Demi Moore was rushed to a local hospital on Monday night
January 24, 2012 by J!-ENT · Leave a Comment
Media sources have been reporting that actress Demi Moore was rushed to a hospital on Monday night.
TMZ.com has reported that the actress was rushed to the hospital due to substance abuse but earlier a spokesperson for Demi told them that she was seeking professional assistance to treat her exhaustion.
More details to follow…
Demi Moore is ending her marriage to Ashton Kutcher
November 17, 2011 by J!-ENT · Leave a Comment
Demi Moore has released the following statement:
“It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I have decided to end my six-year marriage to Ashton. As a woman, a mother and a wife there are certain values and vows that I hold sacred, and it is in this spirit that I have chosen to move forward with my life. This is a trying time for me and my family, and so I would ask for the same compassion and privacy that you would give to anyone going through a similar situation.”
Ashton Kutcher has tweeted:
Ashton Kutcher responds on Twitter in regards to marital breakdown
September 29, 2011 by J!-ENT · Leave a Comment
The Internets are alive and ablazing with rumors that Ashton Kutcher and wife Demi Moore are donezo. But in Kutcher Twitter fashion, he responded with the following tweet:
#nowplaying open.spotify.com/track/1i8rqFjs…
The track leads to Public Enemy’s song “Don’t Believe the Hype!”.
CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute (Sneak Peek!)
November 18, 2010 by J!-ENT · Leave a Comment
“CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” airing Thanksgiving night at 8 p.m. ET/PT on the global networks of CNN. The special highlights real people making a difference in the world and will be hosted by CNN’s very own Anderson Cooper.
Here’s a sneak peek of the event:
CNN Heroes has illustrated the best of humanity through the telling of stories of selfless acts of kindness, courage and perseverance. More than 10,000 nominations for CNN Heroes were received from more than 100 countries.
Anderson will be joined by famous rockers, Bon Jovi, who will be performing at the event, and star presenters Halle Berry, Demi Moore, LL Cool J and Renee Zellweger and more!
The top 10 CNN Heroes are selected by a blue-ribbon panel of judges, including Muhammad Ali, Richard Branson, cellist Yo Yo Ma, Olympic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, rapper Chris “Ludacris” Bridges and actor Rainn Wilson, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and many more.
More than 10,000 nominations for CNN Heroes were received from more than 100 countries. And I’d love to invite you and your readers to vote for your favorite heroes (voting is open until the end of TODAY): http://heroes.cnn.com/vote.aspx
Ashton Kutcher lashes out against STAR Magazine’s article that he is cheating on wife
September 2, 2010 by J!-ENT · Leave a Comment
Ashton Kutcher is not taking the Star Magazine’s article of him cheating on his wife too kindly.
Kutcher tweeted, “I think Star magazine calling me a “cheater” qualifies as defamation of character. I hope my lawyer agrees. STAR magazine – you don’t get to stand behind “freedom of the press” when you are writing fiction.”
Kutcher is responding to STAR Magazine’s article that Kutcher was making out with a blonde woman at the Los Angeles Italian restaurant Madeo and is cheating on his wife.
Demi Moore supported her husband on Twitter with a “Excellent point my love!”.
As for Demi Moore, her summer bikini photo that she posted on Daily Booth is definitely getting a lot of attention lately! Who can blame her, Demi is hot!
Demi Moore arrives at the premiere of “The Joneses” in Los Angeles
April 9, 2010 by J!-ENT · Leave a Comment
Actress Demi Moore arrives at Roadside Attractions & Echo Lake Entertainment’s premiere of ‘The Joneses’ held at Arclight Hollywood Cinema on April 8, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images). Content © 2010 Getty Images All rights reserved.
Actor Ashton Kutcher and wife/actress Demi Moore at the screening of “Spread”
Actor Ashton Kutcher (L) and wife actress Demi Moore arrive at the Las Vegas screening of Anchor Bay Films’ ‘Spread’ held at the Brenden Theatres inside the Palms Casino Resort on August 5, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Anchor Bay ). Content © 2009 Getty Images . All rights reserved.
