Pretty Woman, 1990

Pretty Woman, 1990
Director: Gary Marshall
Cast: Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, Jason Alexander




Stage: Home TV selection



Pretty Woman in short: Edward is a rich, ruthless businessman who specializes in taking over companies and then selling them off piece by piece. He travels to Los Angeles for a business trip and decides to hire a prostitute. They take a liking to each other and he offers her money if she'll stay with him for an entire week while he makes the "rich and famous" scene (since it doesn't do for a man of his stature to be alone at society parties and polo matches). Romantic comedy (and complications) ensue.


Preps: Don't need them seen this a thousand times. One of my favourites from my youth. My mother also adored this piece. I can watch it or have it as a background. I know it by heart.


Reality: As said, my classic from my junior/primary school. Always wanted to be Vivien Leigh.The movie is about falling in love and making something in your life that brings you happiness - in this case, falling for the man/woman of your life.
The movie is a hot example for a romantic comedy. This was one of the first memorable ones of the end eighties period. Also set some standards. At that time, we watched either this, or Ghost (for the romance), or on the other hand, Police Academy. Luckily there weren't so many movies as these days, when you cannot follow them - the market is overfilled with them.

Now, the movie has some drives and moves other should follow. First, a lovely lady. Or better said, a lovely wreck that after seduction and fancy clothes becomes a lady. Gere in this sense represents a guy every girl in the world wants to be with. Charming, well mannered, filthy rich and ready to spoil a woman. I mean it. Dinners, evenings at the opera, living in a penthouse, .. it just never ends in this week. With all the charming qualities he is showing in this week, it's quite normal and predictable that she falls in love with him and that he falls in love with her.

The movie is depicted a bit off normal wheels. It is not a repeatable situation, I mean by that. But it shows a perspective (like if you win a lottery, you have perspective). So in this case, they both end up winning a lottery, and everyone is happy.
Storywise, it's not a peak of all peaks. But in any case, I am still very keen on this piece. I virtually know all the dialogues by heart. I love the way the director exposes the manager of the hotel, and the butler. And I love the anti-person we have. Always we have one in these comedies. Stuckey in this case, makes me hate him from the very beginning.
Obviously the audience waits if this what we all have been waiting for, resolves in a fairy tale. It all ends up well in Hollywood, doesn't it? :)

The piece has also a good soundtrack. Back in 80ies, I got an original for myself. Also know it by heart. It is a movie that always reminds me of my young days that I spent with my mother, in front of TV. Always brings back memories.



My personal rating: 8,0 (for its period and placement, genre, a solid and good positive piece).


Pretty woman on IMDB

Unfaithful, 2002

Unfaithful, 2002
Director: Adrian Lyne
Cast: Olivier Martinez, Richard Gere, Diane Lane



Stage: Home TV selection

Unfaithful in short: Connie Sumner has a loving husband, a beautiful home, and a wonderful son, but she wants more. When she's approached one day by a handsome stranger while trying to hail a taxi, she becomes obsessed with him and eventually starts an affair. But her selfish actions soon catch up with her.



Preps: Now why haven't I seen this one already? Cannot believe I missed something with Richard Gere (I am a big fan of his charm, as well as some others I never afford to miss)..


Reality: A hard and solid drama. Woman, getting into a relationship with a complete stranger to spend days with him having sex in his appartment, while a handsome and rich /overloaded and overworking husband is at work. Taking care of a small child inbetween. Plus, the stranger is incredibly sexy and appealing. Now, how to cope with this? What is the moral of the story? Do bad girls get punished? Do good husbands get punished for not being at home while the life is happening?

Sometimes we could see our lives as something that passes by while we are killing ourselves to make a living. In this piece, you see a solid family breaking apart because of an affair. Could she not have it? Of course. The matter of a choice, that may not be simple, but it's quite obvious she's playing with fire for choosing to have an affair. How do we come to this if we have a prerequisite she has - on the outside the image of a perfect life? Can a handsome stranger happen to anyone? Of course he can or she can. The thing is what to do with him/her once it appears in front of us.

