Rating: 
Summary: Who knew Burt had it in him??? Or Marky MArk?
Review: This is a surprisingly good film about a group of very wounded people who find their places in the world of adult films. It's an honest, vulnerable look into the psyche of people who could make this profession their choice. Mark Walhberg delivers a great performance as a has-been performer, forced into some degrading situations. Burt is outstanding as the patriarch of the group. Disturbing, but well done.
Rating: 
Summary: Why don't you feast on that?
Review: Boogie Nights is a very stylish and funny film that is sure to please movie fans. While its slightly subtle and offbeat humor may be lost on some viewers, Boogie Nights is a hilarious movie. The film is centered around the rise and fall of adult film star Dirk Diggler (played by Mark Wahlberg). Diggler starts out as a polite, bright-eyed kid but is slowly corrupted by life in the fast lane. Wahlberg gives a great performance as the dopey Diggler, whose words aren't necessarily meant to be funny yet often come off as hilarious. The supporting cast also does an excellent job in this film. John C. Reilly plays Diggler pal and fellow adult film star Reed Rothchild to perfection. Reilly is funny throughout the movie, but stands out particularly in a scene where he is being interviewed about the impact of movie violence on viewers. Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, Don Cheadle, William H. Macy, and Philip Seymour Hoffman also deliver very strong supporting performances. It's hard to explain what makes Boogie Nights such an entertaining movie. The humor in the dialogue is often quite subtle, but is nevertheless very effective. The characters are colorful and really seem believable despite their sometimes odd behavior and personalities. Director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson did a great job with this film. Viewers are sure to feel empathetic towards the characters as they struggle and yet will likely find themselves laughing at just how bad and weird things get at times. The scene that best sums up Boogie Nights as a whole occurs when Diggler, Rothchild, and friend Todd Parker find themselves in the home of an oddball drug addict trying to sell him some bad dope. The use of music and camerawork in this scene really creates a feeling of tension, yet viewers will probably be tempted to laugh at some of the various events of the scene. I won't say exactly what happens, but the entire sequence shows how Boogie Nights is a dichotomy of the laughable and the tragic. In short, Boogie Nights is a very entertaining and memorable film. Wahlberg's portrayal of Dirk Diggler is top notch and the other actors also do excellent work in the film. Boogie Nights seems to get better with each subsequent viewing and I highly recommend the movie to fans of subtle and slightly dark humor.
Rating: 
Summary: dirk diggler
Review: this is the Mark Wahlberg, shows his you know, how do you do at the end movie. Reynolds is great as the porn director. Graham is hot and in flames. though some moments are very sick and unwatchable. but it has its powerful moments
Rating:
Summary: THE film of the 90s
Review: I saw this not knowing what to expect because of the subject matter. What I saw is possibly one of the most original, funny, violent and sexy movies ever. Mark Wahlberg really can act!!!!! Boogie Nights is EVERYTHING Pulp Fiction TRIED to be. I think Quentin Tarantino should take a leaf out of PTA's book. This is master film-making. I personally love how the end of the 70s and beginning of the 80s is filmed - pure perfection, charting the change in music from disco to rock, and the change in the movie industry from film to videotape. I recommend this to anyone!!!
Rating:
Summary: The movie is still great, but...
Review: This movie is as wonderful as ever, but I'm dissapointed in the "special edition" DVD. The commentary consists mostly of PTA talking about wanting to talk about how to talk about movies, but somehow never really getting around to talking very much about ~this~ movie, in terms of theme or character. Granted, that is my own quirky interest in commentaries as I am not a film maker, so someone in the business might find what he has to say quite fascinating. Even more annoying though is that Whalberg literally, and I mean literally, yawns and grunts his way through his literally phoned in commentary. He also constantly complains that he's got to leave for the airport or something, as if in such great demand that he can't be bothered to discuss his work with the likes of us. Geez, you'd think that knowing this will be listened to for many years, by many many people, he could have contstrained himself and pulled it together for the short time it took to do the commentary, or made an appointment for a different day! Juliann Moore is delightful (when she's allowed to choose what she wants to say),as is John C. Reilly, and so I will give three stars for that.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best films of the nineties...
Review: Incredible movie. About porn but you will love the characters. Virtuoso filmmaking. Anderson's best film. Julianne Moore should have gotten an oscar. Cheadle is the man. This is a film worth buying. Made me want to be a filmmaker/screenwriter.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor Directed Movie
Review: I thought this movie was about disco, but it was all about the porn business. Come on! You got to be kidding! Good actors and actresses, but after a while I got sick of it and returned it. When a better movie comes along, call me.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, a true gem of a film
Review: Loosely based on the life and times of late porn king John Holmes, Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights is a true gem of a film. Anderson weaves the classic tale of a rise and fall of a star, but puts a twist on it by placing the setting in the pornographic film industry during the 70's. Mark Wahlberg plays busboy Eddie Adams who is discovered by director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds in an Oscar nominated role) and begins to build quite a career and makes a great life for himself; until (naturally) it all comes crashing down. Anderson proves once again (just as he did in his previous film Hard 8) that he can weave an emotionally rich story with extremely well developed characters that we can releate to one way or the other, and despite the film's setting Boogie Nights comes out a real winner, and a true gem of a film. The rest of the fantastic cast includes Julianne Moore (in her Oscar nominated role), Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Thomas Jane, Ricky Jay, Heather Graham, Luis Guzman, Philip Baker Hall, William H. Macy, and the late Robert Ridgely. All in all, Boogie Nights is a modern day classic that finds a writer/director at his best, and was also a star making vehicle for Wahlberg.
