Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Micitype Pretty Good

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

eric262003 Tom Cruise stars as Joel Goodson, a handsome young man from Chicago who takes advantage of his parents' house while they are away with things going way beyond what he had anticipated. Sure the plot of "Risky Business" about a promiscuous teenager befriending a likable hooker named Lana (Rebecca De Mornay) who's still not adjusted to the consequences that come with the job may have qualities about it that are quite surreal. In spite of the flaws in this movie, writer/director Paul Brickman does succeed to keep his audiences on the edge of their seats for long periods of time. Still relatively unknown at the time Tom Cruise in his most youthful role to date, plays a teenager plays the only son of wealthy Mr. and Mrs. Goodson (Nicholas Pryor and Janet Carroll) as they go off on sabbatical leave and depends on young Joel to watch over the house while they're gone. I mean what could go wrong? Joel's friend Miles (Curtis Armstrong) advises Joel to take advantage of his new found freedom. Joel starts drinking the liquor from the liquor cabinet, turns the stereo volume loudly as he dances in his underwear to a Bob Seeger classic and starts bringing in prostitutes into his house for his horny pleasures. From there this movie turns its gears to the over-romanticized soft-core erotic films with its target audience being middle-aged women. The whole concept of sex for money depicted here feels absurdly casual almost like a frat party where they play spin the bottle in hopes that the bottle points in their direction while they go off and engage in intercourse without any of them caring about the dangers of drugs or disease that could raise of cause of concern. Right before the AIDS epidemic took off, "Risky Business" would have never made to the cutting room floor. Lana (De Mornay) may have set the teen up in many of the troubles he faced while his parents were gone. Joel has successfully managed to drown his father's Porsche, and get under the gun of Lana's dangerous pimp Guido (Joe Pantoliano). Both incidents are proved costly, Joel agrees for one night to partner up with Lana as he turns his house into a brothel which will help pay for the repairs while he and his friends take their horny pleasures to Lana's co-workers.It's just strangely ironic that Joel found a new lease on coolness once he starts working off his payments by working as a pimp. He shapes his outlook by sporting his hair in the middle (typical 80's right?) He starts donning on Rayban Wayfarers sunglasses (which was a trend setter in that period) and though I don't approve it, he places a cigarette to his mouth that spells out Bogart and Belmondo. There's no real moral passage to give out here, but hey, it's the 1980's back when morals were looser than today's standards. The movie is really high on style and it stands above most romantic comedies of the 1980's and beyond, but to be honest, this movie wasn't a teen comedy at all. It's for satirical purposes to exploit the 1980's materialistic integrity that was cleverly incognito as a teen comedy film. The young cast who became bigger later on excelled in the material that was given to them (even Curtis Armstrong keeps himself being too much of an annoyance). Cruise and De Mormay strive from their roles as they avoid the trap of playing stereotypical characters mainly due to the precision and timing of Brickman's direction and script.

