RISKY BUSINESS - Blu-ray review

"I'm an excellent driiiiiver." -- Rain Man

Yeah, I know... wrong Tom Cruise movie. Though, I still couldn't help being reminded of the quote during that one particular scene in "Risky Business." To refresh your memory, I'm referring to the time Joel put the pedal to the metal of his father's Porsche 928 and hightailed it all over the streets of Chicago in order to ditch Guido--the killer pimp. Technically speaking, I guess that's what some might call Cruise control.

Oddly enough, 1983's "Risky Business" just happens to be one of those titles that has always escaped me. But to be honest, it wasn't my fault. For starters, the film is rated "R," and when it first made its theatrical debut roughly a quarter of a century ago, I was only six years old. The movie's abrasive language, nudity, and sexual situations aren't exactly appropriate for a youngster still with a full set of baby teeth. So I missed out at an early age, and over the years, the film just continued to evade my presence.

As fate would have it, this all changed when Warner Bros. recently decided to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of "Risky Business" by releasing a completely remastered edition on both DVD and Blu-ray. It isn't very often that a classic piece of cinema gets the honor of being reviewed by a fresh pair of eyes, and that's what happens in this case here.

Tom Cruise started out his acting career in films like "Endless Love" (1981), "Taps" (1981), "The Outsiders" (1983), and "Losin' It" (1983), but no one would argue his involvement in "Risky Business" put him on the map as an A-list superstar. It was the first time we were able to see him deliver a powerful performance forged of humor, drama, and charismatic flair.

Written and directed by Paul Brickman, "Risky Business" tells the story of Joel Goodsen (Cruise), a high school senior who often fantasizes about cars, girls and money--although not necessarily in that order. To make my point, the film opens with a dream sequence where Joel stumbles upon an incredible young woman taking a steamy shower.

"You want me to go?" Joel asks.
"No," she says. "I want you to wash my back."

Sounds like a plan to me. This is my kind of movie already.

Back to the plot, Joel belongs to Future Enterprisers, an extracurricular activity to help him sharpen up his business skills for college. He's lined up an interview with a rep from Princeton (Richard Masur), and even plans on retaking his entrance exams to increase his chances of getting into the prestigious school. It seems like Joel has everything planned out and is on the straight and narrow, so his wealthy parents (Nicholas Pryor and Janet Carroll) leave their son in charge of their mansion while they go on vacation for a week.

Big mistake.

With no supervision whatsoever, Joel does what any red-blooded male teenager would do in this kind of situation. He raids the liquor cabinet. He cranks the stereo and monkeys with all of the equalizer settings. He takes his father's Porsche out for a spin even though he was specifically told to only use his mother's station wagon. And thanks to the mastermind work of his friend Miles (Curtis Armstrong), he eventually ends up calling a hooker to come over and show him a good time. Sidenote: Armstrong is a terrific character actor, but he'll always be Booger from "Revenge of the Nerds" to me.

Lana (Rebecca De Mornay) does show Joel the time of his life, but the next morning when it's time to pay the piper so to speak, Joel discovers that he doesn't quite have enough cash on hand. Since Lana isn't stupid and refuses to take a check, Joel rushes to the bank and naïvely leaves his new friend in the house all alone. When he returns, Lana is gone--and so is his mother's extremely valuable crystal egg.

With the knickknack missing, Joel panics. How is he going to explain this one to his parents? I slept with a prostitute and paid her with the dust magnet on the mantle? No, that wouldn't fly. So Joel comes to the conclusion that his only option is to track down the sticky-fingered call girl and get it back. Of course, the plan is much easier said than done, or else we wouldn't have a movie.

"Risky Business" is widely accepted as a comedy, although personally I have a hard time classifying it as such. Certainly, this doesn't mean that there aren't any comedic moments, because there are plenty. I'm just saying it isn't the type of film that has knee slapping laughs around every corner. If anything, I'd say it's built on a foundation of dramatic suspense, as Joel finds himself stuck in a rut and whenever he tries to dig himself out, he sinks deeper and deeper. The extent of the series of unfortunate events makes you wonder how on earth he's going to climb out of this mess. You start calculating in your head how long his parents will ground him for... if they don't kill him first.

Then who can forget the familiar--no, iconic--scene in which Tom Cruise dances around the living room in his underwear and Ray-Ban sunglasses to the tune of Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock 'n Roll?" It's funny how one unrehearsed cinematic moment could become one of the most memorable and spoofed sequences in filmmaking history.

Video:
Warner Bros. delivers "Risky Business" to Blu-ray on a BD-50 (VC-1 encode) presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio. For the film being twenty-five years old, I found the picture to be in pretty decent shape. The transfer is relatively clean with minimal grain and it appears as if the engineers scrubbed away most of the imperfections when comparing the picture quality to the alternate ending. In certain darker shots filmed at night or on the poorly lit train, sometimes the black levels came out more bluish than black--and that was the worst of it. I wouldn't call this a showpiece transfer by any means, but I'll go out on a limb to say this is probably the best we'll ever get.

Audio:
The disc has audio tracks in Dolby TrueHD English 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, French 2.0, and Spanish 1.0, with optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles. I had a hard time telling the 5.1 mixes apart, as most of the sound is fed through the front and center channels. The lossless TrueHD track does top its brethren in acoustic capabilities when the soundtrack kicks in, though. Just make sure to activate the menu beforehand to select this audio option. For some strange reason, it isn't the default.

Extras:
Warner Bros. does "Risky Business" justice when it comes to the bonus features. First there's a "Video Commentary with Director Paul Brickman, Producer Jon Avnet, and Tom Cruise." This all-new reunion is the same commentary included on the 25th Anniversary DVD, except the Blu-ray features an added picture-in-picture (although a profile 1.1 player or higher is required). It's a charming one, and it was clear right from the get-go that all three participants were enjoying the stroll down memory lane. It also comes with a short "Intro to Commentary" (1:24).

There's an all-new 25th Anniversary Retrospective: "The Dream Is Always the Same: The Story of Risky Business" (29:30). This behind-the-scenes featurette isn't a bad way for fans of the film to spend half an hour, although I found the commentary to be much more entertaining.

Then we have an assortment of shorter features including: "Screen Tests" (14:33) with Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay, a "Director's Cut of the Final Scene" (7:24) with a commentary by Brickman, and a theatrical trailer (1:27).

Lastly and exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a Digital Copy of the film.

The Final Cut:
If you've been living under a rock for all of these years like I have been doing apparently, don't hesitate to add this timeless film to your Blu-ray collection. "Risky Business" showcases the breakout performance of an eventual superstar--and with his name being "Tom" how can you go wrong?