St. Elmo’s Fire (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)
July 28, 2009 by Dennis Amith · Leave a Comment
“The film that started the ‘Brat Pack’ gets its High Definition treatment nearly 25-years later. With new Blu-ray exclusives and watching it now, compared to back then, I found myself enjoying this film even more. For fans of 80′s films or ‘Brat Pack’ films, definitely a film on Blu-ray worth having in your collection!”
TITLE: St. Elmo’s Fire
DURATION: 108 minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (2:40:1), English/French/Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese
COMPANY: Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RATED: R
Release Date: August 11, 2009
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Written by Joel Schumacher and Carl Kurlander
Executive Produced by Bernard Schwartz and Ned Tanen
Produced by Lauren Shuler Donner
Music by David Foster
Director of Photography: Stephen H. Burm
Edited by Richard Marks
Casting by Marci Liroff, Jennifer Shull
Art Direction by William Sandell
Set Decoration by Robert Gould and Charles Graffeo
Costume Design by Susan Becker
Starring:
Emilio Estevez as Kirby Keger
Rob Lowe as Billy Hicks
Andrew McCarthy as Kevin Dolenz
Demi Moore as Jules
Judd Nelson as Alec Newbary
Mare Winningham as Wendy Beamish
Martin Balsam as Mr. Beamish
Andie MacDowell as Dale Biberman
Jenny Wright as Felicia
Jon Cutler as Howie Krantz
The mid-80′s was about conservatism, Reaganomics, Miami Vice and a time where people were not fully aware about AIDS and were thinking more about working together to bring food to Africa. This was the sign of the times and for director Joel Schumacher (“The Lost Boys”, “Flatliners”, “Batman Forever”, “8MM”, etc.), while he was working on his second film “D.C. Cab”, during a short stay at Georgetown, he observed graduating college students at Georgetown University and wondered how miserable some of them maybe, of having to graduate but now become adults.
It was right there and then that Schumacher wanted to make a film based on these type of college graduates who face problems of transitioning to adulthood. In order to capture the life of a young adults graduating college, Schumacher tapped into recent college graduate, Karl Kurlander (“Saved by the Bell: The New Class” and “Malibu, CA”) and together they began working on “St. Elmo’s Fire”. Schumacher had renown musician and producer David Foster (who wrote major hit songs for “Karate Kid, Part II”, “Sleepless in Seattle”, “The Bodyguard”, etc.) working on his first film as a composer and cinematographer Stephn H. Burm (“The Untouchables”, “Snake Eyes”, “Mystery Men”, etc.).
But what the film would be known for is the cast in which David Blum of New Yorker Magazine would dub as “The Brat Pack”, a title that would be synonymous with Hollywood’s popular young talents: Emilio Estevez (“Breakfast Club”, “The Mighty Ducks” films and “Young Guns” films), Rob Lowe (“The West Wing”, “Brothers & Sisters”, “About Last Night…”, etc.), Andrew McCarthy (“Lipstick Jungle”, “Weekend at Bernies” and “The Joy Luck Club”), Demi Moore (“Indecent Proposal”, “G.I. Jane”, “Ghost”, etc.), Judd Nelson (“Breakfast Club”, “Airheads”, “Suddenly Susan”, etc.), Ally Sheedy (“Kyle XY”, “The Breakfast Club”, “Oxford Blues”, “WarGames”, etc.) and Mare Winningham (“Clubhouse”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Wyatt Earp”, etc.).
The film revolves around seven college graduates of Georgetown University who are starting off on their own careers or trying to find a job.
Kirby Keger (Emilio Estevez) – Studying to become a lawyer and works as a waiter at St. Elmo’s Bar. He is obsessed with Dale Biberman (Andie McDowell) and will do what it takes to go out on a date with her or to at least be acknowledged by her.
