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Pretty Woman

Pretty Woman

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pure Fantasy, but delightful nonetheless!
Review: Sometimes one needs a movie that's pure fairy tale fantasy, a Cinderella story set in Hollywood Boulevard. If one bothers to think about the story of "Pretty Woman" for just a second, one would cease to believe. First of all, Julia Roberts is the most unconvincing hooker ever -- beautiful, bubbly, sensitive, and her attempts at bad grammar are cringeworthy. She's not a hooker, she's a bona-fide Hollywood star in fishnets. But I've seen this movie like 5 times, and you know what? I don't care. The scene where Julia Roberts and Richard Gere kiss on the lips for the first time still makes me swoon, and the ending still makes me cry. Maybe it's the appealing chemistry of the two stars. They definitely have "it." Or maybe it's Gary Marshall's direction, which adds so much starry-eyed romance to the story that you believe too. Whatever it is, I just watched the movie again this afternoon and I still cried.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: New spin on an old theme
Review: Pretty Woman is a popular and very familiar movie meant for a popular audience, the main attraction being the charisma of its two box-office buffos, Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.

I always feel a certain sense of interest when anticipating a Richard Gere film. I know that in some way he will be slick and sleazy (e.g., Breathless (1983), Internal Affairs (1990), etc.) and I can get involved in his contrary nature. In other words, he won't bore me with a one-dimensional persona. Here however he is thoughtful, kind, considerate, intelligent--a non-sleazy, gray-suited business man with a wise and fatherly manner. Perhaps this is Gere's persona for his middle years...

In the case of Julia Roberts, not only is she nice to look at, she is interesting to look at. It is no accident that her face is one of the silver screen's dominate images from the nineties. She has a powerfully expression nature and can assume a role as easily as one puts on a coat. She is striking physically, the huge mouth, the delicate nose, the long limbs... She is also the quintessence of a woman who can appear ordinary or beautiful according to circumstances. I have seen her in two PBS productions of Nature. (Yes, she is a Hollywood star with compassion, or at least one who loves animals.) In one she is in Borneo with orangutans, and in the other in Mongolia with the descendants of Genghis Khan and the wild horses. In both cases she throws herself into the dirt and discomfort like a trooper without a hint of the glamour she left thousands of miles behind. She charms both the children of the nomads and the orangutans. In fact, one randy orangutan becomes so smitten with her that he starts to put the moves on, and has to be restrained! In other words she has an equalitarian, democratic, down-to-earth nature which sits well with a popular audience. She has made so many movies lately (hurriedly as her youth is expiring: she is now over thirty, the age of death for most Hollywood actresses) that I cannot keep up with them, so many that her ranking among the great stars of the screen is still up for grabs as we evaluate her many performances.

Will her role in Pretty Woman help? Although I found it difficult to swallow her fake bad grammar, the phony lack of sophistication, and the predictability of her golden heart, I thought it marginally plausible that such a striking woman COULD in some strange parallel universe be reduced to hooking in Hollywood. And I thought she did a creditable job by bringing some originality to a well-worn role. Certainly I believed in Julia Roberts, the whore, as much as I did in Elisabeth Shue, the whore (from Leaving Las Vegas (1995)). Had Roberts been portrayed as a drug addict--which of course Hollywood made a stringent point of NOT doing, since they needed Middle America to identify with her in order to sell tickets--I might have bought it. Most American prostitutes are drug addicts. That's how most of them they got enslaved into the business in the first place.

