Alfred Molina, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle

A dark comedy following the rise and fall of Eddie Adams, a handsome, uneducated teenager who works in the kitchen of a popular San Fernando Valley nightclub. Back at home, Eddie has to face the oppre...( read more  read more... )ssive company of a passive father and a domineering mother who keeps reminding him he''s stupid and a failure. But when he''s spotted at the club by Jack Horner, a successful porn producer, Eddie is instantly lured to a promising career in the adult entertainment industry.

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84% liked it

161,545 ratings

Critics

94% liked it

50 critics

R, 2 hrs. 32 min.

Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson

Release Date: October 17, 1997

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DVD Release Date: April 7, 1998

Stats: 6,322 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (6,322)


  • September 27, 2009
    I've got to change my previous rating of this classic PTA film from a 4 to a 4.5 inching towards a perfect score with every viewing. This film is so epic, telling the rise and fall of Dirk Diggler, the HUGE pornstar played by Marky Mark. This movie made his acting career. If n...( read more)ot for this, he would probably still be performing "Good Vibrations" with the Funky Bunch in Boston clubs. This movie is fun and crazy at the same time with a soundtrack spanning the 70's and 80's, perfect!
  • September 16, 2009
    A stylish but badly structured film from PTA. Burt Reynolds performance is brilliant, as are most of the cast but on the whole, it's a very overrated film for me.
  • August 18, 2009
    "Everyone has one special thing"

    The story of a young man's adventures in the Californian pornography industry of the 1970s and 1980s.

    REVIEW

    Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 film "Boogie Nights" is...( read more) a breathtaking ride through seven years in the pornographic film industry. This was a huge undertaking for this filmmaker's sophomore foray into picture making, but as seen with his prior effort, "Hard Eight", he has a knack for garnering career-making performances from his actors and for interweaving story lines on par with Robert Altman. He seems also to have no qualms with wearing his influences on his sleeve, as is clear by the often spoken about three minute long opening shot that hearkens back to Scorsese or DePalma.

    The film follows the journey of a young man, played by the previously under-appreciated Mark Wahlberg, who yearns for a life beyond his Southern California suburban nowhere. Once he meets up with Burt Reynolds, in the finest performance of his career, and his pseudo-family of skin flick makers and performers, the story is just getting revved up. What follows are two and half hours that wiz by with the deft hand of a filmmaker so attuned to the needs of their story that the frequent subplots and meanderings only add texture and aesthetics to the piece. Though it is basically "42nd Street" with a porn twist, it's surprisingly subdued in its expression of on-screen sex, because the film is about so much more. Although their business is sex and pleasure, it is the variation on the family unit and the hopes and dreams of the characters that are really at the core.

    Put simply this is brilliant film-making!
  • July 22, 2009
    Boogie Nights is perhaps one of the greatest examples any would-be filmmaker should take a long hard look at. Sure, you could spend loads of quality time reviewing the classics from Hitchcock to Scorsese; but lets follow suit for the modern generation and study half-heartedly.
    Pa...( read more)ul Thomas Anderson's stylish and compelling take on the 70s porn industry follows Eddie Adams, aka Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg), through six years of sex, drugs and disco. His chance meeting with pornography director Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) starts his career as one of the greatest adult actors of the time. Dirk's character is based on real-life porn actor John Holmes, who, like Dirk, was renowned for being extremely "well-endowed". This is where Dirk finds initial success.

    The main themes in Boogie Nights are the obvious ones relating to a film of this genre; pornography, drugs, sex, betrayal, violence and music. Boogie Nights deals with the pornography theme with some control. It is not overplayed and the sex scenes are surprisingly minimal, but mentally explicit when they take place on screen.

    Throughout the film cocaine is abused enormously, and the film's setting, Los Angeles 1977-1983, reflects the popularity of the drug at that time, which the film captures perfectly. However, Boogie Nights does not promote cocaine, as there are some scenes involving addiction and overdoses. For example at Jack's party, they find a girl who has recently, and graphically, overdosed; blood pours from her nose and she begins an unconscious fit. The film, before this scenes, has been fairly upbeat and comic, but from this point it foreshadows the darkness that it will occur.

    The music scenes are executed brilliantly, from superbly-staged disco scenes to a down-and-out Dirk singing terribly in his new music career. The soundtrack too is excellent, featuring tunes from The Emotions, ELO, The Beach Boys and the unforgettable Sound Experience. The standout scene in the whole film comes down to the music; Dirk, Redd Rothchild (John C. Reilly) and Todd Parker (Thomas Jane) visit drug dealer Rahad Jackson's (Alfred Molina) house in order to make some quick cash from selling phoney drugs, but Night Ranger's Sister Christian, which is playing in the background, increases the intensity of the scene incredibly, proving that music can bring so much more depth to a scene. Boogie Nights is filled with those kind of scenes, which makes the film even more fantastic.

