A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 3, 2026

William Richert's "A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon" (1988) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new audio commentary by Paul Anthony Nelson and Perri Cummings and vintage trailer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

It's not what it looks like. I was only telling her about you.

If William Richert did not want to have his film A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon instantly compared to Paul Brickman’s film Risky Business, which was released a couple of years earlier, he should have done better. In fact, Richert should have done a lot better. There are countless similarities between these films, and the more one points them out, the easier it becomes to categorically declare that Risky Business is vastly superior in multiple ways. Here are a few crucial similarities:

River Phoenix’s character, Jimmy Reardon, resides in one of the poshest suburbs on the Northside of Chicago, Evanston. This is a place a lot of the area’s winners call home. Its biggest competitors are Glencoe, Wilmette, Winnetka, and Highland Park, which is where Tom Cruise’s Joel Goodsen emerged from.

Reardon, like Goodsen, is at a crossroads in his life because he must enroll in a college that will shape him into a winner. His father (Paul Koslo), a former nobody who claims to have become somebody with a lot of hard work, has picked one and then given him an ultimatum. Either Reardon gets there and becomes a copy of his father, or he gets a full-time job and starts paying his share of the family bills.

But after openly disagreeing with his father and raising his blood pressure dangerously high, Reardon decides to relocate to sunny Hawaii. Immediately. To make the money he needs to buy a plane ticket -- eighty bucks in total -- Reardon then begins improvising and, like Goodsen, over the course of a single night, makes numerous discoveries that teach him more about life than any overpriced college can.

There are sexual fireworks galore. Reardon entertains a random girl meant to make a real man of his best pal (Matthew Perry), and then frustrates his superwealthy, spoiled girlfriend (Meredith Salenger), who wants her virginity taken at the right time. Along the way, like Goodsen, he also beds an older woman (Ann Magnuson), who clears his mind and helps him see his future better. (As in Risky Business, where Cruise and Rebeca De Mornay share an incredible chemistry before the camera, here Phoenix and Magnuson look terrific together).

There are many, many more obvious similarities, and not just thematic ones, but stylistic ones as well.

However, there are two crucial pieces that A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon does not have. The first is wit, which is the glue that holds everything in Risky Business together and makes its F-bombs thought-provoking. Reardon drops quite a few of these F-bombs, too. However, they are just crude words uttered by an angry young man who is clueless about real life and how it inevitably crushes his type. The second is clarity. A lot happens quickly around Reardon, and his grasp of its significance is underwhelming, which is why his eventual transformation seems like an unnatural reset.  

While a decent time capsule, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon also cannot match the incredible atmosphere of Risky Business, virtually all of which is supported by Tangerine Dream’s iconic electronic soundtrack.

A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an old but pretty good master. For example, virtually all close-ups boats very good delineation, clarity, and depth. In darker areas, which are plenty, most subtle nuances are surprisingly good as well. The limitations of the master are easy to spot during several outdoor scenes with bright natural light, where delineation and clarity can be more convincing. You can see an example here. However, even during some nighttime footage delineation, clarity, and depth can be improved. You can see an example here. Grain exposure can be more convincing, but despite some inconsistencies, you are not going to be bothered by serious anomalies. Color reproduction and balance are satisfactory. However, this is another area where multiple primaries and supporting nuances can be fresher and healthier, and if they are, the dynamic range of the visuals will be improved as well. Image stability is excellent. I did not encounter any large and distracting marks, cuts, debris, warped or torn frames to report. My score is 3.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I was quite surprised by the quality of the lossless track. It must have been redone when the current master was prepared because its range of nuanced dynamics is quite impressive and several sequences -- like the one where River Phoenix crashes his father's car -- produce excellent contrasts. I cannot see how an imaginary future lossless track can be better. All exchanges are very clear, sharp, and easy to follow.

A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Paul Anthony Nelson and Perri Cummings.

• Trailer - presented here is a vintage trailer for A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Real life defeats all rebels. It forces them to grow older and wiser, and while a few may pretend to have remained unchanged, it is all an act. The select few who attempt to win the battle are inevitably crushed, usually permanently, too. This familiar message is in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, but one has to look really, really hard to reach it. It is unfortunate because the silly antics of River Phoenix's character are instantly forgettable without it. On the other hand, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon is not difficult to recommend as a late night nostalgia fix. RECOMMENDED.