So what we have here is a variation on an old Hollywood fantasy: poor, underclass girl, through her natural beauty, lovable nature and good common sense wins the heart of a man of considerable means, thus upgrading her social and economic status, etc. In others words, this is a woman's fantasy-fulfillment movie all the way. The real question to be asked, though, is how did the chemistry between the two stars work? Do Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn or Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan have anything to be jealous about? I think not, but judging from the box office success and the fact that they were paired again in Runaway Bride (1999), I am probably wrong. But see it and judge for yourself. Despite the cliché situation, this is more than a confectioner's diversion because of what it implies, and what we can learn, about the American psyche, circa 1990.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The little differences make it even better
Review: The DVD version only enhances this wonderfully simple but lovable movie. The extra footage adds just that little extra to an already extremely enjoyable movie. Make sure that you also listen to Garry Marshall in the director's comments. They are very worthwile and very funny. Richard Gere & Julia Roberts are perfectly matched in the enchanting comedy, but the show is stolen by the brilliant support role played by Hector Elizondo(the part kick started his career), he rounds the cast off perfectly. The bad guy is well played by Jason Alexander (pre George/Seinfeld days), he plays the Wall Street, male dominating pig with great aplomb. All in all an extremely plesant movie that is easy to watch over & over again. The DVD version just freshens the experience.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Pretty Boring
Review: For ten years I avoided this until now-- I should have waited. A romantic comedy without the romance or laughs. I am not a big Roberts fan, and she is terrible here. Leave it to Hollywood in the era of AIDS and STDs to make prostitution seem glamorous, and how a hooker with a heart of gold can change one of those jerk billionaires who is ruining it for the rest of us. So much of the film took place in the hotel suite, I thought I was watching some kind of nightmarish stage play. You may not like this review, but I sure did not like this film.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: YAWN
Review: Why waste money on Sominex when you can watch Richard Gere (finalist for most uninteresting actor this century) and Julia Roberts (the most convincing role of her career, a prostitute) play two characters whom you will care absolutely NOTHING about, fall in "love" (though they don't realize it until they've spent a week with each other and Gere has spent a fortune on her - who says romance is dead?). The critics who compared this with "Pygmalion" need a catscan . . George Bernard Shaw probably did somersaults in his grave. Gere is just basically as smug and arrogant as all his characters come across (NOT because he's like that in real life - perish the thought) and Roberts is at nasal perfection . . so American audiences should absolutely eat it up.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Prostitute finds true love and happiness
Review: Julia Roberts is catapulted to stardom with her Oscar-nominated portrayal of prostitute with a heart of gold, who falls for wealthy "John" (played by Richard Gere). Her initial one-night-trick turns into much more time spent with Gere, who, of course ends up marrying the charming Roberts. -- My favorite scene is where Roberts is turned away as "undesirable customer" at a posh fashion shop, but the rude shop clerk is put in her place by an angry Gere. This is a sweet modern day Cinderella story, you will not be disappointed!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: PRETTY EXCELLENT!
Review: This modern day Cinderella story is simply a timeless classic. Charming in its story and likewise the two leading stars this is a surprisingly touching old fashioned comedy. The timing is just right throughout the film and all the players are excellent. There is great chemistry between Richard Gere and Julia Roberts in roles that seemingly were tailor made for them. Truly wonderful stuff!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Modern Fairytale? PUH-LEEEEZE
Review: I'll never understand all the praise for a movie who's basic premise seems to be as follows:

A) All women are prostitutes at heart B) All women need to be rescued by rich men

Sounds pretty shallow to me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: VERY ENTERTAINING FILM
Review: A brillant, feel good, romantic comedy, featuring Richard Gere as a very handsome & rich successful businessman. Julia Roberts plays the prostitute he picks up & he makes her an offer that she can`t resist, which entails her being his plaything and he also wants her to partner him when he has business functions, & in return he offers to pay her a vast amount of money to stay with him for the week. she ends up staying longer then that as they fall in love. The film has a magical, cinderella style ending. The sound track includes, of course the title of the film "Pretty Woman" & "It Must Have Been Love" Its wonderfully lighthearted with lots of humour & great chemistry between the 2 stars. Its sheer ecapism.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Charming and Romantic Flick!
Review: In Pretty Woman, the plot sounds just down-right dirty, but surprisingly it isn't! In this very likable flick about a "call-girl" (woderfully done by Roberts) who meets a wealthy and handsome business man, you've got you're typical Cinderella tale, but better! Of course you've probably seen something like this before, but never with as much style and superb acting. Pretty Woman is funny, touching, and overall a good movie.


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