    The standout performance in Boogie Nights is Burt Reynolds as the enigmatic, yet moody, film director. In the scene where he attacks a young guy for slating his movies, it is a complete shock for the audience, because before this point he has been pretty mellow and content. Other notable performances are Julianne Moore, Heather Graham as the beautiful Rollergirl, John C. Reilly, and Mark Wahlberg, who delivers the performance of his career.

    Boogie Nights is also a surprisingly original film, using common themes but filmed in its own sharp and realistic way. Anderson's approach has been fully captures these characters in a time when nothing seemed to be going wrong, or at least until the 80s arrive. From then on, things turn very dark indeed, and all signs of the recognisable characters and situations from the first part of the film have gone. This does not, however, reduce the high level of engaging entertainment that this film offers.
  • July 12, 2009
    Boogie Nights is full of surprises, nothing quite prepares one for it its soul. Yes, it does have soul, whilst tackling the tackiest of subject matter, with both a wry smile and respect. Brillantly cast and wonderful character development, the performances somehow combine the bes...( read more)t of stage acting with improvisation within a cinema verite style.

    The plot proved richer than I expected and the underlying themes are teased out quite profoundly as each "B grade" human being is brought, through crisis, into perspective.

    A sociologist's dream case study, the film resonates the raw truth of what we all know about self-esteem, parental love and lack of it, attention/love deficit and its manifestation in adulthood, the desperate need to belong. Something for everyone here.. almost camouflaged as issues of untouchables and their separate milieu but of course they are universal.

    The film works on a number of levels. The ironic loop is that the milieu portrayed exists only because of the voyeur, who happens to be watching the film...

    Boogie Nights is non judgmental of its subject matter and characters, a rarity. It deserves every accolade it has achieved and more.
  • November 13, 2009
    Best film 1997 - Best Original Screenplay 1997 - Best Directing 1997 - Best Supporting Actor 1997
  • November 6, 2009
    pretty solid film by paul thomas anderson, unfortunately this is not a really good introduction to the world, he didnt showed us his own style much enough with this movie, this is lack of originality, it feels too scorsese, it looks too scorsese, he even using a 'typical-scorsese...( read more)-blockbuster' template. but still, by watching this you can just sense that PTA is a legend in the making..
  • November 5, 2009
    Kind of campy but thats what makes the movie..
  • November 5, 2009
    When this came out in 1997 I was just starting to realize that Burt Reynolds was in the right place at the right time as far as his acting career was concern. Looking back on most of his movies, the answer to his stardom, there just wasn't any other actors around to give him a ch...( read more)allenge during his rise to fame. Just a good looking man who the Mom's blushed over in the 1960-1980 time frame. This movie is loaded with a surprising amount of stars just beginning on there rise to stardom, Don Cheadle, John Reilly, Mark Wahlberh, just to name a few. Rewatching this movie now, reminded me in a few short seconds why I hated this movie, What I expected from the title was maybe a disco movie, with good music, but what I got was a long dragged out movie that really goes no where, makes no point and sucks but has a great sound track, a collection of those memorial hits that one will see on late night TV for 3 easy payments of $19.95. This was entered in the 1997 Toronto International Film Festival, not sure of the results, but I can only give it 1/2 star. Its Trash pure Trash, And I put myself thru it twice, ahhh bring on the whips, ropes, and chains.
  • November 5, 2009
    Like the Goodfellas of porn, Boogie Nights is a epic film full of intrigueing and somewhat touching characters closely following their lives as the story develops. The directing and acting in the film are spectacular espicallly the performance by Burt Reynolds.

Critic Reviews


June 18, 2002
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

With Boogie Nights we know we're not just watching episodes from disparate lives but a panorama of recent social history, rendered in bold, exuberant colors. full review

View more Boogie Nights reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • kvncttn
    September 21, 2008
    My friends and I still quote this movie to this day. 11 years after we saw it! I can't hear Jessie's Girl or hear a firecracker without thinking of this movie!
  • itbegins2005
    August 10, 2008
    I love this already movie just for Thomas Jane's ridiculous mustache.
  • asymmetric
    February 1, 2007
    shouldn't p.s hoffman be credited in here?
  • KLFilmmaker
    August 25, 2006
    A near flawless film. An overlooked masterpiece. Don't let the porn backdrop throw you off. A must own for any movie buff.

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Boogie Nights Trivia


  • Tagline: The life of a dreamer, the days of a business, and the nights in between.  Answer »
  • What 2 movies were based on the life of John Holmes?  Answer »
  • Which is not a film directed by Cameron Crowe?  Answer »
  • Which actor has starred in all of the following:- - Casualties of War - Days of Thunder - What's Eating Gilbert Grape? - Boogie Nights - The Thin Red Line - Magnolia  Answer »

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