Risky Business [M]

Joel is the perfect son: level-headed, smart, cautious, and determined to make the best future for himself that he can by going to Princeton to major in business. But Joel’s perfect and stress-free life is violently shaken when his parents go away for a week and, in an attempt to have him let loose, a friend calls a hooker to show Joel a good time. When Joel is unable to pay the hooker, she steals a very expensive egg of his mothers and, by means of trying to get it back, Joel and his friends soon find themselves waist deep in debt and risks of all kinds. Unless Joel can get lots of money together fast, his folks may not have a house to come back to. 

I really only wanted to watch this movie for that iconic scene where Tom Cruise is dancing around in his underwear to Old Time Rock and Roll. I mean that’s a classic scene! But aside from that little funny and pervy delight, I found Risky Business to be one of those movies that I’m in two minds about. I don’t really know whether I liked it or not. 

Joel is the perfect son: level-headed, smart, cautious, and determined to make the best future for himself that he can by going to Princeton to major in business. But Joel’s perfect and stress-free life is violently shaken when his parents go away for a week and, in an attempt to have him let loose, a friend calls a hooker to show Joel a good time. When Joel is unable to pay the hooker, she steals a very expensive egg of his mothers and, by means of trying to get it back, Joel and his friends soon find themselves waist deep in debt and risks of all kinds. Unless Joel can get lots of money together fast, his folks may not have a house to come back to. 

On the one hand, the story is good: all about taking chances, being impulsive, and just mixing things up once in a while. Much of the film’s comedy comes in the form of schadenfreude, the audience laughing at Joel’s misfortunes, but then it walks down an interesting road by which our protagonist grows and becomes more of a tangible character. There’s also some good irony that creeps into the mix, mainly in the repeated mantra of Joel’s fried Miles and than a more subtle version of that mantra being spoken by his dad at the end. 

On the other hand, the movie was very shaky, and I mean everything about it. The characters were off and uncertain, so we can’t really applaud anyone for their performances, the story seemed to be doing that dance you do when you’re at the beach just trying to get into the cold water; it was very in out in out, this that this that. I wasn’t so jazzed about that. But then the aforementioned comedic moments are good enough to take the mind off the film’s uncertainty and shakiness, so that’s something. 

Starring Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay, Joe Pantoliano, Richard Masur, Bronson Pinchot, Curtis Armstrong, Nicholas Pryor, and Janet Carroll, Risky Business is an all right movie that’s filled with risks, romance, comedy, and a bit of action. At the end of the day though, I’m quite content with having only seen it once.