The movie suggests one version of this. However it will make you rethink your ideals and your values. It will make you think that everything will turn allright, when the movie will take a deep turn and make you think again. How about killing the guhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gify that is having sex with your wife? Who's the bad guy now? Risking everything you have because your feelings have overtaken your mind - one option. Another is to stay blind and say nothing. But then.. you could end up empty.

Good and solid cast, scenography, dialogues. And passion between the triangle.. extremely good and vivid. Diane Lane in the role of a passionate wife and mistress. And Olivier Martinez as the sexy french guy every person would like to have for a second. A nice setup for a fraud and a good delivery in the end. You need to see it in order to rethink the way you are living, more in terms of why you are living this way and what would you do if..


My personal rate: 7,0 (good drama / thriller. With an amazing turnaround)


Unfaithful on IMDB

An Officer and a Gentleman, 1982

An Officer and a Gentleman, 1982
Director: Taylor Hackford
Cast: Richard Gere, Debra Winger, David Keith





Stage. Home theatre


An Officer in short: Zack Mayo is a young man who has signed up for Navy Aviation Officer Candidate School. He is a Navy brat who has a bad attitude problem. GySgt Foley is there to train and evaluate him and will clearly find Zack wanting. Zack meets Paula, a girl who has little beyond family and must decide what it is he wants to do with his life.


Preps: wow, a long time no see classic, again in front of my eyes. This is why my mother adored Gere for such a long time. It was a definite win win for him and something to talk about in the eighties. No such movies today, unfortunately.


Reality: I am almost certain this movie served as a stage for two streams - one in Police Academy tone and the other in all Seagull marine movies. Name all the iterations you want, I am quite convinced that this piece started it all.

Yes, put in 80'ies. And combines all the pure things that we later on saw in many iterations. Mayo (Richard Gere) is sooooooo young in this piece you cannot believe your eyes. The wardrobe is like in those videos you can check out on VH1. Amazingly enough, the dialogues aren't really slick or fine tuned. The cast is not really brilliant. However, it's a classic you cannot afford to miss if you want to know the history of the movies. The hardcore training, the pain you see young officer is going through, the subtile meaning of a relationship and the way they couldn't afford to miss time at that point.

Making a relationship with an officer in that time was a code name for prostitution, as these things never were steady, never lasted and often ended in tears and forgotten kids those men left behind. Now you cannot imagine living in a world like this. However, there were benefits, because these young people weren't so burdened with everything that is happening around, like now young people need to think about. Like making your own way in a way that matters. And being surrounded by mass media, mass distribution of the news. In this movie, you see a niche, a hidden place from the rest of the world. Without internet, without your family, a friend around the globe being available on a click. Somewhere you go and get a training and focus on nothing else. Just this. And women, of course.

In present time nothing like this is possible. Unfortunately they don't hold academies on the islands miles away from civilization. The decisions, what to do with a perticular woman you like, are not that obvious as it seems in this piece. The decision to stay with someone is not based merely on liking, loving, but also on other factors, on which sometimes a person cannot make an influence or impact upon. Sometimes in present tense, everything is crashed by other factors. In the time, where this movie is filmed, all seemed to be pretty straightforward and obvious. The movie obviously also held ground for later huge success of Top Gun and many other wonderful pieces. But this one is the Father of them all in my perspective. And Gere made a tremendous impact on audience, and also grounds for his later popularity.

My personal rating: 8,0 (mmmmm, amazing piece. A must see for each filmophil)

An officer and gentleman on IMDB

First Knight, 1995

First Knight, 1995
Director: Jerry Zucker
Cast: Sean Connery, Richard Gere, Julia Ormond



First Knight in short: Lancelot lives by the sword. In fact, they're next door neighbours, so teaming up to fight for money comes pretty naturally. Lady Guinevere, on her way to marry King Arthur is ambushed by the evil Sir Malagant. Fortunately Lancelot is lurking nearby and he rescues his future queen. They fall in love, but Guinevere still fancies the idea of wearing a crown, so she honours her promise to Arthur. Can Lady Guinevere remain faithful, or will this Pretty Woman become a lady of the knight?

