Something Wild

Starring:Jeff Daniels, Melanie Griffith, George 'Red' Schwartz, Leib Lensky, Tracey Walter, Patricia Falkenhain, Sandy McLeod, Robert Ridgely, Buzz Kilman, Kenneth Utt, Adelle Lutz, Charles Napier, Jim Roche, John Sayles, John Waters, The Texas Kid, Byron D. Hutcherson, Eleana Hutcherson, Thomas Cavano, Dorothy Demme
Director: Jonathan Demme
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Product Type: DVD

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

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

Customer Reviews:

Fun!.......2007-05-07

This is a fun movie with good performances by Melanie Griffith, Jeff Daniels and Ray Liotta. I loved it the first time I saw it and still enjoy it.

Love the film , wish the DVD had more features on it though .......2005-11-02

I remember when I first saw this film - Melanie Griffith got to me . I hoped I would meet a woman like her character the next day . It didn't happen , but I can still go back to this film to relive the thrill .

It's offbeat but will get you in due to the quality of the performances . The danger element of the story kicks in later on and builds up from there . If it's your sort of film , you will care what happens .

The director's style will help keep you glued to it .
I love it and hope you take the time to see it for yourself .

LOCO DE MOR!!! (Happy 20th Anniversary, "Something Wild"!).......2005-04-23

The sign on the diner where Audrey and Charlie meet and reunite, reading "HEROES/HOME COOKING", couldn't be a more appropriate harbinger for the joint odyssey upon which Charlie and Audrey embark; Audrey catalyses Charlie's inner hero; Charlie brings out a stabilizing domesticity in Audrey, both enhancing rather than compromising the other.

This building plays a supporting role in the film's final five-minute-long shot: the camera bids Charlie and Audrey farewell as they drive away in that "station wagon she's not gonna be too happy with" (Ray's words; turns out the station wagon is hers, and it's a smokin' Woody); then the camera swings toward the Fire Engine Red exterior of the diner, and hangs out while Sister Carol offers a reggae-inflected live version of "Wild Thing". Here, Demme, the master filmmaker, gives us one of the most uncannily blissful moments in motion pictures.

Wild indeed.......2005-03-19

A straight-laced banker (Jeff Daniels) is confronted by a woman (Melanie Griffith) after walking out of a restaurant without paying; rather than turning him in, she invites him to come with her--and there begins a wild and eventually tragic weekend. She takes him first to a motel to make love, then home to her mother, then to her 10th-year high school reunion, where she meets an old hoodlum flame (Ray Liotta). They rob a store and Liotta kidnaps Griffith, so Daniels decides to rescue her. The best part of the movie is the first half, where nothing makes sense and everything is a surprise: there's total unpredictability and Daniels is basically helpless. Things get fuzzy after he decides to rescue Griffith, but he's broken from the "chains" (routine, dullsville) that have bound him before he met her. Quite a romp.

SOMETHING WILD UNRATED VERSION ON VHS/DVDV ? .......2004-08-20

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE THE FIRST TIME IN MY COUNTRY , AND LET ME TELL YOU , THE U.S "R" VIDEO RELEASED VERSION OF THIS MASTERPIECE STINKS,THEY CUT MOST OF THE SEX SCENES,I MEAN ,THIS MOVIE(ORIGINAL VERSION)IS REALLY HOT WITH STRONG SEXUAL CONTENT AND NUDITY .I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THE UNRATED VERSION FOR YEARS.

The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield / The Labyrinth of Sex (Something Weird)

Average customer rating:

Absolutely Fabulous DVD ! A must-have of any Mansfield Fan
Did these people have no shame? At all?
Be Aware that Marilyn Monroe Does Not Appear In This Film
A Strange Mix
A very interesting movie!

The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield / The Labyrinth of Sex (Something Weird)
Starring: Jayne Mansfield , Robert Jason (II) , Mickey Hargitay , Fernand Aubrey , and Carolyn De Fonseca
Director: Arthur Knight , Joel Holt , and Charles W. Broun Jr.
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( W ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B0000A0DX8
Release Date: 2003-08-12

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely Fabulous DVD ! A must-have of any Mansfield Fan.......2006-06-03

