matt@aplvax.UUCP (08/22/83)
I saw "Risky Business" over the weekend and left disappointed. It wasn't that bad a movie it just wasn't as great as all of the reviews I had heard. It had several funny episodes and was produced well, but I thought that many of the "off-color" scenes were either unnecessary or dragged on too long and seemed to have been added only for shock value. Another objection I have is that, like many movies you see today, ~= FLAME ON =~ they condone/reward illegal, immoral or otherwise wrong behavior. Joel gets away with prostitution - engaging in it, supporting it and convincing lots of friends (many of whom were minors) to also contribute to it; reckless driving - not only driving like a maniac down city streets, but dumping the Porsche into Lake Michigan, a bit of drug use, etc. And what happens for all this? He gets away with everything, (the worst that happens is his Mother finds the crystal egg cracked), he gets a "girlfriend", and, HE GETS INTO PRINCETON (when he didn't have the grades to begin with)! And they say crime doesn't pay! = FLAME OFF = All in all the movie had some funny moments, but I'm sorry I wasted any money on it. Matthew Diaz aplvax!matt
jgpo@iwu1c.UUCP (08/22/83)
Just went to see "Risky Business." Pure, unadulterated FUN. No overacted hamming, no getting hit over the head with a --->SOCIALLY SIGNIFICANT MESSAGE<---; the music was *LISTENABLE*: no elevator music or blaring cacophony. The humor was understated and a little bit dry (just the way I like it). All in all, it was a wry, yet sympathetic, treatment of Everything We Thought Was So Important WAAAAAAY (at least for me) Back When We Were Teenagers. If you want to enjoy yourself, go see it. John (28 and counting) Opalko
alle@ihuxb.UUCP (08/23/83)
Why do feel that it is important that a movie punish the characters that exhibit "immoral/illegal behavior/actions"??? Do you want only happy endings in movies? In the real world, people get away with immorality, crime, deviant behavior, greed, lust, etc. Why should movies be any different? If you want morality in your movies, stick to Disney or religious movies!! Allen England at Bell Labs, Naperville, IL ihnp4!ihuxb!alle
luchs@ihldt.UUCP (08/25/83)
>From an article by Matthew Diaz:
"they condone/reward illegal, immoral or otherwise wrong behavior...
...And they say crime doesn't pay!"
What is your middle name, "Will Hays"???
And for Gawsh sakes let's make sure that they don't show any navels and that
kisses don't last longer than 3 seconds and make sure that only married
couples are shown in bed (in separate beds, please) and let's pretend like
well-to-do suburban kids don't do drugs and ......
Give me a break!!
-SarahHolbrook.ES@PARC-MAXC.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP (09/13/83)
Date: 6 Sep 1983 1748-PDT From: EISELT@UCI-20A Subject: Risky Business To: movies@UCI-20A Received: from UCI-20a by UCI; 6 Sep 83 18:01-PDT I used to have this recurring nightmare which ended with me being late for some important exam. I had this nightmare all through my undergrad years, occasionally while I was out of school, and maybe once or twice since I've been in grad school. It even happened to me for real once...I misread the final exam schedule and showed up two days late to my Math 2B exam. So it is that I came to be so captivated by "Risky Business". We are introduced to Joel, the main character, through a similar, though much more aesthetically appealing, nightmare. Joel, played by Tom Cruise, is your basic clean-cut Princeton-bound high-school senior who is trying to balance his Ivy-league image with that hormonal madness inherent in all teenage males awaiting their first sexual conquest. Joel's parents go away for a week, leaving him alone with his fanatasies. His fantasies turn into reality when he procures the services of a young prostitute, and things go sour when Joel discovers he is unable to pay for services rendered. Thus begins a series of mishaps through which Joel sees his carefully-constructed future crumble apart, piece by piece. But Joel is given the opportunity to make it all right again before his parents come home. How he does it defies credibility, but is funny nonetheless. At the risk of spoiling the ending, my favorite part of the movie is just before the ending credits, when Joel fantasizes his speech to the Future Enterprisers club (a Junior Achievement clone): after the other young entrepreneurs tell about the piddling sums they made by producing and selling scented clothes hangers and musical note pads, Joel says, "I'm Joel... I deal in human fulfillment. I grossed eight-thousand dollars in one night." "Risky Business" is the best I've seen this summer (with one exception to be reviewed shortly)...an oasis in this summer's celluloid wasteland. It's no 10 on anybody's scale, including my own, but it IS funny and very entertaining. And if you've ever had the misfortune of being a teenage male thinking with his glands instead of his brains, see if this movie doesn't at least dredge up memories of some old fantasies, if not the realities. Kurt