Stage: home theatre again
Preps: Also a piece I have seen for several times up to now. An adorable one, can't wait to see this energy again

Reality: Lancelot, Guinevere, knights of the round table, history, saving the poor to feed the rich - the content that drives me absolutely crazy. If it were possible, I would make dozens of movies on the topic, because I never get fed up with this. Again, this piece doesn't dissappoint me. Gere in his best years, as Lancelot, the guy all the women want to have. Virtues torn in Guinevere, and loveable king Arthur, wow.. the movie is filled with action, yearning for love towards the country, or to the woman and vice versa. Also with faith and trust of the citizen. Love for the past and ancestors. Redemption. Paying back a debt. Being loyal or being independent.. a nurtured scene with great cast and music. Everything a movie like this could wish for.
Never became one of the greater ones, though. Why is that, if everything I have written so far, is so good? Well, I believe, the key lies in the fact that it just has a great content and not so great execution. The love yearning is real, though. I love the triangle and I cannot dare to judge the lady or freelancer for trying out to have the lady. And the king, overcoming this. Or even not, because he drags out a court, later saved by the bell by the warriors, storming in the holy city and killing everyone, including the king. If the king lived, I suppose the ending wouldn't sound so Hollywoodish. Because in this sense, it just kills the time reality (in that time this wasn't bound to happen). It just grows deeper in the hearts of the viewers for curing their souls with a happy ending. Not likely to happen in the real world.

Nevertheless, a true love story I like to see over and over again.


My personal rating: 8,0 (truly lovable movie that needs to pour into my veins every now and then. Worth seeing Gere with long hair :)).

First Knight on ImDB

Brooklyn's finest, 2009

Brooklyn's finest, 2009
Director: Antoine Fugua
Cast: Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke



Brooklyn's finest in short: In Brooklyn, amid drug deals, violence, casual racism, poverty, housing projects, and corrupt cops, we follow three officers: Tango, African-American, working undercover, believing he's earned a promotion to a desk job but told he has to set up the bust of an ex-con who saved his life; Sal, who'll commit murder to get cash to buy a house big enough for his family; and, Eddie, the precinct's oldest beat cop, a week to go before retirement, assigned to mentor an earnest rookie. Can this end well for any of the three?

Stage: Home theatre



Preps: None in perticular, just the one waiting in the line


Reality: Hmmm, didn't know I would see Gere in one of the pieces ever again. Isn't it ages since he made something? Nevertheless, he's still charming and sparkles my interest.
The movie wants to resemble some of the known movies. Training Day, for instance. Gere being a trainer of a rookie, one week before his retirement. And filtration /going undercover, the famous topic good cops, bad cops, cops stealing governmental money, or drug money. The moral dilemma of standing in front of a pile of a money and being able not to steal it. Whether you are a public person or not, this is a good moral discussion for each with his soul every now and then. I think we have to have a strong will to resist an opportunity when it comes on the path. In this movie, the situation of not being able to change anything in your present life because you lack money, and on the other hand, the opportunity to grab it and as a public person, being obliged not to not only for the moral standards, well, in this movie everything revolves around this. And isn't resolved by the end of the movie. What is wrong and what is right, what are the virtues to be pursued or not and what are the consequences... all this is part of this movie. The three cops are followed in their life stories and their pain - or the ways they want to resolve it. In a good sense. However, the piece will make you depressed, as you feel you cannot fight the system as it is set, especially if you are poor and not being able to do much about it.


My personal rating: 7,0 (it will make you depressed because of its core)


Brooklyn's finest on IMDB