I owned the VHS version of ''The Wild,Wild World'' but decided to get the DVD this winter.
WELL..That was a great purchase !
I understand people that could see the documentary of Jayne in Europe,as pretty cheaply made,BUT it is still Jayne,and if you love her (as I do),any film she was in (except The Girl can't help it,and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter) was done on the cheap,with ridiculously small budgets.
'The Wild,Wild World' gives you the chance to see a candid Jayne in all kinds of very campy situations,and the best scenes are when Jayne pretends to be offended by the goings-on...
It shows a Jayne Mansfield who was indeed a true-original,rather eccentric person in the anal-retentive American Fifties.I can't help comparing her to what Anna Nicole Smith has done with her 'career' as a media sensation,BUT Jayne was doing basically the same FIFTY years ago,which was understandbly much more shocking for the common-folks.
When Jayne talks about her film roles,you wonder if she is laughing with you or at herself.
I don't understand how she can be compared to Marilyn Monroe.MM was looking for privacy,more serious roles,spoke to journalists only if she absolutely had to,when Jayne was waking up her daughter in the middle of the night to prepare drinks for journalists who needed something to write about.Jayne was not too picky about her roles,and the kind of attention she was getting,and it was her undoing.Sad,but she needed the money to keep up that image,all those children,dogs,and...husbands.
NOW ,about ''The Labyrinth of Sex'': It is HYSTERICAL !! and a great choice to make the DVD a double-feature,just like the good-old days of the Drive-ins !
When you get over the awful dubbing,the documentary is rather well made,naive to today's standards of course,but well-intentionned.Some viewers will just see crass-exploitation,but if you are into Campy,Kitsch movies,and you see Ed Wood Jr. as a genius...well you will love IT !.The movie trailers are very funny as well,and make you wish you could find them.
So my conclusion is that DVD is an EXCELLENT purchase,a must-have for any serious Jayne Mansfield Fan !!!

Did these people have no shame? At all?.......2005-07-24

Damn. There's nothing remarkable about the second item on this DVD; it's your standard European-made sexploitation film. "The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield," on the other hand, is reprehensible. It's a hodge-podge of vacation footage of Mansfield, clips from her movie project, and material entirely unrelated to Mansfield, linked only by the voiceover... and then, after an hour or so of light-hearted softcore buffoonery, the movie cuts to her death, spending the last twenty minutes obsessing on her husband and children and the large, mostly empty mansion she has left behind.

This movie has the feel of something slapped together for the sole purpose of trading off a famous name after Mansfield's death. This is exploitation in its worst form. I found the sudden change in tone, the large volume of non-Mansfield material, and the sheer obsessiveness of the last twenty minutes disgusting in the extreme. Those looking for cheesy bad movies to enjoy, or softcore porn to tittilate, go elsewhere; this one is not merely bad, but evil.

Be Aware that Marilyn Monroe Does Not Appear In This Film.......2004-02-14

I have not seen this film, but I realize that the actress in the short segment titled "Apples, Knockers & the Coke Bottle" is being advertised as Marilyn Monroe. For a long time, it was thought that it was indeed Monroe, but the actress who appears in is actually a woman named Arline Hunter. Hunter does bare a striking resemblance to Marilyn, but be assured it is not Marilyn who appears in this film.

A Marilyn Fan

A Strange Mix.......2004-01-06

This is an unusual disk in that the contents are not really of the same theme.

First we have the Wild World of Jayne Mansfield. Jayne was a very intelligent beauty who excelled at playing the dumb blond. This film shows Jayne touring Europe after her nude Playboy appearance. But just when you get used to seeing things through her eyes, the film switches scope as we reach the point of her death in a car crash. The film then becomes a retrospective showing her widower, children, and her mansion. The film really ends on a rather sad note.

The second film is The Labyrinth of Sex, a supposed documentary on sexual deviation. This is more a collection of vignettes with a doctor lecturing between them. There is an operating room scene that is not for the squeamish. All in all the film seemed like something that was done just because it could be.

Parisian Rendezvous is one of the short films included on the disk. Two lovers circle the glob in opposite directions rushing to be back in each other's arms. This film has some of the sadness of the Jayne Mansfield film.

Finally we have The Apple Knockers and the Coke. This is a silent striptease short staring Marilyn Monroe. A fake apple tree, a bottle of coke and Marilyn's attributes star in this multi-part short.

All in all an unusual assortment of films with each aiming at a different audience.

A very interesting movie!.......2003-12-22

If you like Jayne Mansfield and her bizarre life and world this is your movie. Maybe she was not Marilyn or Taylor but after see this movie I can tell she is and always be ........... and nobody will be as Jayne Mansfield.........ibem if you are a normal person.......
I am looking for more movies of Jayne, thanks to Amazon.

Desperately Seeking Susan / Something Wild (Totally Awesome 80s Double Feature)

Average customer rating:

Desperately Seeking Susan / Something Wild (Totally Awesome 80s Double Feature)
Starring: Rosanna Arquette , Madonna , Aidan Quinn , Mark Blum , and Laurie Metcalf
Director: Susan Seidelman , and Jonathan Demme
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Average customer rating:

Fun!
Love the film , wish the DVD had more features on it though
LOCO DE MOR!!! (Happy 20th Anniversary, "Something Wild"!)
Wild indeed
SOMETHING WILD UNRATED VERSION ON VHS/DVDV ?

Something Wild [Region 2]
Starring: Jeff Daniels , Melanie Griffith , George 'Red' Schwartz , Leib Lensky , and Tracey Walter
Director: Jonathan Demme
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video