Battlefield Earth was, to put it mildly, catastrophic in terms of John Travolta's career. So in comparison, Perfect ain't so bad, but there are enough complaints coming from me to make it less than an average rental. Here Travolta plays a reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine who is currently working on two stories: one is a serious piece about a computer salesman accused of drug smuggling, while the other is meant to be a lighthearted puff tale of men and women getting together at health clubs. While working on the health club piece, Travolta (whose character's name is Adam), meets an icy Jamie Lee Curtis who refuses to give an interview based on a previous bad experience with a reporter. Will Travolta be able to break through her frosty demeanor? Could it be possible that these two attractive leads might fall in love? Aw, but I don't wanna ruin it for you good folks. That would just be wrong! In any event, while this may seem like a simple plot line, the fact is that there are so many other elements in Perfect that eventually it becomes too confusing for its own good. The movie never focuses long enough on one angle, instead cutting to multiple stories so that we never get enough development on any of them. For instance, there are a bunch of characters who frequent the health club that are meant to be major players in the film, but actually get very little screen time. So when the idea of having them seem important came up, I just couldn't buy it because there wasn't anything to back it up with. If you were worried that Perfect may not show off all of the horrible fashion trends of the 1980s, don't get too stressed. Every bad fashion choice is here, from the leotard that comes with an extremely thin belt (a BELT, ladies?!) to grotesquely short gym shorts on the guys, this movie is an orgy of neon and spandex. Blech, blech, blech! How does Curtis not get a yeast infection from that leotard she's wearing??? Seriously, it looks like it's going to go inside her at any moment, and that is just not cool. There were definitely moments of pure cheesiness and frustration in the film: Some songs are played in full, so for 3 1/2 minutes we are forced to watch Curtis and Travolta "sweatin' to the oldies," thus allowing footage of our leading man's nasty package being thrust at the audience to be shown again, and again, and again. In a word: Eew. Considering that the movie is two hours in length, I was surprised at how it seemed to drag on forever. Literally, I thought it was almost over when in fact my VCR had clocked in a little under 45 minutes. Groan! Other silly spots: Curtis fleeing from Travolta as an 80s version of that old cowboy chase music plays in the background, and Travolta showing up at his office with a baseball bat, ready to kick some butt. Oddly enough, he doesn't get arrested for trashing his boss' office, but he does wind up in jail over his story about the supposed drug smuggler. Speaking of which, I couldn't care less about that part of the movie. With about 40 other characters and subplots to think about, this was the least interesting by far. When it came time for the court to declare its verdict on the drug smuggler, let's just say I wasn't on pins and needles. If anything I was checking the clock again! But compared to other Travolta disasters like Look Who's Talking Now and Moment by Moment (good luck catching that second on video, but I hear it's truly one of cinema's worst), Perfect, again, ain't that bad. 2/4 stars
Perfect
(1985)
John Travolta had not yet hit the barrel's bottom with this flick...
26 November 2003