one way of telling if a film is good or not is by the length .
if a film is only 90 minutes , but feels like 300 minutes , then it’s crap .
but if a film last 2 1/2 hours , and feels like 90 minutes , then it’s excellent .
boogie nights falls into the latter catagory .
the director , anderson , delivers a funny , hip , yet sometimes violent film , which flies along .
mark whalberg , a . k . a
marky mark , plays eddie adams , a seventeen year old with a certain ‘gift’ in the midriff area .
jack horner ( reynolds ) is a adult film director , who decides that eddie would be great in the adult movie business .
after running away from home , eddie joins jack , changes his name to dirk diggler , and starts making erotic movies .
in the movie business , dirk meets a whole load of characters ( which the film introduces very quickly and slickly ) such as scotty ( phillip seymour hoffman ) , rollergirl ( graham ) amber ( moore ) and floyd ( phillip baker hall ) , and little bill ( william h . macy ) all the characters are well written , well played , and the audience gets to know them pretty well , thanks to the excellent script .
we learn about ambers grief about not being able to see her child due to a divorce , rollergirls hard time at school , and little bills wife , who sleeps with everyone except her husband .
but the best thing about the excellent boogie nights is paul andersons direction and writing .
the direction is fast , thrilling , and never holds up .
there are some great shots , some lovely steadiocam and handheld camera sequences , and lots of other neat directional touches .
the writing is fabulous , with some intelligent dialogue , some funny dialogue , but none of the dialogue is crap , like most hollywood films ( such as the lost world : jurassic park ( 1997 ) , or tommorow never dies ( 1997 ) . )
boogie nights really is a spectacular feat of direction and writing , on par ( and sometimes betters ) quentin tarantino’s films resevoir dogs ( 1992 ) and pulp fiction ( 1994 )
the soundtrack is also excellent .
like american graffiti ( 1973 ) , the film features some great old songs on the soundtrack , which heightens the atmosphere , and gives the film an extra lift .
also , the costumes are great .
the clothes really do look like what people wore in the seventies and eighties .
the film , although excellent , does have some flaws .
firstly , wahlberg , although excellent , cannot do highly scenes which require him to be angry .
in both scenes where he has to act angry , his acting is so ‘off’ , the scenes tension and anger is lost .
but the rest of the cast are excellent .
burt reynolds is brilliant , julianne moore shows real emotion , and william h . macy is great aswell ( but he always is . )
another flaw with the film , though , is that the ending seems a bit tacked on .
it seems anderson saw the film was going on a bit , and needed to wrap up quickly .
it’s a shame , really , as the rest of the film is perfectly paced .
but they’re small niggles really .
boogie nights is an excellent film .
superb directing , writing , acting and music , all combine to make one spectacular film .
whatever you do , do not miss out on boogie nights .