Bill Slocum Teen sex comedies took a giant step forward at the same time Tom Cruise made his play for superstardom in this sly, winning film about a boy who shakes off the shackles of respectable suburban life and says "What the heck," or words to that effect.Joel Goodsen (Cruise) is a high-school senior given charge of his parents' stately Glencoe, Illinois mansion while they visit a sick aunt. Prodded by his obnoxious, Harvard-bound pal Miles (Curtis Armstrong), Joel takes Dad's car out for a spin, then gets really adventurous by inviting call girl Lana (Rebecca De Mornay) over for a night of costly sin. How costly? His mother's priceless decorative egg, for starters. To make it up, Joel is forced to latch on with the world's oldest profession to cut his losses."Risky Business" is an amusing charmer with a sleek underbelly that slides against the grain of the American dream. All Joel wants to do is make his parents proud by getting into Princeton. Throughout the film, Joel's lifestyle is mocked for its easy manner. Even if Miles is wrong in his advice (something Miles himself breezily admits later), the message of the movie seems to be that Joel needs to shake himself out of his comfortable rut before it becomes his tomb."I'd really appreciate it if you'd stop laying these little judgments on me while you're leaning on your daddy's $40,000 car," Lana says to him at one point, just before she sends the car into Lake Michigan.De Mornay makes the strongest impression in the film, from her unforgettable entrance standing nude in Joel's living room to her hooded, defensive manner whenever Joel presses her about his missing egg. At one point in the DVD commentary, Cruise talks about the music of Tangerine Dream as "cool, yet it has a soulful, kind of haunting quality." This seems an apt description of De Mornay's performance, too, a woman who sells her favors for $300 a night but speaks forthrightly when she says: "Nobody owns me."Director-writer Paul Brickman gives his film a hypnotic, dreamy tone, from the opening credits where Chicago at night becomes a glittery slo-mo vision to Joel's opening dream sequence, which lays out the central premise of the film, of sex as destroyer of professional ambitions. Joel walks into a bathroom where a beautiful girl is showering, but as he follows her he finds himself at a college boards exam, where he is already three hours late.Speaking of big entrances, Joe Pantoliano shines as Guido, Lana's pimp with a velvet manner and a gun. His scenes with Joel are funny for the rage Guido doesn't express, as he keeps telling Joel he's smart and "I like you," even while making ruin of the boy's life.Brickman had trouble with Warner Brothers getting the film he wanted released; in the end, the last minutes of the film were slightly altered to give Joel and Lana a happier sendoff. It's still a strong ending, as Cruise can be heard telling Brickman in the commentary; the overall message about capitalism's way of getting people to sell themselves short still stands. The bite is still there, only the fangs are a little less sharp.I like the theatrical ending better; "Risky Business" as is often risks being too serious for its own good. As it is, there's a lot of business in the middle section that I could do without, as Joel's problems accumulate and his angst is played out as very real. I'm more at ease with the darker material used for antic comedy, like the big hooker convention Joel winds up hosting, and his interview with the Princeton representative (Richard Masur, nicely underplaying his character's own little judgments about Joel).Oh, yeah, and there's that Bob Seger number Joel does in the living room, which takes up a minute of screen time but has come to dominate our memory of the film. It's a good little moment from a good little film, not the greatest ever made, but better than anyone had a right to expect. While dated in places, it still stands up today.

FlashCallahan Left alone in the wealthy northern Chicago suburbs with the family house and Porsche at his disposal, Joel, through his scheming friends, finds himself entertaining call girl Lana. After meeting Joel's enthusiastic friends, Lana spots a business opportunity, and suggests bringing in some of her equally stunning colleagues. Joel is initially against such an idea, at least until the Porsche accidentally falls into Lake Michigan, requiring a quick infusion of ready cash......With such an illustrious career, probably one of the biggest successes in Hollywoods history, it's clear that Cruise is not just a bona-fide movie star, the man is a living legend.And then there's this film.....I must be missing something, I know that this kick-started his career into the stratospheric place it is now, but it's one of the most abhorrent, dislikable roles he's ever played.He basically plays a smug little rich boy who gets done over by a pimp and has to make ex amount of cash before his parents get home.Despite the screen presence he has in this, it's impossible to care about the situation he's got himself into because there is no empathetic repercussions to he character. in fact, he almost takes advantage of his situation to start the titular hobby.So if you want to watch a film where a smug little rich boy thinks about turning his back on education for all the wrong reasons, then this is for you.I found myself getting more angrier as the film went on.

Rainey Dawn Risky Business is a good older teen film - yes it's funny. And no Joel (Cruise) should not do what he does in the movie but that is what creates the comedy and some of the drama in the film. Basically, if Joel did what he was suppose to do then we would not have a movie to watch.I think Tom Cruise was great in this movie - but he's gotten better over the years (IMO). And the film is worth watching for Tom Cruise's performance - and not just for his famous dancing scene in the film.Another reason to watch this movie is the story. Risky Business does have an interesting story to follow - and it's not all comedy.On a personal note: I'm surprised the IMDb movie is low on this classic Tom Cruise film. Should be a bit higher (but that's just my opinion).7.5/10