This movie was based on a one-act play, David Mamet’s “Sexual Perversity in Chicago,” as expanded into a full-length screenplay by former SNL cast member Tim Kazurinsky. At its essence, it remained essentially a four-character play about the rise and fall of a relationship, and the effect of that relationship upon the couple’s best friends. The friends were essentially jealous, not because the couple found a love missing in the friends’ life, but because the obsessive nature of that new love totally dominated the lovers’ time, leaving the friends feeling that they had lost the people closest to them.
Demi Moore was absolutely radiant in the romantic lead. Demi was seen here before she began all of the fanatical fitness routines and plastic surgery, and I don’t think I’m alone in saying that she was almost perfect before the changes. Her beautiful face, her raspy voice, and her femininity made her a true star. The performances in romantic comedies don’t earn much respect from the Academy, but not everybody does them well, and Demi did this one very well, indeed.
Chicago itself is an important character in the film. If you love and miss old-time ChiTown, as I do, you’ll just love all the sights and sounds of the city: the familiar neighborhood watering holes; the gloveless softball games with the unique giant ball; the familiar accents; the approaching trains barely visible in the snow.
And no person is more perfectly representative of Chicago than Jim Belushi, who played a coarse, politically incorrect, life-embracing party animal. Belushi and Elizabeth Perkins stole the show as the cynical, wisecracking friends.
Overall, I found the film a pleasant way to pass the time.
Tomato Meter: 65%
Popcorn Meter: 60%
IMDb: 6.2
TRIVIA: The movie title was originally supposed to be Sexual Perversity in Chicago, like the play, but the three major TV networks wouldn’t accept the trailer ads for the film, so a last minute title change resulted in “About Last Night … ”
TRIVIA: This movie was remade and updated about 30 years later, with a twist: the four leads were Black. I have not seen the remake.
Agreed, Moore, Perkins and Belushi were great, and even Lowe was bearable for once.
Demi was incredibly good looking in ‘a few good men’, with no glamour but her face framed by hats and severe hair-dos….
Also, I though Demi was the second-best thing acting-wise about A Few Good Men (next to Jack, of course). Cruise was incredibly smarmy and quite unbelievable as an allegedly genius lawyer who has never actually tried a case (to be fair, some of the fault for this may have been Sorkin’s writing).
This was actually a fine film. Plus, Demi looked great in this. Rob Lowe has his moments as an actor. I widely recommend “Bad Influence”.
I have enjoyed Lowes’ trajectory from younger heart throb to playing parodies of himself in movies such as Wayne’s World and Austin Powers
Belushi to Lowe: “You know what your problem is? Your face. Come on, you’re too good-looking. Girls go out with you and get nervous. They feel dumpy, they don’t want to compete. They want a guy like… like me. A guy who’ll make them look good. A basic Neanderthal type. The swarthy type. A man’s man.
Both Moore and Lowe really impressed me in Andrew McCarthy’s documentary about the Brat Pack, they seem to have placed their fame into at least a bit of perspective, and somewhere along the way Lowe seemed to learn that he was a total douche, and he learned some humility.
I enjoyed that documentary a lot, but I felt there was a certain subtext through it all that the biggest douche of all was McCarthy, and a number of the others who were interviewed were saying-it-without-saying it.