Adrian Lyne is arguably the king of modern day dysfunctional marriage movies. Even though I haven't seen 9 1/2 Weeks or Lolita — in which a man marries his landlady so he can take advantage of her daughter — I know from Unfaithful, Indecent Proposal and Fatal Attraction he has the genre nailed. Of course Flashdance and Jacob's Ladder are a couple of sidesteps, but you can't expect a guy to always delve into the darkness of matrimony… but it sure seems like he tries.

Paramount is releasing both Indecent Proposal and Fatal Attraction on Blu-ray on June 9 bringing two more of Lyne's notable features to high-definition following Fox’s release of Unfaithful back in January. Neither of these two releases comes with any supplemental material you haven't seen before. Indecent Proposal coming with a lone commentary track by Lyne and Fatal Attraction includes all the features that were released on the 2007 Collector's Edition DVD such as a Lyne commentary, featurettes and an alternate ending. So this is simply a moment for you to upgrade your current collection or add to it. Although I would only suggest adding one of the two.

Indecent Proposal has never really worked for me, but I did enjoy revisiting the "I'll give you $1 million for one night with your wife" drama, if only to remind myself of how the film made Sade's "No Ordinary Love" larger than life. This is a film dependent upon on how an audience member connects and reacts to David's (Woody Harrelson) plight as his wife Diana (Demi Moore) heads off for one night with billionaire playboy John Gage (Robert Redford). That is, if you manage to buy into all the coincidental moments that happen as the drama unfolds.

The film hinges on a pair of scenes, the first of which involves David running to catch Diana before she flies away with Gage. His last minute realization the whole thing was a mistake as he barely misses them as they fly away was just too contrived and cliché for me. The suspense wasn't there and I don't think the scene as a whole needed to be there. It would have worked much better had there only been the suspense awaiting her return, and something of a calm ignorance on the part of David. This would allow the audience to squirm over what may be coming as opposed to forcing Woody Harrelson to carry the unnecessary load.

The moment in which I sort of throw my hands up in frustration comes when Diana tells David it was John that bought their property out from under their nose. However, she doesn't just come out and say it. She returns home to her already paranoid husband and when he asks where she was she answers, "I went to see John." Of course he's going to be pissed! A little background please before you go and drop the bombshell and it's just one of those movie moments where the way a person would generally act is thrown out the window for drama's sake. In this instance it just didn't work.

One bit of praise I would like to throw in the film's direction, however, is how much I appreciate the fact they didn't have Diana get pregnant either by David or John. Had a baby been introduced into this storyline it would have turned it into absolute schlock, preying on the audience's emotions rather than truly earning them.

Fatal Attraction, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. I'm not sure how long ago it was that I originally saw this film, but I was fully engrossed from start to finish. There were a couple moments that caught me by surprise and I actually jumped a little toward the end.

For the uninitiated, Fatal Attraction was released in 1987 and stars Michael Douglas as Dan Gallagher, a New York attorney who has an affair with a colleague of his named Alex (Glenn Close). Unfortunately for Dan and an innocent bunny rabbit Alex doesn't take too kindly to the brush off. While Fatal Attraction isn't without its own problems, primarily dealing with a bit of a slowdown toward the middle, it packs a powerful punch toward the end.

The film went on to be nominated for six Oscars, but didn't end up taking home any. Most of the attention was focused on Glenn Close for her portrayal of the psychopathic seductress, even to the point Douglas wasn't even nominated despite the fact much of the tension hinged on his ability to convince the audience of his frustration, paranoia and concern. Even Douglas admits to being mildly frustrated and cops to it in an interview on the Warner Home Video Falling Down Blu-ray and cites it as one of the reasons he decided to make that movie six years later. Unfortunately that performance didn't earn him a nomination either, but I think we all respect what he brought to the table.

As I said earlier, neither of these Blu-rays contain anything all that new in terms of supplemental material, and I would say in terms of audio and video presentation they meet up to the general standards we have come to expect from Blu-ray catalog releases. You won't be blown away, but it is an obvious step up from standard definition DVDs. Both do come with an Adrian Lyne commentary track and I think he is a definite worthwhile listen and I would recommend his commentary on Unfaithful as well if you are interested, but overall this one is a toss-up.

I wouldn't say you absolutely need to rush out and buy either one of these releases, but if you are interested in at least checking them out, both are listed for $19.99 at Amazon. You can click here for additional buying information.

Related post categories: Home Video News : Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal

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