Billy Hicks (Rob Lowe) – A father who is trying to find ways to support his girlfriend and child. But at the same time, he’s a playboy that likes to have fun, likes to drink and be with many women. He tries to have a fling with the group’s virgin Wendy Beamish (Mare Winningham). A musician who plays the saxophone, he is unable to hold onto a job and is looked as a hero at his college (because of his ability to find drugs and sell them to the students). Tends to think with his penis than his head most of the time.
Kevin Dolenz (Andrew McCarthy) – Lives with Kirby, a writer, always smoking and the quiet one of the group. Tend to be seen as a homosexual because he doesn’t go after women publicly and even looked by his own friends as possibly a gay man who hasn’t come out of the closet. Kevin is in love with someone but isn’t telling. His friend Jules thinks Kevin is in love with Alec.
Jules (Demi Moore) – The socialite sporting the latest fashions and always partying. The carefree friend but behind-the-scenes, things are not as rosy with her life as it would it seem.
Alec Newbary (Judd Nelson) – The future politician who ran the Young Democrats in college and now works for a Republican. Dates Leslie and wants her to marry him in order for him to end his desires of sleeping with other women. The friend that others looked up to for leadership.
Leslie Hunter (Ally Sheedy) – The architect who is dating Alec. The friend that is level headed but is not sure she wants to get married just yet and wants to establish her own career.
Wendy Beamish (Mare Winningham) – The wealthy daughter and the virgin. She is attracted to Billy but gets upset when he keeps asking her if she’s still a virgin. Her father pressures her on how to live her life and that she should marry a guy from a wealthy family for the purpose of a family/business transaction.
The film focuses on these seven friends and how they thought that after graduating college, their friendship would continue to be strong and they would be together. But all learn that as they grow older and focus on their careers, their life as a group and as friends will start to change.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“St. Elmo’s Fire” gets its HD treatment via 1080p High Definition. For the most part, the positive is that the film looks much better than many 80′s films that tend to receive a lot of DNR and overall look too soft and are devoid of colors. With “St. Elmo’s Fire”, there are lot of colors and scenes such as Jules pink and red apartment that look vibrant but at the same time, there was noticeable banding that can be seen prominently in Jules apartment (towards the end of the film when Billy is talking to her) and some darker scenes with light emitting. Granted, if you are sitting far from your television, this won’t be as noticeable. In fact, I didn’t catch these until I rewatched certain scenes during my testing and saw the artifacts when I was 3-4 ft. away. But for the most part, the picture quality was satisfactory, considering this film didn’t have much of a budget.
As for audio, the film is featured in English, French and Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital) and the film is primarily a dialogue driven film. Dialogue is understandable and clear. And of course, David Foster’s “Love Theme from St. Elmo’s Fire” and the other 80′s music featured on the soundtrack comes alive during the film. There are some scenes especially at the bar that utilize the ambiance of a crowded room and is heard through the surrounds but for the most part, this film is driven by its characters and its soundtrack.
As for subtitles, English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese are included.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
St. Elmo’s Fire comes with the following special features:
“St. Elmo’s Fire” was a film not exactly well respected by critics when it first came out. But the film was part of a string of “Brat Pack” related films that would star these talents along with Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall and would define high school and young adult films in the 1980′s.
The film was not well-respected because of the times. These were young adults that were quite liberal during a conservative era and most of them were not being shown in the positive light. These young adults were not perfect and they had their own personal flaws that critics saw as vane and shallow but for audiences, they saw something quite different.
For me, to have all these talents together in one film was just awesome. Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson were just awesome in “Breakfast Club”, Rob Lowe in “Oxford Blues”, Emilio Estevez in “Repo Man” and “The Outsiders”, Mare Winningham appeared on many shows including afterschool specials and Demi Moore was a popular soap star on “General Hospital” years earlier. And of course, for Andrew McCarthy and Andie McDowell, this film would also help put ignite their careers.
