Rating: 
Summary: "Pretty" Woman
Review: What is it that has enabled Pretty Woman to be renowned as a modern-day fairy tale? Fairy tales usually provide a substantial moral that leave both children and adults with warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Was the moral of Pretty Woman that all it takes is some expensive clothes to confer respectability? In all fairness, Pretty Woman does play upon the idealistic feelings of its viewers. A "rags to riches" story, Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) gets to live out the ultimate fantasy in which she is able to change a man into her own "Prince Charming." And of course, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere), playing a cold businessman, obliges her. In an instance, Vivian is transformed into the world's most wholesome prostitute (isn't that a double negative?). Never mind that she outrightly states that she'll screw anyone who'll pay. Vivian is "tall, cute and clean" - completely opposite to the sickly-looking hookers you really see on a neighborhood corner nearest you. The cheerful depiction of prostitution in this film is absolutely disgusting, and oh yeah, nothing short of a fairy tale.
In addition, why is the message "the clothes make the man" continually being sent to viewers? This idea may hold true during a job interview, however, the idea is not only demoralizing, but also wins the prize for being most shallow. In the film Trading Places, Eddie Murphy plays a homeless man who not only gains respect through his suit and tie, but also by exuding an intelligent and charismatic style. This is what enables him to successfully fool others in thinking he is a rich businessman. All Vivian manages to promote with her spiffy clothes is the idea that men will forever and always be surveyors and that she is trapped in a panopticon. What a shame...I'm trapped in a male-dominated society where bums get to be businessmen and prostitutes get to be "pretty women."
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Woman?
Review: 'Pretty Woman' is about a prostitute named Vivian, played by Julia Roberts, that finds herself in the employment of a very rich man named Edward, played by Richard Gere, that spends most of his time working. Vivian does her thing and talks Edward into hiring her for the week for the amount of $3000. In order for her to do her job, she must go shopping for some new clothes. She encounters the first signs of prejudice when the store clerk will not wait on her. On her way back up to the hotel room the hotel manager stops her and to her surprise, he helps her in every way he can. As the film progresses, Vivian starts to fall in love with Edward. When Edward's lawyer discovers Vivian's true identity, he tries to attack her, but Edward intervenes. Vivian then realizes that she could never belong in Edward's world. After the week is over, Edward gives Vivian her pay. She goes home and starts to pack. She wants to go back to school and make something of her life, but at the same time she is missing Edward. Just before she is ready to leave, Edward pulls up in a while limo and climbs the fire escape, just like in one of Vivian's dreams. The film is entertaining and is the ultimate fairy tale come true, but what does this film say to it's young viewer's. The film implies a that a woman, in order to be 'pretty,' must be thin, young, and provocative. I wander what the ratings of this film would have been if a heavy-set, woman wearing no make up was cast as the leading role. An intriguing look into Hollywood film.
Rating: 
Summary: "What's Your Dream"
Review: Take a classic musical like My Fair Lady, and take out the music. Then take Cinderella and put it into the modern world. Those two combinations make this perfect Gary Marshall film. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere are one of the best onscreen couples in the history of film. The movie really makes you feel for the characters. After the film, it is almost like you know Vivian. Comedy is everywhere as well as romance. All the performances are wonderful and the plot really grabs you. This is a definate film for anyone. See it.
Rating:
Summary: Richard Gere and Julia Roberts are brilliant in Pretty Woman
Review: Garry Marshall directs this witty romantic comedy at Buena Vista Studio in this 119 minute Cinderella story. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere in a fantastic performance in the terrific romantic fairy tale, Pretty Woman. Ed Lewis (Gere) is a very successful and wealthy businessman who gets lost on Hollywood Blvd and stops and asks Viv', a prostitute, for directions. She shows him to his hotel for a price. Ed then hires Viv's company for a week as an escort for some business events. Ed, who is a charming, and handsome businessman, provides her with a penthouse suite, a visit to the opera, and a fabulous wardrobe. Ed frees Viv from working the streets when he falls in love with her.