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable, mesmerizing film
Review: A film that is epic in its ambition and story, Boogie Nights chronicles-through the eyes of a young pornography phenomenon-the events of the adult film industry from its success in the late 1970s to its gradual decay in the early 1980s when pornography began to be recorded on video cassette instead of film. The story is gripping, riveting, powerful, dark, and filled with much pathos and humor. Told realistically and in great visual flair by talented writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (who before making this film wrote and directed Hard Eight) with a pitch-perfect cast and brilliant writing, this film is a demanding viewing. The movie revolves around a cacophony of characters (most of whom are introduced in an amazing opening scene that is one long, kinetic tracking shot) who are, in one way or another, involved in the adult film industry. The top director of porn films, Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), meets a young busboy named Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) at a San Fernando Valley nightclub called "Hot Traxx". Jack learns that Eddie has an unusually large sex organ and recruits Eddie into his films, making him a porn-movie phenomenon with the new name of "Dirk Diggler". Dirk's rise to fame and success is a bit sudden, however, and he gets in way over his head in excessive sex, drugs, money and violence as a result. The large cast of colorful characters (who are all played magnificently by many great, versatile actors of today) are delineated both realistically and as caricatures (much like the characters of Robert Altman's 1975 masterpiece Nashville about country-western singers). Luis Guzman plays Maurice T. Rodriguez who manages "Hot Traxx" and aspires to be in Jack's films. John C. Reilly portrays the uninhibited and goofy Reed Rothchild who plays in Jack's films and becomes Dirk's best friend. Heather Graham plays Rollergirl, a young star of many of Jack's movie's who never takes off her roller-skates. Ricky Jay performs as Jack's cinematographer, Kurt Longjohn, and Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Scotty J., a homosexual who works the sound of Jack's films and who believes that Dirk is in love with him (even though Dirk is straight). Floyd Gondolli (Philip Baker Hall) is the president of the adult film industry who informs Jack that pornography's future lies in videotape. Little Bill (William H. Macy) is the frustrated assistant director for Jack whose wife (Nina Hartley) is constantly having affairs with other men. Buck Swope (Don Cheadle) is an aspiring hi-fi salesman and an actor for Jack's movies who is always trying to discover the right "look" for himself. There is a throng of other characters, but there is only so much that one can write in these reviews. The more important characters of Boogie Nights are the complex Dirk Diggler, Jack Horner, and Amber Waves (Julianne Moore). Wahlberg is first-rate as Dirk, the young stud who reaches fame as a porn-star sensation who then faces a major downfall. Moore plays with immense aptitude the challenging role of Amber Waves, the drug-addicted veteran of Jack's movies who acts as Dirk's surrogate mother because she cannot have custody of her son. And Reynolds, as the cooler-than-ice director who acts as a father figure for Dirk and who wants to make pornography movies that are of artistic substance, plays the role of Horner with vigor, sincerity, clarity and precision, delivering one of his best performances. Reynolds does as much as he can with his seasoned abilities. The acting is all-around, in a word, astonishing. The writer and director of the film, young Paul Thomas Anderson, richly textures Boogie Nights with characters that are extraordinarily real, strikingly realistic dialogue, and hugely flamboyant visuals that all compliment the successfully depicted 70s and 80s look of this film. Every scene is made with masterful camerawork and editing (the cinematography was by Robert Elswit and the film editing was by Dylan Tichenor), and a significant number of scenes are inspired by many old movies (including Goodfellas, Raging Bull, I Am Cuba, A Star is Born, La Haine, some of Jonathan Demme's films, and many others). Another aspect of the film that is worthy of acclaim is Michael Penn's score, which has a sad carnival and funereal sound (Penn's score is not the only music in the film, for the soundtrack to Boogie Nights also contains hip 1970s and 1980s songs galore). Overall, Anderson makes as much as he can of every scene. Boogie Nights, which is one of the most vastly underrated films of 1997, is a remarkable and mesmerizing achievement in every respect. Hopefully Anderson will be able to keep up with his inspired filmmaking and continue to make films as well crafted, well acted, and well written as this one. Some will not care for the more shocking and unpleasant scenes of the film, however that certainly does not mean that this film isn't worthwhile. Hands down, Boogie Nights is a hit.
Rating:
Summary: Love/Hate
Review: Without a doubt, one of my top ten favourite movies of the 90's, and a big part of that is the casting. What Burt Reynolds had in mind with his boycotting of the film prior to the premiere, I have no idea, but he should get down on his hands and knees and thank P.T. Anderson for choosing him to anchor this character-driven masterpiece. Burt, along with Julianne Moore (always great), Mark Wahlberg, Luis Guzman (my fave character actor these days), Don Cheadle, and William H. Macy make up the nucleus of one of the best ensemble casts of recent memory, and propel the already brilliant material into cinematic history. The subject matter turned a lot of people off, but you have to look past your peripheral vision, and admire the superb soundtrack, editing, production, and direction--a phenomenal movie on all counts, even without the bonus material. Anderson may be borrowing heavily from other influences such as Robert Altman and Martin Scorcese, but somehow he's come out with a unique voice of his own. Much better than the subsequent bore, "Magnolia".
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