And in the 80′s, who could not love David Foster’s “Love Theme from St. Elmo’s Fire” or John Parr’s “Man in Motion”. These were overplayed on the radio and MTV that “St. Elmo’s Fire” was literally ingrained into pop culture. And of course, the term “Brat Pack” (as many of them despised the name), for audiences… being part of that group was just the epitome of “cool”.
Watching this film nearly 25 years later, it’s hard to believe that so much time has passed and how different high school and young adult films are today. Director Joel Schumacher said that he wanted to create a film with young talent but make it an “A film”. These issues that the seven go through, this stress and anguish of starting a career and also suffering setbacks after graduation is real. Not everyone who graduates college, is able to have a successful life, and this even rings true so much now especially during our poor economy.
For the Blu-ray release, it’s great to watch this film on High Definition but it’s also great to have the Blu-ray exclusive features with Joel Schumacher remembering St. Elmo’s Fire and seeing the deleted scenes for the first time. Although this film is not called a “25th Anniversary” edition of the film, it’s pretty close. The only thing one could hope for is a reunion of these talents to discuss the film or even if it was a few of them, to interview them today about “St. Elmo’s Fire” (note: For the Blu-ray release of the 1986 film “About Last Night…”, the director and Rob Lowe are brought back 23 years later to discuss their experiences on the film).
Nevertheless, I have more appreciation of “St. Elmo’s Fire” as an adult compared to when I was a teenager in high school and catching the film on HBO. I can now understand the wide range of emotions that these characters are going through after graduating from college. Granted, some situations are a bit extreme but the feelings of friendship drifting part are so real.
I also realized of how well this group of talent worked together and found the group to be well-cast. This “Brat Pack” or individual talents went on to become big stars on their own but even back in 1985, it was still a remarkable feat. to have each of these seven individuals together in one film. It’s not something that can be easily duplicated today, especially knowing that this film was created on a tight budget and short schedule.
I would imagine that “St. Elmo’s Fire” is one of those films that people who grew up during that time will gravitate to, partly for nostalgia reasons. But watching it nearly 25-years-later, outside of nostalgia, I found that watching this film much more enjoyable now and quite entertaining! For 80′s film fans or “Brat Pack” film fans, “St. Elmo’s Fire” is definitely worth picking up on Blu-ray!
“About last night…” (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)
July 19, 2009 by Dennis Amith · Leave a Comment
“‘About last night…’ is a smart, witty and sexually charged film that although predictable, it’s very real but overall, entertaining. The film is just as relevant today as it was over 20 years ago. A major plus with the Blu-ray release over the previous DVD release is the inclusion of a near-45 minute featurette reuniting Director Edward Zwick and Rob Lowe and the original 1986 featurette.”
TITLE: “About last night…”
DURATION: 113 minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition (1:85:1), English, French and Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Spanish 5.1 (Dolby Digital)
COMPANY: TriStar Pictures/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RATED: R
Release Date: August 11, 2009
Directed by Edward Zwick
Based on the play “Sexual Perversity in Chicago” by David Mamet
Screenplay by Tim Kazurinsky and Denise De Clue
Executive Producer: Arnold Stiefel
Produced by Jason Brett and Stuart Oken
Associated Producer: E. Darrell Hallenbeck
Music by Miles Goodman
Director of Photography: Andrew Dintenfass
Edited by Harry Keramidas
Casting by Gail Eisenstadt
Production Design by Ida Random
Set Decoration by Chris Butler
Costume Design by Deborah Lynn Scott
Starring:
Robe Lowe as Danny Martin
Demi Moore as Debbie
James Belushi as Bernie Litgo
Elizabeth Perkins as Joan
In 1986, the film “About last night…” based on the early 70′s David Mamet (“The Unit”, “Hannibal” and “Ronin”) Award-winning play “Sexual Perversity in Chicago” was released in theaters.
