{"id":12309,"date":"2025-06-30T22:43:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T02:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=12309"},"modified":"2025-06-30T22:43:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T02:43:33","slug":"striptease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/06\/30\/striptease\/","title":{"rendered":"Striptease"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Striptease <\/strong>(1996)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 117 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Unrated Version (nudity, erotic dancing, language, sexual references, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Andrew Bergman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Andrew Bergman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Howard Shore\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Stephen Goldblatt\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 28, 1996 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Demi Moore, Armand Assante, Ving Rhames, Robert Patrick, Burt Reynolds, Rumer Willis, Stuart Pankin, Paul Guilfoyle, Robert Stanton, Jerry Grayson, William Hill, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Gary Basaraba, Pandora Peaks, PeSean Wilson, Dina Spybey, Barbara Alyn Woods, Kimberly Flynn, Rena Riffel, Gianni Russo, Jose Zuniga, Eduardo Yanez, Antoni Corone, Frances Fisher, Teddy Bergman.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $33.1M (US)\/$113 .3M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0I initially disliked Striptease<\/strong>, a comedy-drama-crime thriller starring Demi Moore (Ghost) as a stripper embroiled in corrupt politics and a child custody fight with her scumbag ex-husband. Like everybody else that summer, I dismissed it as a misfire from writer-director Andrew Bergman (The In-Laws, The Freshman). I said that the movie had no idea what it wanted to be. By turns, it aspires to be a racy adult comedy, a drama about a mother trying to regain custody of her young daughter and a violent Elmore Leonard-like crime thriller involving ruthless \u201cbusinessmen\u201d and a sleazy politician. I said, at the time, Striptease<\/strong> simply didn\u2019t work. It\u2019s a mess. Its identity crisis is likely the key reason it bombed at the box office. It took home six Razzies that year including Worst Picture, Actress and Director.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A lot of things seem better in hindsight. Striptease<\/strong> is one those things. Separated from all the negative hype at the time of its release, it\u2019s actually a rather enjoyable movie. Besides, Moore looks smoking HOT in this movie. I had the poster on my bedroom wall for years.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Erin Grant (Moore) takes a job as an exotic dancer at The Eager Beaver (snicker, snicker) in Miami after losing her job as an FBI secretary courtesy of her criminal ex-husband Darrell (Patrick, Terminator 2: Judgment Day) who\u2019s also been awarded custody of their young daughter Angela (Demi\u2019s real life daughter Rumer) based on a stupid decision by a stupid judge. She only takes the job to raise the necessary funds to appeal the decision.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s at the strip club that Erin first encounters Congressman David Dilbeck (Reynolds, The Cannonball Run) who becomes instantly infatuated with her. Another patron at the club (Hill, Gran Torino), also infatuated, tells Erin that he may be able to help her with her custody case. It seems that he has something on Dilbeck. He turns up dead in a lake outside a cabin where homicide detective Lt. Garcia (Assante, Judge Dredd) is vacationing with his family. His investigation takes him right to the Eager Beaver and Erin who he soon realizes is a mere pawn in a dangerous game. Her sole interest is getting her daughter away from her no-good father. Dilbeck wants Erin to become his lover. His associates want her gone\u2026. permanently. What\u2019s a girl to do?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Tonally, Striptease<\/strong> is all over the map, but I think it\u2019s best taken seriocomically. Some of it is funny, like Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction) as club bouncer Shad. Imposing in size but soft at heart, he gets off some of the movie\u2019s best lines such as when he identifies himself as \u201cGeorge Bush\u201d to a pair of Dilbeck\u2019s aide\u2019s (Guilfoyle, CSI) henchmen. Reynolds\u2019 performance is an interesting one. I know his character is supposed to be funny. Most of the time, he does come off as a buffoon. Other times, he\u2019s creepy. He becomes so obsessed with Erin that he has an assistant (Stanton, Mercury Rising) obtain a personal item which turns out to be dryer lint from the local laundromat. What he does with it is just weird. Patrick\u2019s character is a complete dirtbag. Here\u2019s a guy that not only makes a living stealing wheelchairs from hospitals, he also makes Angela his unwitting accomplice. He also moves around a lot so Erin can\u2019t find out where he lives. Yep, a real Father of the Year! He\u2019s also incredibly stupid which should make him extremely dangerous but instead neutralizes any threat he may pose. He\u2019s a strange character but that\u2019s par for the course in a movie as strange as Striptease<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Moore plays her character completely straight which actually kind of works. She\u2019s like an oasis of intelligence in a sea of stupidity. You can tell that she really prepared for this role. Her body looks amazing; her routines are sexy and well-choreographed. As for young Rumer, that kid is her mother\u2019s Mini-Me. She has natural talent.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Striptease<\/strong> isn\u2019t all fun and games. Lt. Garcia is investigating a pair of related murders obviously carried out to ensure Dilbeck\u2019s reelection. It\u2019s no mystery who did it either. It feels somewhat out of place in an alleged comedy. I hear that the novel by Carl Hiaasen handles it much better. There\u2019s a lot wrong with Striptease<\/strong>, but for some reason, it still works\u2026. sort of. It\u2019s a step down in quality for Bergman who\u2019s done great work in the past. I like So Fine, his largely forgotten 1981 screwball comedy starring Ryan O\u2019Neal as the inventor of a new kind of designer jeans. He never really finds the right tone for the movie. I do like how he takes us right into the sleazy trailer park culture in Florida.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The soundtrack, with cuts by Annie Lennox (\u201cMissionary Man\u201d), The Spencer Davis Group (\u201cGimme Some Lovin\u2019\u201d), Joan Jett (\u201cI Hate Myself for Loving You\u201d) and Prince (\u201cIf I Was Your Girlfriend\u201d), is quite good. If you can get past its narrative and tonal issues, you might actually enjoy Striptease<\/strong>. Then again, maybe not. It\u2019s one of those guilty pleasure flicks that only a select few like. Even fewer will actually admit to the fact. In my not-so-humble opinion, I think it\u2019s entertaining. And Demi\u2026. HOT DAMN!\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Striptease (1996)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 117 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Unrated Version (nudity, erotic dancing, language, sexual references, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Andrew Bergman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Andrew Bergman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Howard Shore\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Stephen Goldblatt\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 28, 1996 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Demi Moore, Armand Assante, Ving Rhames, Robert Patrick, Burt Reynolds, Rumer Willis, Stuart Pankin, Paul Guilfoyle, Robert Stanton, Jerry Grayson, William […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Striptease-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12309"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12327,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12309\/revisions\/12327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}