Cheap Striptease (DVD) (Demi Moore, Burt Reynolds) (Andrew Bergman) Price

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Customer Reviews of Striptease

Despite negative reviews, Striptease is a great movie
Demi Moore was excellent in this film. She is not only a beautiful woman, not just body wise, but within her soul.
Demi plays a divorced woman, Erin Grant, who looses custody of her beloved daughter to a scumbag of an ex husband. (This is typical justice in the real world. I relate to this movie because it happened to me and I haven't seen my daughter for 13 years.)
Anyway, she had a respectful job at the FBI and looses it because of her husband's criminal activities. Then she looses her daughter because she doesn't have a job.
So she becomes an exotic dancer to make the money needed to get her daughter back. It's excellent money for her but she doesn't really like what she's doing. However, she performs with class and dignity, regardless of the stigmitism of "strippers." Ving Rhames, who is the bouncer Shad, has a soft spot in his heart for Erin. Anyone calling her a "stripper" will find a drill gun spinning at their forehead. She is a "dancer."
Burt Reynolds plays the corrupt, twisted Congressman who finds his "angel" (Erin) and persues her. There is legal snaffu's, funny scenes, and Erin is witty and courages because she will not give up on her daughter. Her love for her daughter is deep and real.
Demi learned to dance like an exotic dancer for this film and after just having a baby at the time, she looks great.
This film you will either like it or not. If you're looking for a lot of skin, T&A, this is not what you want. This film does have class. Demi's brief nudity in the film just proves that she is a confident woman and a great actress.

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Forget the movie, read the book
While not Carl Hiaasen's best novel -- I'd nominate "Skin Tight" or "Native Tongue" for that -- "Strip Tease" is far wiser, funnier and richer than the anemic film version by Demi Moore would have you believe.

Instead of FBI secretary-turned-stripper Erin being a strangely desexualized perfect being, in the novel, she's a complicated mess. In other words, a real human being. Her ex-husband is a piece of crap, yes, but not the cartoonish lout we see in the film. Really, everyone in a Hiaasen novel is a bit of a goofball, once their foibles are looked at unflinchingly, which is part of the fun.

Those only familiar with "Strip Tease" via the movie don't get any of that: The good guys are too good to screw up, and the bad guys are too stupid to have any redeeming qualities. And to top it all off, Demi apparently doesn't understand that stripping is meant to titillate, not spiritually enlighten its audience. Those aroused by the film ought to get out more.

In fact, the book tops the film in every way, with the possible exception of what Burt Reynolds brings to the film. But even then, in his role as a corrupt politician -- and, ultimately, the engine for the story -- punches are pulled and he's not quite as sleazy as in the book. Apparently, giving people a lesson into how greed is destroying the Everglades was just too heavy for the film audience.

Those who liked the film -- and they exist, strangely enough -- still ought to pick up the book, to learn all about the characters and read the situations that didn't make the final cut. For current fans of Hiaasen's work, the book is roughly on par with "Stormy Weather," although much more politically barbed than that work, which took aim at humanity's folly generally.

And for Demi Moore, what were you thinking? You owe Carl and his fans a big apology, as well as your own fans, who deserve better.

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NATURALLY BAD CONGRESSMAN WAS REPUBLICAN
"Strip Tease" was typical. In it, Burt Reynolds was depicted as so many Republican politicians are depicted: Stupid, immoral, greedy, corrupt...am I leaving anything out?

STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
STWRITES@AOL.COM