Where many 80′s romance films were typically teenager or a college-driven storyline, “About last night…” received attention for its focus on relationships (or lack of thereof) but most of all, the sexual lives of four individuals.
The film was directed by Edward Zwick (“The Last Samurai”, “Traffic” and “Defiance”) and a screenplay by Tim Kazurinsky (“Saturday Night Live”) and Denise DeClue (“The Cherokee Kid” and “Missing Persons”). The music was composed by Miles Goodman (“Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit”, “Sunset Park” and “Larger Than Life”) and cinematography by Andrew Dintenfass (“Memories of Me” and “The Cure”).
The film would feature an all-star cast with Rob Lowe (“Brothers and Sisters”, “The West Wing”, “St. Elmo’s Fire” and “Austin Powers” films), Demi Moore (“Indecent Proposal”, “Ghost”, “St. Elmo’s Fire” and “A Few Good Men”), James Belushi (“According to Jim” and “Mighty Ducks”) and Elizbeth Perkins (“Weeds”, “28 Days” and “Big”).
The film revolves around four individuals in Chicago and showcasing romance in the mid-80′s. Danny (Rob Lowe) and his sarcastic friend Bernie (James Belushi) meet Debbie (Demi Moore) and her friend/roommate Joan (Elizabeth Perkins) at a bar in Elk Grove Village. Danny and Debbie end up having a one night stand, as does Bernie and Joan.
But the difference is that from the one night stand, both Danny and Debbie are confused. Are they just sleeping buddies but what if one wants more than that. What if one wants a relationship? The two are like a rollercoaster as part of them feels they should be in a relationship, then not be in one, then living together and not living together.
“About last night…” is a film that features one man’s fear of commitment and a woman truly wanting one. Meanwhile, as both Danny and Debbie are confused, Bernie is against anything that deals with relationships and Joan can’t stand Danny. Thus, their friends are against the two having any remote relationship.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“About last night…” is presented in 1080p High Definition (aspect ratio of 1:85:1). Having owned the previous releases of “About last night…” on DVD, I was hoping for the film to look great but knowing that many 80′s films (shot in a lower stock of film) that have been released on Blu-ray are not exactly looking all that great and some that have been DNR’d (digital noise reduction) too much and making the film looking absolutely soft and waxy.
“About last night…” is a film that doesn’t have the DNR treatment which is great and exhibits grain (I’m talking about, plenty of grain) and as much as I would love to say the film looks absolutely gorgeous on Blu-ray, unfortunately the film looks aged. I’ll be truthful, there is not a huge difference between the DVD and HD release via picture quality. Of course, you’re going to have the marginally better transfer on HD but for those hoping for spectacular picture quality, unfortunately “About last night…” does not make a huge jump in picture quality compared to its DVD counterpart.
As for audio, audio is presented in English, French and Portuguese Dolby TrueHD5.1. Audio for the most part showcases clean dialogue coming from the center channel, front channels showcase the film’s mid-80′s musical soundtrack and there are certain scenes such as at the bar where you can hear the people in the room on the surrounds.
The film’s soundtrack is satisfactory and for the most part, gets the better end of the HD transfer. Dialogue is understandable and music is nice and clear and the film utilizing crowd scenes for the surrounds.
As for the subtitles, the film sports subtitles in English, English SDH, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Unlike the old DVD release which really had nothing in terms of special features, “About last night…” on Blu-ray has two.
- Edward Zwick and Rob Lowe in Conversation – (42:00) This was an awesome featurette as both Zwick and Lowe get-together nearly 13 years later to talk about the film and their experiences. How today’s films like “Knocked Up” are able to have humor and have film with sexuality but with “About Last Night…”, there was only so much that they were able to get by through the censors. Also, interesting to find out that both Moore and Lowe nearly suffered Hypothermia by standing out in the cold weather for so long and that during a sex scene with Rob Lowe carrying Moore, his leg gave out and he was in significant pain. Very interesting and a humorous featurette. This special feature does have profanity and is featured in High Definition.
