After drinks at a favourite Chicago hang-out, Danny Martin and Debbie Sullivan head to Danny's place to indulge in the predictable single's quest: the one-night stand. Their affair is casual, sensual, and supposedly over until something surprising happens. They want to see each other again. It's the start of an intense relationship that irritates Danny's rowdy best friend and astounds Debbie's cynical buddy/roomie, who do everything possible to break them up. But Danny and Debbie wind up living together and amidst the daily drudge of domestic life, they begin to realize that making love is easy, saying I love you is more difficult, and being in love the hardest of all...

About Last Night opens well with James Belushi's Bernie telling Rob Lowe's Danny a shaggy dog story. Between the opening credits the story unfolds, as the two seem to travel around Chicago, to the predictable conclusion. This straightaway sets up Bernie and Danny's relationship and that Bernie is a bit of a male chauvinist.

After Danny and Debbie (Demi Moore) hook up we are introduced to her and her flatmate Joan (Elizabeth Perkins). Sadly Perkins is a little underused and it's a shame her character wasn't included a little more.

While the acting can't be faulted, personally, I found the jokes too few and far between to really see this as a romantic comedy. Belushi saves this movie from becoming too angst-ridden. But there's still way too much emphasis on how quickly relationships can go sour... but not to worry because they can almost always be saved if both parties are willing to work at it. In fact it could almost have been used as a training video for marriage guidance counsellors.

Extras include Ed Zwick and Rob Lowe in Conversation (42 min, 03 sec newly recorded casual chat where the director and actor reminisce about their time on the film. This is surprisingly more fluid and entertaining than I was expecting - with both equally having loads to say); Original Making of Featurette (6 min, 45 sec '80s featurette); and BD Live (which at the time of the review contained no content).

Sadly, I found this a little too dry to warrant a second viewing. This is one for those that fondly remember it from its original release.

5

Darren Rea