oscar@utcsrgv.UUCP (Oscar M. Nierstrasz) (10/02/83)
Risky Business (Brickman, Paul; USA; 1983; 95m) *** Very funny, very smart movie. The plot: A high-school student in middle-class America who is preparing for college (he wants to get into Princeton) has the house to himself for a few days. A buddy urges him to go nuts. He is reluctant, but finds himself drawn into a set-up that be- gins as a mild embarrassment and grows into a totally prepos- terous escapade. As the consequences become more and more seri- ous he must risk more to recover. The film works both as satire and as raw entertainment. It doesn't take itself too seriously, so the moments of truly point- ed humour are never heavy-handed. For instance, the jabs at macho-posturing are made good-naturedly, without judgement or condemnation. Of course, if it tried to take itself seriously it would collapse: the films gets so bizarre that it requires a to- tal suspension of disbelief for it to work at all. The funniest comedy I've seen in a long time. Oscar Nierstrasz @ utzoo!utcsrgv!oscar
rsu@cbscc.UUCP (Rick Urban) (05/16/84)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the lovemaking scene on the "elevated" in "Risky Business" accompanied by Phil Collins' "Hold On", and not Tangerine Dream? Also, I thought that Tangerine Dreams last two contributions to film soundtracks, "The Keep" and "Firestarter", were terrible. Especially with "Firestarter", their score was so distracting and cheesy-sounding that it hurt the impact of the film (too bad John Williams, Jerry Gold- smith or Michael Kamen didn't get to score it).
rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (05/17/84)
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the lovemaking scene on the > "elevated" in "Risky Business" accompanied by Phil Collins' "Hold On", > and not Tangerine Dream? It was Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight", but there were also portions of the scene with Tangerine Dream music, if I recall. > ... (too bad John Williams, Jerry Gold- > smith or Michael Kamen didn't get to score it). John Williams, perhaps the greatest thief in the history of music. What's worse, with his highly derivative Star Wars score, he started an horrific trend towards making ALL adventure movie scores sound like ripoffs of a combination between Holst's "Mars" and Stravinsky's "Sacre du Printemps". Rick Wakeman is an amateur next to Williams. (Didn't Williams also write the theme music from Lost in Space?). Goldsmith is not much better. Where is Bernard Herrmann when you need him??? -- "You are not SAM. You are not ISAM!!!" Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr
dp@astrovax.UUCP (Deborah L. Padgett) (05/19/84)
Rosen:
John Williams is no thief!!! Making a statement such as that shows
your ignorance of his work. He is one of a very few film composers who
can increase the cohesiveness and appeal of a movie simply by writing its
score. You may have noticed that at least 7 of the top 10 movie-making
films were scored by him (ET, STAR WARS, EMPIRE, JAWS, CE3K, RAIDERS,
JEDI, and RAIDERS). His music is completely different from score to score
and is only predictable in its high quality. I suspect that the real
reason that you hate John Williams is that his style is similar to that
of Wagner and R. Strauss, 19th century composers that you maintain an
elitist distain of (yes, I read your immature statements concerning
net.classical). Your assertion about Williams is only your opinion,
and unless you can prove your statements, I will stick to my own view of
Williams, which , I believe, is based on a much greater familiarity
with both his works and those of similar classical composers than your
snide remarks. Williams' music is far more original than that of the
jaded rock groups thatyou mention; of composers using "modern" instruments
only Vangelis seems to approach Williams' talent in integrating the
visual and musical aspects of a film. The idea that Williams "steals"
parts of Holst's "Mars" and Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" is utterly
laughable; a comparison with the instrumental opera scores of the Romantic
period or the tone poems of R. Strauss would be much more logical.
Unfortunately, that might imply that you have an open enough mind about
19th century music to have actually listened to it (Tsk, tsk).
If you would like to pick on a film composer who steals music, try
James Horner; he has used the same bar of music in his soundtracks to
BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, STAR TREK II, KRULL, and TESTEMENT.
