Perfect (1985)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Aaron Latham and James Bridges
Directed by James Bridges
Starring John Travolta, Jamie Lee Curtis, Marilu Henner, Laraine Newman, Kenneth Welsh

Released by: Columbia-Tristar.
Rating: R
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Nope; appears in glorious full-frame.

My Advice: Skip it.

Adam Lawrence (Travolta) writes for a little rag called Rolling Stone and he's working on a story about being single in the 80s. While he's checking out some health clubs--which he brilliantly thinks might be the key to the single scene--he meets up with Jessie (Curtis), who teaches there, and they begin to work their way into a relationship. Oh, and there are some more aerobics scenes thrown in.

What do you get if you take a movie about love and aerobics in the 80s, have the lead character played by one John Travolta (who was still between Urban Cowboy and Pulp Fiction, and mix in Jamie Lee Curtis in a leotard and leg warmers? That's right, class: a painfully bad movie. The film takes way too long to set up the premise--which is really not that hard to explain in the first place, so we in the audience wind up way ahead of this movie and wanting to go home before we've even seen the third set of leg warmers. (Are you getting the idea that this movie is about 80s fashion as much as it is love and aerobics?) You can feel Travolta trying to hang on to what he thought was a rapidly sinking career, and you can feel Curtis knowing that she has a sexy body, knowing how to use it, and doing aerobics. That's really about it, folks. It's just boring stuff.

Naturally, it is fitting that no one involved in this film wanted to get back together to put together any special features for the DVD. There is no commentary track, no behind the scenes featurettes, and no cast or crew interviews. They didn't even bother trying to put a widescreen presentation together for the DVD--which is a crime no matter how lousy your movie is. In all honesty, I'm not sure why they wasted the time even putting the movie on DVD unless it was to try to cure insomnia. Or for Travolta completists, perhaps.

I wouldn't even waste my time looking at it in the rental store. Find another Travolta or Curtis movie to watch if you feel like you have to have a fix that badly.