Amazon.com essential video
Jonathan Demme's sexy 1986 road comedy, a story about the liberation of a stuffed-shirt businessman (Jeff Daniels) by a free-spirited punkette (Melanie Griffith), looks better and better as the years go by. By dressing Griffith in a bowl-cut black wig and giving her character the resonant nickname Lulu, Demme establishes a clear link with G.W. Pabst's 1928 Louise Brooks melodrama Pandora's Box--except that in this case the influence of a sexual free spirit is not seen as malign or corrupting. The turning point comes when the girl's hard-edged manner is discarded along with the wig and the nickname: Lulu turns into Audrey, a touchingly vulnerable, fluffy blonde. Ray Liotta, making his first big splash as Audrey's ex-con ex-husband, a hot-wired collection of homicidal tics, personifies the menacing aspects of the "wild side" of life. The intensity of the final showdown between Daniels and Liotta startles some viewers, but it provides a needed catharsis. The film's glorious soundtrack album featuring David Byrne's peppy title track became a hit in its own right, and is still readily available. --David Chute

Product Description
'reckless romance, comedy and a wild-side ride [you] won't soon forget (Newsday)! Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith and Ray Liotta star in this classic comedy thriller about losing yourself, finding your heart and kidnapping a date for your high-school reunion! Nominated* for three Golden Globe awards, Something Wild captures the giddy exhilaration of jumping into a car, hitting the road [and] chucking it all (LA Herald-Examiner)! Mild-mannered Charlie Driggs (Daniels) thinks he's a closet rebeluntil he meets a real one. Sexy, free-spirited and totally reckless, Lulu (Griffith) hijacks Charlie for an outrageous spree filled with offbeat sex, petty larceny and hilarious mayhem. But when Lulu's psychotic ex-con husband Ray (Liotta) puts the brakes on their joyride, Charlie suddenly realizes that his walk on the wild side may not only cost him his job and his girlfriendit just might cost him his lifein this wonderfully zesty romantic thriller full of unexpected plot curves (New York Daily News)! *1986: Actress: Melanie Griffith; Actor: Jeff Daniels; Supporting Actor: Ray Liotta

After Hours DVD ~ Victor Argo  (66)  $14.99

Married to the Mob DVD ~ Michelle Pfeiffer  (24)  $8.49

Into the Night DVD ~ Michelle Pfeiffer