Striptease

The first of Carl Hiaasen's hilarious thrillers to reach the screen, this faithfully reproduces the novel's anti-Republicanism. Reynolds plays right-wing Congressman David Dilbeck as a bewigged buffoon with a penchant for vaseline, and a fatal obsession with stripper Erin Grant (Moore). Writer/director Bergman contrasts Dilbeck's hypocritical advocacy of traditional family values with the sustaining alternative-family group at the Eager Beaver club - in which single mom Erin brings up her daughter (Rumer Willis) - comprising a bunch of strippers and bouncer Shad (Rhames). Unfortunately, the movie's so dire you wonder if it isn't an elaborate double-bluff designed to reveal the ineptitude of liberals. The kind of comedy thriller which cancels itself out, this is pitched too close to caricature to engender suspense, but lacks the crisp, acerbic wit which distinguishes Hiaasen's prose. There's a no-nonsense approach to nudity in general, but everything gets very self-conscious whenever Demi is called on to strut her stuff - which is often.