- Original Making-Of Featurette – (6:44) The original making-of featurette from 1986 in old school, standard definition glory. Interviews with the director and cast and behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the movie.
“About last night…” was not the best romantic comedy from the 1980′s but it was a film that focused on young adult romance and the fears of commitment that many men and women go through. So, in a way, you can say that the realism experienced by the characters was quite attractive for audiences.
Also, it was great to get that glimpse of Chicago and its various scenery at that time and of course, the performances by all four major talents were well-done. If anything, Demi Moore and Rob Lowe who were both in “St. Elmo’s Fire” didn’t really shine in that film but with “About last night…”, these two talents did a great job and everything looks quite natural.
Jim Belushi and Elizabeth Perkins definitely are impressive as the friends who try to tear the main characters from pursuing a relationship and they bring the comedy relief to the film.
Does this 1986 romantic comedy have the captivating magic and allure of the 1989 film “When Harry Met Sally”, no. But what the film does well is expressing the sexuality and the fears of commitment. These are real issues that many people go through. Over 20 years later, its safe to say that the fears these characters have are quite relevant today.
“About last night…” is a smart, witty and sexually charged film that although predictable, it was great to see how these characters start to grow as individuals. Again, very real but overall, entertaining.
INDECENT PROPOSAL (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)
May 31, 2009 by Dennis Amith · Leave a Comment
“Although the film adaption is quite different from the original novel, ‘INDECENT PROPOSAL’ does have an interesting story of what one would do if a billionaire offered a million dollars to have one night with one’s wife. Although released in 1993 when glitz and money was part of the extreme in popular culture, I think the film would have more relevance and probably be more powerful today. Powerful performance by Demi Moore and Robert Redford is as suave as ever!”
TITLE: INDECENT PROPOSAL
DURATION: 116 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles – English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese
RATED: R (For Sexuality and Language)
COMPANY: Paramount Home Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2009
Directed by Adrian Lyne
Based on the novel by Jack Engelhard
Screenplay by Amy Holden Jones
Produced by Sherry Lansing
Executive Producer: Alex Gartner and Tom Schulman
Co-Produced by Michael Tadross
Music by John Barry
Director of Photography: Howard Atherton
Edited by Joe Hutshing
Casting by Victoria Thomas
Production Design by Mel Bourne
Art Direction by Gae S. Buckley
Set Decoration by Etta Leff
Costume Design by Batrix Aruna Pasztor, Bernie Pollack, Bobbie Read
Starring:
Robert Redford as John Gage
Demi Moore as Diana Murphy
Woody Harrelson as David Murphy
Seymour Cassel as Mr. Shackleford
Oliver Platt as Jeremy
Billy Bob Thornton as Day Tripper
Rip Taylor as Mr. Langford
Bill Connolly as Auction M.C.
Adrian Lyne buffs the premise of Honeymoon in Vegas to a fine gloss in this yuppie melodrama that poses the conundrum of whether the loving husband of an equally loving wife will accept $1 million to allow his wife to spend one night with a billionaire who looks like Robert Redford. All the cynics please take a number and form a line at the right. Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson play Diana and David Murphy, high-school sweethearts who marry and who are doing very well — Diana is a successful real-estate agent, and David is an idealistic architect who has built a dream house by the ocean — until the recession hits. Suddenly, David loses his job, and they can’t make the mortgage payments. Dead broke, they borrow $5000 from David’s father and head to Las Vegas to try to win money to pay the mortgage on their house. At first, they get $25,000 ahead — but inevitably the house always wins, and they end up losing it all. While Diana is in the fancy casino boutique trying to lift some candy, she is spotted by billionaire John Gage (Robert Redford), who is immediately attracted to her. John invites Diana and David to an opulent party, and it is there that John offers David $1 million for a night with his wife. David is wracked by this moral dilemma, but Diana finally makes the decision on her own, with ensuing consequences for their ideal marriage and their bank account.