My point to all this is: maybe you think that all 19th century music
is bad (Williams successfully writes Romantic-style music; ergo he is
an evil to be eliminated), but many other people do not agree with you.
This doesn't mean that one of us is stupid, just that we have different
tastes. Please do not resort to fabrications of the sort that you
presented as fact in your article; just honestly state your opinion
and offer concrete evidence for any "fact" that you introduce.
Some of us out here like film scores as a legitimate form of music;
don't be elitist and condemn us for being different.
Sincerely,
Deborah L. Padgett
Princeton Astrophysicsrlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (05/21/84)
> Rosen: > John Williams is no thief!!! Making a statement such as that shows > your ignorance of his work. He is one of a very few film composers who > can increase the cohesiveness and appeal of a movie simply by writing its > score. You may have noticed that at least 7 of the top 10 movie-making > films were scored by him (ET, STAR WARS, EMPIRE, JAWS, CE3K, RAIDERS, > JEDI, and RAIDERS). His music is completely different from score to score > and is only predictable in its high quality. No one said you can't get high quality by stealing. Jaws was one of his really original ideas, and for the simple two-note punch it wields, I give him credit. But ever since George Lucas requested a sweeping majestic score for Star Wars, Williams has consistently re-used the same style over and over, often seemingly just rearranging the notes like a series of musical anagrams (witness SW, Raiders, Superman, ET). > I suspect that the real > reason that you hate John Williams is that his style is similar to that > of Wagner and R. Strauss, 19th century composers that you maintain an > elitist distain of (yes, I read your immature statements concerning > net.classical). [I GUESS HAVING DIFFERENT TASTES FROM YOU IS IMMATURE] > Your assertion about Williams is only your opinion, > and unless you can prove your statements, I will stick to my own view of > Williams, which , I believe, is based on a much greater familiarity > with both his works and those of similar classical composers than your > snide remarks. Whew! On the contrary, Williams style is not at all similar to Wagner and Strauss (well, there is some similarity). But even a glance at the Star Wars score is enough to see where he did steal from. The opening theme has much of its central section (in orchestration and rhythm) lifted from Holst's "Mars" (I've heard others mention pointers to "Jupiter", but I didn't catch them). The scene with C3P0 and R2D2 in the desert has its music lifted almost directly (!!!!) from Le Sacre du Printemps. Though I'm not familiar with Vaughan Williams as much as I'd like, Close Encounters contains much that was lifted from Vaughan Williams (was it Antarctica?) according to musical analysts. I no longer have the source article from which I obtained much of this info, but most of it can be uncovered just by listening. That answers the informational sections of Deborah's article. I'll take the other portions, where she make swipes at my musical background and at "jaded rock groups", offline. By the way, I couldn't agree with you more about James Horner. There's nothing worse than someone who steals from a thief. (Well, there are a few things.) -- "You are not SAM. You are not ISAM!!!" Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr
dyer@vaxuum.DEC (05/26/84)
Re: Risky Business_____________________________________________________________
I find this whole discussion about Risky Business great, since I just
saw it a week ago (and besides, I wasn't on the USENET when it came out). I
thought it was a great flick. The music was great!
Right now, I can't remember what music was being played during the
lovemaking scene (yes, it was very erotic); but the soundtrack has a cut on
it called "Making Love on a Real Train (Risky Business)" by Tangerine Dream.
I seem to recall that the scene's music began with the undulating bass line
that TD was playing throughout the movie.
Now, can anyone tell me more about the deep and inner meanings of the
movie so I can convince somebody else who hated it that it was a good movie?
<_Jym_>
._________________________________________________________.
.__! Jym Dyer <> Digital Equipment Corporation <> Nashua, NH !__.
.__! Arpanet: dyer%vaxuum.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA <> E-Net: VAXUUM::DYER !__.
__! Usenet: ...{allegra|decvax|ucbvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-vaxuum!dyer !__asente@decwrl.UUCP (Paul Asente) (05/26/84)
As a friend of mine said upon seeing the notice in the credits for Superman II that the music was by <someone> based upon original themes by John Williams: "Nonsense! John Williams never wrote an original theme in his life!" -paul asente decwrl!asente, asente@decwrl.arpa "It is easier to fight for your principles than to live up to them."