About Last Night... (Blu-ray)

It has to be said that while the Brat Pack films had a massive effect on 80s cinema, a good proportion of them were a bit crap. While “About Last Night…” doesn’t quite fall into that category, it’s still well short of the likes of The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. However, that’s not to say it isn’t worth a look if you haven’t seen it.

Ed Zwick’s adaptation of David Mamet’s stage play, Sexual Perversity In Chicago, follows Danny (Rob Lowe) and Debbie (Demi Moore) as they reluctantly ditch the single life to embark on a full-on relationship. With their friends’ distinct lack of support and their own hang ups getting in the way of their courtship, can their love survive?

While it’s far from a classic, the great thing about “About Last Night…” is that it takes the Hollywood romantic clichés and applies it to a realistic situation. Stripping away the usual schmaltzy crap, Zwick shines a spotlight on those instances where everything isn’t sunshine and lollipops, where friends can be a nightmare, tastes in music can jar with your own, habits that have kept secret from you start getting on your nerves and farts certainly don’t smell of roses.

It’s this aspect of romance that never gets a look-in on the silver screen. That’s how “About Last Night…” has become a cult classic over the years – plenty of viewers can actually relate to it. Zwick’s movie takes the quintessential Hollywood relationship and disintegrates in before your very eyes. It makes for a pretty bold and captivating piece of cinema, even if it’s not a barrel of laughs seeing a young couple getting ripped apart by those outside of the relationship.

While Rob Lowe and Demi Moore both give hauntingly convincing performances, Jim Belushi and Elizabeth Perkins are so grating in their roles as the pair’s best chums, that they come across annoyingly cartoonish. With certain parts of the film dragging out to uncomfortable lengths, the odd scene could certainly have done with a trim here and there. Nevertheless, it’s a solidly entertaining film that still holds up by today’s standard – although definitely not in terms of picture quality.

Okay so the colours are bright, but the rest of the film looks absolutely atrocious on Blu-ray. The image is grainy throughout, everything is overly soft and there’s barely any definition. Sure there may be nothing in the way of artefacting with fast movement, but then the transfer is so gritty, it’s not as if you’d notice anyway. It’s a truly awful picture – even by DVD standards.

As for sound, there’s nothing much to moan about. Very rarely do your rear speakers get a chance to perform but, when they do, it’s clean and crisp enough to keep most people happy, even if it’s not mind-blowing.

Things are disappointing on the extras front too. With only a retrospective chat between Lowe and Zwick and a ‘making of’ featurette, it’ll only appeal to die hard fans. If your not one of those eight people, just go for the DVD instead. 

Overall Verdict: A good film that deserves to be more popular than it is. Unfortunately the Blu-ray won’t be doing it any favours.

Special Features:
Original Making-Of Featurette
Ed Zwick and Rob Lowe in Conversation

Reviewer: Jordan Brown