Author Jack Engelhard wrote a political/romantic and dramatic novel about a Jewish family in hard times and a billionaire Arab who offers a million dollars to sleep with the wife. A film that delves deep into Arab-Israeli conflict. The rights for the novel was purchased but the film adaption would be closer to home for the US and changed to relate to American audiences.
Directing the film would be Adrian Lyne (“Flash Dance”, “Fatal Attraction”, “Jacob’s Ladder” and “Unfaithful”) and the screenplay for the film was written by Amy Holden Jones (“Beethoven”, “Mystic Pizza” and “The Relic”) and produced by Sherry Lansing (“Fatal Attraction”, “The Accused” and “Black Rain”). “INDECENT PROPOSAL” was successful at the box office as it brought in over $266 million worldwide despite its negative reviews and even winning the Golden Raspberry Awards for “Worst Picture”, “Worst Screenplay” and “Worst Supporting Actor”.
The film is about David (Woody Harrelson) and Diana Murphy (Demi Moore), a couple that have been in love since they were teenagers and very much in love as adults. David is an architect and Diana is a real estate agent and for Diana, she wanted David to pursue his dream of building their home near the beach.
The couple move forward and have their dream home built but then the market crashed, America was in a recession, Diana was not able to sell any new homes on the market and David lost his job due to budget cuts. Behind in bills and needing to pay $50,000 on the home they just built, decide to borrow $5,000 and gamble and hope to win money in Las Vegas.
On the first night there, they do just that. David is able to win up to $25,000 and while he gambles, Diana goes through elegant shops at the Hilton and looks at a few dresses and wonders how she would look in one of them. John Gage (Robert Redford) who sees the young woman is fascinated and offers to buy the dress for her but Diana shoots back that the dress is for sale, not her.
As the Murphy’s celebrate the night with romantic, passionate love with their money scattered all around them, they start betting it all over again but this time, no results. David and Diana lose all of their money.
While walking through the casino, David sees John Gage and learns that he is a billionaire and bets $10,000 per gold chip when he gambles. John sees David and Diana so happy but he asks if Diana could join him quick to give his next game good luck. And this time, betting a million dollars. David roots for his wife and Diana reluctantly goes to John and blows a kiss to the dice and Gage wins.
In support of Diana for helping him out, he offers a room at the posh hotel and everything on the house on him. While checking out the room, Diana gets the black dress she was trying out the day before as a gift and both are invited to a party.
While alone, John offers a hypothetical question to David. If people can be bought for a million dollars. In this case, what if he offered a million dollars to the couple for one night with his wife. Both Murphy’s say they would tell the person to “go to hell”.
But John is serious. He makes his offer and tells them for one night with his wife, they would be set for life with a million dollars.
During the night, both David and Diana agonize over the situation. One night, one million dollars and they can eliminate their problems. So, the two decide to do it.
David gets his lawyer friend Jeremy (Oliver Platt) to do draft the paperwork and all is a go. Diana will spend one night with the billionaire John Gage. After some time has passed, David realizes that what he did is very wrong and doesn’t want his wife to do it. He runs back to the hotel but misses them. He agonizes over the decision he has made and now agonizes for his wife.
Will the Murphy’s ever be the same after accepting John Gage’s indecent proposal?
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“INDECENT PROPOSAL” gets its first treatment on High Definition with a 1080p transfer on Blu-ray. First, the good news. The good news is that certain scenes that incorporate the outdoors and sunlight look great and vibrant. There are some low-light scenes where blacks are deep and picture quality looks quite nice. Now, the bad news. Those scenes are just a few, “INDECENT PROPOSAL” has probably one of the worst high grain I have seen on a film on Blu-ray. There is one scene where Diana is teaching English to a class and the scene is so full of grain that she nearly becomes hard to see at one point. During the opening scene, with David sitting down near the beach and you see fog all around, high level of grain and color banding. Not sure if the Las Vegas scenes were stock but those were quite grainy as well. Some scenes looks as if it was muted by digital noise reduction (DNR) and so some scenes look quite soft.
