Risky Business (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Finally, Risky Business gets the treatment it deserves. Awesome transfer and mastered audio with an array of cool special features. I hope Criterion releases more iconic titles from the 80s like they did with The Breakfast Club, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and After Hours. The packaging is great and the included poster is welcome addition. I also appreciate that Criterion included the director’s cut and the original theatrical release all supervised and approved by director Paul Brickman and producer Jon Avnet. I wish there was an isolated score- because the music by Tangerine Dream makes this movie! Great Work Criterion Collection- Fan Approved!

Great film with plenty of supplements to enhance your viewing pleasure. This movie made stars of Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. He was never more winning, and she was never hotter. An excellent 80s flashback whenever you're in the mood!

Excellent release all around BUT Panasonic 4K UHD player owners beware, both the HDR10 and Dolby Vision versions of the movie on the 4K disc have an annoying flicker between different scenes and even within a scene, where it’s like the HDR/DV layer stops working for a bit before it resumes. Super annoying and basically destroys the point of the more expensive 4K UHD HDR version, forcing a Panasonic player owner to be stuck with either the regular BD or to turn off all HDR and stick with just the 4K resolution. Sigh.

Risky Business is the smart and sexy teen comedy that made a bona fide star of Tom Cruise. In the 1980s, the decade when Hollywood released a teen comedy nearly every week, Risky Business rose above the others to capture Reagan-era capitalism in a tale of young man’s encounter with an entrepreneurial prostitute.Cruise (Jerry Maguire) stars as Joel Goodson, a strait-laced, above-average high school student in an affluent suburb of Chicago, whose parents take a brief vacation and leave him home alone. It’s a busy time in Joel’s life. He is facing college board exams, an interview with a Princeton admissions officer, and finals at school.Learning that Joel’s parents are away for a few days, his friends try to talk him into moving out of his comfort zone, taking chances, and focusing on more than college. Sometimes, they tell him, in colorful language, you just have to shrug your shoulders and take risks. Meanwhile, Joel’s been having erotic dreams of a naked woman beckoning to him from a steamy shower, and his hormones are on full thrust.Instigated by his friends, Joel gets himself into an escalating series of troubles when he calls a number in a sex magazine and young hooker Lana (Rebecca De Mornay, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) moves into his house. He gets involved with Lana’s pimp (Joe Pantoliano, Bound), his mother’s expensive Steuben egg is stolen, his father’s Porsche winds up in Lake Michigan, and he misses two crucial finals.As a member of the Future Enterprisers club at school, Joel looks forward to pointers for reaching his goal of majoring in business. The opportunity to make money comes sooner than he expects. Lana suggests there would be big bucks in matching up Joel’s friends with hers. Horny, affluent boys are quite willing to spend for the services of a professional. Soon, the family home becomes a brothel with no end of enthusiastic customers lining up. At one party, the Princeton admissions rep (Richar Masur, Rent-A-Cop) shows up and interviews Joel while Lana argues, holding a mattress, that she needs the room. The venture soon garners several thousands of dollars, but there are consequences ahead.Risky Business owes a lot to The Graduate in its tale of a young man getting involved with a far more worldly woman. Cruise conveys innocence and vulnerability but also generates sexual energy, making him a perfect fit as Joel. He’s particularly adept at conveying Joel’s feelings with looks and reactions. He doesn’t need a slew of words to make the point. And he’s helped by writer-director Paul Brickman’s dialogue, which is spare and very funny. The movie leans into satire without sacrificing laughs.Lana is essentially the “hooker with a heart of gold,” but De Mornay makes her more than a cliche. Smart, recognizing an opportunity and unafraid to act on it, Lana would be a great contestant on Shark Tank with her persuasive manner, beauty, charm, and an original idea for making money if her business were legitimate. Her sensual scenes with Cruise definitely generate heat, and the role never takes her into tired, familiar territory.The chemistry between Cruise and De Mornay is a major reason the film works so well. The two actors click when they’re together on screen. Though a temporary brothel that lets adolescent boys realize their fantasies is far-fetched, Brickman works the situation without burlesquing it or making it an Animal House type of picture. Risky Business is surprisingly reserved and well structured, establishing a kind of comic suspense as we wonder how Joel will extricate himself from his predicament before his parents get home.Both the director’s cut and theatrical release versions of Risky Business are included on the R-rated Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection. There is also a 2-Disc edition containing both 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray discs. On the 2-Disc edition, the 4K disc is presented in Dolby Vision HDR.Bonus materials are the same for both editions and include a commentary, interviews, screen tests, featurette, trailer, and booklet.Risky Business is slow getting into the main plot. The film hasn’t aged well, and the improbability of the plot stands out more now than maybe back in 1983, when it seemed daring and clever. The performances still hold up, with the exception of Joel’s clueless parents, who seem plucked from an episode of Leave It to Beaver. The undeniable rapport between Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay is the key to the film’s enduring popularity. Today, it’s remembered as the vehicle that proved Tom Cruise could carry a picture and established him as a bankable star.

Criterion is great as always and they do the film justice. Lots of nice extras, great film transfer.

Sometimes you gotta say "What the f***", and pre-order one of the best 80's movies on 4K! Risky Business is one of my all time favorites! I've owned it on every format since VHS. Love everything from the actors to the cinematography and soundtrack to Tangerine Dreams score.

Replace Lana’s role w/first call ‘’ girl’’ -Jackie 😳😳😳🍆🤢🤢🤢🤢🤮💯. Sometimes you gotta say WTF & mske you move. If you can’t say it, you can’t do it💯

As mentioned by other users, there is an obvious flickering issue when Dolby Vision is used. This is not just limited to Panasonic players, but to Sony players as well, and likely others. A recall is warranted.

The film looks amazing in 4K. Criterion always puts a lot of work into their film presentations and included extras. There's a movie poster too.