But I thought Kidman was at her most beautiful in it and THE OTHERS, which I think were shot back to back.

Interesting trivia: the famous "crystal egg" that was showcased to the point that perhaps it should have been a credited actor has over the years become something of a controversial movie prop. Folklore said that it was created by the now defunct Steuben Glass (back then most valuable and expensive American crystal made). The problem was that Steuben never created anything that ever looked like that set piece at all. Many assumed that they produced the egg custom for the film. Of course, that seems like bad business for a tiny glass maker who only sells a few pieces per year and could use all that free publicity. Almost 40 years later it appears that the "egg" was instead made by the well-known Swedish crystal manufacturer Orrefors and was not custom at all (they sold it for a few years in two different sizes - the larger one used in Risky Business). That said, good luck finding one as they seem to be quite rare these days (despite the notoriety from the film).

Well, it is ugly as all hell.

They should have tried Faberge.

Haha, I agree that I would not put it on my mantle. I actually find it beautiful for what it is though.