Rating:
Summary: Finally Love
Review: In the 1990 classic Pretty Woman starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere you cannot find a more unlikely pare to fall in love. There is Edward the millionaire executive who is down on his love, then there is Vivian the lady who comes to Hollywoood to chase a love and ends up becoming a hooker for a living. Vivian is outspoken and very untactful. Edward has class and manners and knows good table manners. When edward hires Miss Vivian to accompany him on a week business trip he had in Hollywood he never thought he would fall in love and grow to need her. Vivian only accepted the job for the money he was paying her to be his date on several business dinners and parties. Vivian changes Edwards view on life and he starts to be more free spirited and outgoing. Vivian realizes money is not everything and decides to get more out of life. When it is time for Vivian to leave Edwards life the two unlikely people have a hard time dealing with the consequesces of their actions. Pretty Woman is an amazing love story that anybody men or women are sure to enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: It Is a Fairy Tale - And it has a moral
Review: There seems to be two schools of thought regarding this movie. There are those who are unable to see past Julia's profession, and all it might entail, and there are those who see how someone who clearly had to make a bad choice one day realized it, and along the way helped someone else realize the bad choices they had made. It's all a charming fairy tale that I have watched over and over again. Julia Roberts does play a prostitute. However, as the movie unfolds we find out why. Further, we also find that Julia is, as she must be, human, and has the same core values that most of us have. Richard Gere helps her realize during their discussions that she made a poor choice, and eventually Julia realizes that she can be and wants to be more than she is. During Julia's journey of discovery she also makes Richard Gere question the path in life that he has chosen. Richard buys companies, takes them apart, and sells the pieces for more than he paid for them. While it has made Richard a very wealthy man, Julia questions the value that Richard brings to the world. As Julia realizes that she wants more self-fulfillment in her life, Richard realizes that he wants to be constructive instead of destructive. Julia's character could have been played in an exploitive way that demeaned her character, and her character's profession. Instead, I thought the subject was handled sensitively and well. Julia several times could have behaved just as Richard would have expected someone in her profession, and yet, she showed that she had pride and values, and she stuck to them, even to her detriment. Ultimately Richard Gere, and the audience, comes to admire Julia Roberts as a strong woman with an incredible will. In addition to Julia Roberts and Richard Gere is an outstanding supporting cast, including Laura San Giacomo as Julia's friend and roommate, and who gives Julia no end of despair in her choices. Hector Elizondo plays Barney Thompson, the hotel manager, and he makes the role and steals every scene in which he appears. Jason Alexander plays a rather despicable right hand man to Richard Gere, calloused, ruthless and crude. Ralph Bellamy is the head of a business that Richard Gere is attempting to take over, and who gives Richard the best compliment in the entire film, marking a turning point in Richard Gere's attitude about what he does. There is a long list of other actors that made so many of the scenes in this movie funny and sometimes poignant. Better you should watch this movie and find out for yourself. This movie is one of Richard Gere and Julia Robert's best films. We have both the video tape and the DVD, and have watched both multiple times, and will likely watch the DVD many more times. Funny and often touching, this is a wonderful film for adults with a soft spot in their hearts for underdogs and believing that good things happen to good people.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of Fear and Trembling
Review: Blessed was the day, the day that Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) chose to sell her flesh for coin. Blessed was the day, the day, that after having sold her flesh to countless sinners, Vivian Ward met a really good looking and wealthy sinner named Edward Lewis (Richard Gere). Blessed was Edward Lewis, the ruthless tycoon who performed leverage buyouts of all his rival's companies beginning with his hated father's but not ending there. Blessed was the leverage buyout, an exclusive and cutthroat mode of business operations in which private equity firms specialized in the high-risk process of accumulating capital from very wealthy investors and subsequently using it to buy failing companies and then selling off their parts for gains of up to 25% or, for staggering losses of equal or greater proportion. Blessed was the metaphor of the leveraged buyout since blessed Edward Lewis, used his massive accumulation of capital to "buy out" blessed Vivian Ward's body for the night. Blessed was Philip Stuckey (Jason Alexander), Edward's heinous attorney, whose crass request and subsequent forceful demands for Vivian's flesh-selling services aptly contrasted Edward's more gentlemanly approach thus making him look like a sweet guy instead of a villain for subjecting Vivian's flesh to a leveraged buyout. Blessed was the fact that this film made flesh selling actually look pretty cool since it could land a gal in a pretty nice hotel with a wealthy, handsome, but somewhat morose and deeply misunderstood leverage buyout tycoon. Blessed was flesh selling which might be my next career if I get canned from my completely un-cinematic job for authoring documents such as this one. Blessed was the way that Edward didn't really save Vivian from the streets since, once it looked like their brief affair was over, she pretty much opted out of that lifestyle anyway. Blessed was the fact that there wasn't a pimp in the film to slap her around and say, "You think you're getting out of this racket just like that? Get out there and go make me some more money!" Blessed was the fact that flesh selling had not ravaged Vivian's body nor subjected her to countless potentially lethal forms of sect-chew-Ali transmitted ills. Blessed was the fact that Vivian really had more of the intelligence and personality that suited her to garden parties than to a life of flesh selling on the streets. Blessed was the way that Vivian transformed Edward from a morose and heartless destroyer of other people's livelihood into a saint who would gladly fork over some investment capital to try to make a failing business succeed. Blessed was the fact that this capitalized on the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold stereotype that's been with us since biblical times. Blessed was the fact that this film ended. Blessed was the fact that I never saw it again. Blessed was the fact that my students in Taiwan really liked it and asked me what I thought of it. Blessed was the fact that I said, "Well, I think it teaches girls that hooking is a pretty viable career choice."
Rating:
Summary: Sweet romantic rags to riches comedy
Review: A sweet rags to riches romantic comedy. Julia plays Vivian who shows Edward (Gere) how to really enjoy life. He ends up falling in love with Vivian, and does everything he can to make her the proper woman. Pretty Woman is a sweet story.
Rating: 
Summary: morally bankrupt
Review: Who could possibly like a movie whose lesson is: "happiness is having some guy give you free access to his credit cards"? Everyone complains about the lack of family values on TV, but what message could be worse than "shopping is happiness, and love is having someone pay you to be with them"? yuck
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Movie
Review: Does this movie glorify being a hooker? That's what Roseanne thinks. But who cares what she thinks anyway! This is a great movie, and even though it does kinda sorta glorify being a hooker (with the hopes of falling in love with a rich guy), you can pretty much say that every movie glorfies something that shouldn't be glorified. Julia plays Vivianne, a relatively inexperienced hooker. Right away she meets Edward (Gere), who is rather coy around Vivianne, but invites her up to his room anyway. This leads to a week long agreement that she will be his arm piece for social functions and at the end of the week, she'll get $3,000 big ones. She has rules to avoid attachment, but can Vivianne resist this hunky rich guy who (even though he says he isn't) is sweeping her off her feet? This movie is truly wonderful. Roberts innocence shines through her character. There are lots of great one-liners in this movie, some true laugh out loud moments. Don't let the premise scare you away... it's much tamer and sweeter than alot of people make it out to be. So see this movie. It's cute, funny, sweet, and genuine-- a combination that's hard to find in any movie.
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