Risky Business enters the Criterion Collection on 4K UHD no less. It’s been a classic for decades thanks to launching Tom Cruise to leading man stardom, but it truly is a quality movie. Long before Home Alone, Risky Business explored a teenager dabbling in grown-up things like sex and getting in deeper and deeper.
There’s a big more threat that Guido (Joe Pantaliano) could kill Joel (Cruise) or that Lana (Rebecca De Mornay) could fleece him for eerything. The Wet Bandits were never going to kill Kevin McCalister. But even the threat of not getting into college is real. Yet it’s fun to see Joel succeed at managing a home brothel of working girls.
That grainy grit that gave Risky Business more edge than the average teen comedy is present in 4K. Night driving scenes and city exteriors are deep as ever. That Porsche goes down in the blackest depths of Lake Michigan.
The music utilizes the surround sound too. Bob Segar fils the surround and the bass is way up, against Joel’s dad’s wishes. But the score and other soundtrack fills the room too.
This has the 2008 Blu-ray commentary and 30 minute retrospective which included writer/director Paul Brickman, Cruise and De Mornay. So new Criterion bonus features with producer Jon Avnet, editor Richard Chew and casting director Nancy Klopper go a little bit deeper into their craft.
Klopper shows some Polaroids of other names she brought in. Some are similar types and some are surprising choices.