Overall, good and bad quality is all over the place. Some scenes are great but some scenes are absolutely terrible. The positive factor is that the scenes don’t last that long but I don’t think I’ve seen picture quality this uneven for a Blu-ray release.
As for audio, the film gets an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD transfer (French and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital). This film’s soundtrack is front channel driven. Dialogue is clear and understandable which is important. When there is music, John Barry’s (“Madagascar” 1 & 2, “Chaplin”, “Peggy Sue Got Married”, “The Cotton Club”) musical score does come alive and actually, really enjoyed the musical score. But this is not a film to expect any rear sound or subwoofer usage.
The casino scenes which are filled with people and sounds of the casino which I was hoping to hear come alive through my speaker system, was just average. I was hoping to hear the ambient noises all around me but it seems that everything was front channel driven. There is a brief scene with the rain pouring down, which sounded quite nice from the front channels but overall, this is a dialogue driven film.
Subtitles are featured in English, English SDH, French and Spanish.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“INDECENT PROPOSAL” features commentary by Director Adrian Lyne. The commentary was done for the 2003 DVD release and Adrian sharing his thoughts on the making of the film, from the love making scenes to how Las Vegas has changed since filming the movie and interesting enough, confesses that there are many things he disliked about the movie but did enjoy the performance of Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore. But this is a commentary that is filled with long pauses at times. But Adrian Lyne is a director who is known to tell audiences on his audio commentary that he has a bad memory and will do his best to remember things. If it was this difficult ten years later, perhaps I’m glad that he didn’t do a revised commentary 16 years later.
“INDECENT PROPOSAL” was an interested film when released in 1993. These were the times when “Lifestyles and the Rich and Famous” and “Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire” was on television, “Pretty Woman” was a successful rags-to-riches film, magazines showcasing the glitz of their metropolitan cities, the glitz of big business were at its high point and people just delved into wanting to know the lifestyles of the rich and people knew the names of the top supermodels of the time.
When the film came out, critics felt the notion that the rich would take advantage with those in financial need was preposterous. But compared today where America is in hard economic times, I sometimes wonder if this film would have done better today than in 1993. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if these situations happen frequently in the world. Also, it would have been interesting if the film were adapted today would be an exact adaption focusing on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
But if there was one fault of the film, was this portrayal of a perfect couple hitting hard financial times and the character of David just going a little overboard that his wife had sex with another man. Afterall, he did agree to it but then he decided not to and it’s too late. Share some of the blame, it was a joint decision and why he takes everything out all on her is just a bit too much.
I felt that Demi Moore was just enjoyable to watch and she did a wonderful job with her character. Robert Redford was absolutely suave and for Woody Harrelson, at the time, it showed us that the actor had more to give than what we saw of him on the television show “Cheers”.
If anything, I was a bit put off by the uneven picture quality of this film. Some scenes were just downright ugly and makes me want to go back to the DVD to see if it was that bad or the Blu-ray 1080p HD Transfer just elevated the grain. “INDECENT PROPOSAL” was not the prettiest transfer I was hoping to see on Blu-ray and the lack of any special features but a commentary was a bit disappointing.
In the end, I did enjoy the film and considering the time the film was released. Was it really preposterous for a financially strapped couple to accept such an indecent proposal? Especially compared to another popular film where a multi-millionaire would hire a prostitute to be with him for a week? Probably not.
Overall, “INDECENT PROPOSAL” was an enjoyable film that probably makes better sense now that the country is in an economic recession and people watching it again will probably find how powerful of a film it is now than what it was back in 1993.
