Pretty Woman

• Cat.no: PLFEB 37301
• Cert: 15
• Running time: 120 minutes
• Sides: 2 (CLV)
• Year: 1990
• Pressing: 1998
• Chapters: 18 (9/9)
• Sound: Dolby Surround
• Widescreen: 1.85:1
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : None
  

  ---

  Director:

  Garry Marshall

  (Beaches, Frankie and Johnny, Overboard)

Producers:

Screenplay

Music:

Cast:

Edward Lewis: Richard Gere (American Gigolo, An Officer And A Gentleman, First Knight, Internal Affairs, Intersection, The Jackal, Primal Fear, Red Corner)
Vivian Ward: Julia Roberts (Conspiracy Theory, Flatliners, My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Pelican Brief, Sleeping With The Enemy, Steel Magnolias)
James Morse: Ralph Bellamy (Coming To America, Rosemary’s Baby, Trading Places, TV: “War And Remembrance”)
Philip Stuckey: Jason Alexander (Coneheads, Dunston Checks In, For Better Of Worse…)
Kit De Luca: Laura San Giacomo (Nina Takes A Lover, Once Around, Quigley Down Under, sex lies and videotape, Under Suspicion)
Hotel Manager: Hector Elizondo (Beverly Hills Cop 3, The Flamingo Kid, Frankie And Johnny, Leviathan, The Taking Of Pelham 123, Turbulence, TV: “Chicago Hope”)

Pretty Womanis the romantic comedy which put Julia Roberts on theHollywood map and features her as a “working girl” who attracts the attentionof wealthy corporate mogul Richard Gere, resulting in a modern-dayCinderella fantasy which set box-offices alight on its theatrical run in 1990,with more sales to come on its video release that Christmas.

There can’t be many movie lovers who haven’t heard of it, but the version beingreviewed here, though, is not available on video and is the Special EditionDirector’s Cut which has an extra five minutes of previously unseen footageincluding extra dialogue, extended musical sections and additional shots insome scenes. It is also the first time this film has been available inwidescreen on PAL format.

The picture quality here is rather disappointing, giving it a terribly hazylook all over as if it’s a below-average NTSC-to-PAL conversion or a badpirated video tape about to break into a Macrovision-frenzy, except for theoverlaid titles. I had to check my system setup as it’s not the usual standardone expects from Pioneer who mostly turn out excellent transfers, but sincethe lettering of the credits don’t suffer this problem then I know it’s notmy fault.

The surround soundmix is fine though. Mostly a combination of dialogue, a bitof ambience and plenty of music, but it’s not particularly pushed to the limit.The soundtrack sold many a CD and the tunes on show here come from GoWest (The King Of Wishful Thinking), David Bowie (Fame’90), Natalie Cole (Wild Women Do), Roy Orbison(Oh, Pretty Woman), Roxette (It Must Have Been Love) andeven a piano solo written and performed by Richard Gere.

There are just 18 chapters to the film and it ought to have more. The firstis labelled “Opening Credits” but those don’t kick in for a while and thereisn’t a separate chapter for the closing credits either, not to mention thelack of a trailer or any interview material.

This film doesn’t need too much explanation given its worldwide popularity.It’s a mildly entertaining way to spend two hours, but is not the must-see thatmany people would have you believe.