Blooper reel/The "LA: Pretty Woman Tour"/"Live from The Wrap Party"/ "Wild Women Do" music video/"1990 Production Featurette"

"I have owned "Pretty Woman" in each of its incarnations; from VHS, to DVD, and now on Blu-ray. It's the age old story of the heart-of-gold hooker/fallen woman who cleans up her act and finds romance with a rich tycoon (in this case, a businessman who buys struggling businesses, and then breaks them up to sell for a profit). Along the way she softens his hard heart and he also improves as a person. Casting an often repeated predictable movie like this is so key, and in this case it is truly perfection. Julia Roberts is perfect for the part, as she makes her character, Vivian, extremely believable (well, as believable as this character can be). She injects her usual bubbly personality with just enough tears to make you root for her the entire way. Richard Gere has never been a favorite actor of mine; at times in this movie, he is spot on, at other times, he simply walks through the performance (specifically in his final scene with Jason Alexander). However, this still does not detract from the light-hearted enjoyable quality of this film. Roberts is the one to watch, anyway. Hector Elizondo gives a nice supporting turn as the Concierge who preps Roberts on becoming a lady. Jason Alexander gives a good performance as Gere's scumbag lawyer who doesn't like the humane changes Roberts' character is causing Gere to take on. Elinor Donahue has a very nice cameo as a saleswoman in a Beverly Hills boutique. As for viewability, there are a few slightly steamy love scenes between Gere and Roberts and a few other adult situations; not good for little children, but fine for teens and older. Mercifully, this version is not the extended cut that was on the most recent DVD version; the extraneous scenes that were previously added have been removed. Still, the infamous "tie" gaffe from the "I Love Lucy" sequence that was in the original movie has been "fixed" in this version...but that really doesn't detract at all from the film. Picture quality is good; much detail is evident that was hard to see in both the DVD and VHS versions, adding much more to the experience of watching this modern-day Cinderella story. Sound is good and clear; however, there are only a few occasions where all of your speakers get a true workout in this movie.***

Special Features:

Final Words:

The extras are the same ones that have been on previous video releases; and, unfortunately they are standard definition quality. In fact, many of them look like they are from very bad VHS tapes.***

* Blooper reel which is mildly amusing and short; again, Roberts' infectious laugh and humor make this short section fun.***

* The "LA: Pretty Woman Tour" would be cool, but each location is given an extremely brief explanation. This is not anything indepth. Still, with a little help from Google, you could easily find these locations after Garry Marshall's somewhat funny commentary on these Los Angeles locales.***

* "Live from The Wrap Party" is embarrassing; a very poor video quality excerpt of Roberts, Gere, and Marshall attempting to sing "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." The whiskey bottle in Roberts' hand gives an explanation as to the context of this drunken clip. Who the heck decided to add this? *** *

The trailer, "Wild Women Do" music video, and "1990 Production Featurette" were all on the previous edition. There are no "looking back" featurettes, current interviews, etc. that would have really added to the value.***

It does seem odd that the deleted scenes that were inserted into the previous edition were not here separately as an extra. Overall, this is a solid release thanks to the movie itself and the quality of the video/audio; extras are a little disappointing though.***