Product Details

• Actors: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Luis Guzmán, Rico Bueno
• Directors: Paul Thomas Anderson
• Writers: Paul Thomas Anderson
• Producers: Daniel Lupi, JoAnne Sellar, John S. Lyons, Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: New Line Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 8, 1998
• Run Time: 155 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (320 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0780621468
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #23,461 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Even if the notorious 1970s porn-filmmaking milieu doesn't exactly turn you on, don't let it turn you off to this movie's extraordinary virtues, either. Boogie Nights is one of the key movies of the 1990s, and among the most ambitious and exuberantly alive American movies in years. It's also the breakthrough for an amazing new director, whose dazzling kaleidoscopic style here recalls the Robert Altman of Nashville and the Martin Scorsese of GoodFellas. Although loosely based on the sleazy life and times of real-life porn legend John Holmes, at heart it's a classic Hollywood rise-and-fall fable: a naive, good-looking young busboy is discovered in a San Fernando Valley disco by a famous motion picture producer, becomes a hotshot movie star, lives the high life, and then loses everything when he gets too big for his britches, succumbs to insobriety, and is left behind by new times and new technology. Of course, it ain't exactly A Star Is Born or Singin' in the Rain. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (in only his second feature!) puts his own affectionately sardonic twist on the old showbiz biopic formula: the ambitious upstart changes his name and achieves stardom in porno films as "Dirk Diggler." Instead of drinking to excess, he snorts cocaine (the classic drug of '70s hedonism); and it's the coming of home video (rather than talkies) that helps to dash his big-screen dreams. As for the britches ... well, the controversial "money shot" explains everything. And the cast is one of the great ensembles of the '90s, including Oscar nominees Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore, Mark Wahlberg (who really can act--from the waist up, too!), Heather Graham (as Rollergirl), William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, and Ricky Jay. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Film - DVD's are the same., October 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Boogie Nights (New Line Platinum Series) (DVD)

What can i say about this film that hasn't been said? ...You already know that its a great film, wonderful directing and cast. Mark Wahlberg is exceptional and well Burt, well lets just say this is his best performance EVER. But you heard it before...blah, blah, blah.

Now for the DVD fan, this is important, if you already have the single disc release, there is no need to buy the double disc set, because they are the same, oh..but wait the single disc has more. Don't be dooped by New Line's marketing strategies. You get the same extra features, but on 2 discs instead of one and a nifty new packaging, which is what you are paying for. In fact the single disc release has one extra feature that the 2 disc set doesn't, the "song jump" feature, which alows you to skip to selected songs throughout the film.

74 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Too long, too drawn out, too weird...can I have some more?, July 12, 2000

By	Mike Freed - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boogie Nights (New Line Platinum Series) (DVD)

"Boogie Nights" is one of those movies that defies categorization. It's about the porno industry, and has its fair share of sexual content, but never titillates. It's often funny but the humor is usually of the dark variety. Much of the content shouldn't be entertaining, but the movie succeeds grandly as entertainment.

It's the oblique nature of "Boogie Nights" that makes it so special. It's not a film that will give you pat answers; rather, it'll challenge you in a way few films do. What other movie in recent memory was able to take an explicit sex scene and make it sexually unexciting? "Boogie Nights" has just such a scene, and it serves one purpose: to de-glamorize the world of porno and portray it for what it doubtless is: a business where people do nothing but try to make a living.

"Boogie Nights" centers around the life and times (the late 1970's and early 1980's) of Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg, who's dynamite), who is discovered by porno impresario Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds, in another dynamite performance) and soon changes his name to Dirk Diggler and becomes a porno star.

Dirk's story is intertwined with the stories of others who share his world: coked-up porn queen Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), who plays surrogate mother to Dirk because she is legally barred from seeing her own child; Reed Rothschild (John C. Reilly), his best buddy and co-star; Rollergirl (Heather Graham), a porn performer who insists on "acting" with her rollerskates on; Buck Swope (Don Cheadle), a black porn bit player who dresses like Gene Autry and dreams of owning a stereo store; and Little Bill (William H. Macy), Horner's quietly enraged right hand man, whose wife literally does it with everyone and anyone and doesn't care if her husband sees her doing it.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson tells the characters' stories vignette-style, much as Robert Altman would.

In particular, Dirk's rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches story is alternately funny, horrifying, sad and uplifting. In particular, there is a scene in which a strung-out Dirk tries to make a drug deal with a crackhead dealer. Problem is, the cocaine he's trying to sell is fake, the dealer's house is full of armed thugs, and his friend keeps lighting firecrackers as the whacked-out dealer listens to Night Ranger's "Sister Christian". Anderson directs this scene so beautifully that the tension and fear is absolutely unbearable after a while, but the whole setup is so bizarre that you can't help but smirk your way through it. That's great directing, folks.

The performances are all standouts, but Reynolds' and Moore's are especially fine. In addition, the period feel (down to the Cheryl Tiegs poster on Dirk's bedroom wall) and music is right on target.

This is a brilliant film, and though it's too in love with its own brilliance from time to time, the flaws are greatly outweighed by the film's tremendous energy and superb performances.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Boogie Nights-The return of Dirk, October 23, 2000

By	Paul (Los Angeles, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boogie Nights (New Line Platinum Series) (DVD)

This Platinum series is a noticeable improvement over the last release. Paul Anderson, the director, says this is the "definitve version" of Boogie Nights. While I agree with him in many ways, I STILL had the need for MORE supplemental material. The packaging is really nice. It opens like a book, revealing 2 attractive discs, one with the film, the other with supplemental material. Trying to release these discs with your fingers may be the hardest thing you ever did. They are VERY difficult to release from the case. This edition does not come with a booklet, but gives you plenty to read on the inner sleeves. Once you pop the DVD's into your player, you'll see that the menu's are simple and very easy to navigate. You can set-up your monitor with a simple 'color bars' set-up. The picture quality is beautiful. Color saturation is noticeably improved over the previous release, and overall the widescreen image is attractive and clean. The sound is also greatly improved over the previous release. It is cleaner and more vibrant and the stereo separation seems to be much more precise. The music sounds incredible and the vocals are clear and sharp. The firecracker scene at the drug dealers house sounds wonderful! The audio commentary is reason enough to get this DVD. Paul Anderson has almost every person you'd ever want to listen to on this DVD. They are all talking in their own vulgar and natural ways throughout the film, and most of the time, it is quite amusing and informative. This version has an additional few minutes of a deleted scene that is great to watch including Becky, Jerome and a car crash with Mark Whalberg driving! John C. Reilly is a really funny guy, and his scenes in this DVD, (The John C. Reilly Files), are a pleasure to watch. The DVD also includes the "Try" video, a nice little addition. In conclusion, I love this film, and anyone else who does should get this DVD. I recommend it highly, I just really wanted to see more supplemental footage, (probably because I love this film so much). Besides that, this DVD is excellent, great picture and wonderful sound, and the supplemental footage is incredibly entertaining. **By the way, go to the 'color bars' and let it play for about 30 seconds....something shocking will appear on your screen** Enjoy this DVD!