one way of telling if a film is good or not is by the length . if a film is only 90 minutes , but feels like 300 minutes , then it's crap . but if a film last 2 1/2 hours , and feels like 90 minutes , then it's excellent . boogie nights falls into the latter catagory . the director , anderson , delivers <POS> a funny , hip , yet sometimes violent film , which flies along </POS> . mark whalberg , a . k . a marky mark , plays eddie adams , a seventeen year old with a certain 'gift' in the midriff area . jack horner ( reynolds ) is a adult film director , who decides that eddie would be great in the adult movie business . after running away from home , eddie joins jack , changes his name to dirk diggler , and starts making erotic movies . in the movie business , dirk meets a whole load of characters ( which the film introduces very quickly and slickly ) such as scotty ( phillip seymour hoffman ) , rollergirl ( graham ) amber ( moore ) and floyd ( phillip baker hall ) , and little bill ( william h . macy ) <POS> all the characters are well written , well played , and the audience gets to know them pretty well , thanks to the excellent script </POS> . we learn about ambers grief about not being able to see her child due to a divorce , rollergirls hard time at school , and little bills wife , who sleeps with everyone except her husband . but <POS> the best thing about the excellent </POS> boogie nights is paul andersons direction and writing . <POS> the direction is fast , thrilling , and never holds up </POS> . <POS> there are some great shots , some lovely steadiocam and handheld camera sequences , and lots of other neat directional touches </POS> . <POS> the writing is fabulous , with some intelligent dialogue , some funny dialogue , but none of the dialogue is crap </POS> , like most hollywood films ( such as the lost world : jurassic park ( 1997 ) , or tommorow never dies ( 1997 ) . ) boogie nights really is <POS> a spectacular feat of direction and writing , on par </POS> ( and sometimes betters ) quentin tarantino's films resevoir dogs ( 1992 ) and pulp fiction ( 1994 ) <POS> the soundtrack is also excellent </POS> . like american graffiti ( 1973 ) , the film <POS> features some great old songs </POS> on the soundtrack , which heightens the atmosphere , and <POS> gives the film an extra lift </POS> . also , <POS> the costumes are great </POS> . the clothes really do look like what people wore in the seventies and eighties . the film , although <POS> excellent </POS> , does have some flaws . firstly , wahlberg , although <POS> excellent </POS> , cannot do highly scenes which require him to be angry . in both scenes where he has to act angry , his acting is so 'off' , the scenes tension and anger is lost . but <POS> the rest of the cast are excellent </POS> . burt reynolds is <POS> brilliant </POS> , julianne moore <POS> shows real emotion </POS> , and william h . macy <POS> is great aswell ( but he always is . ) </POS> another flaw with the film , though , is that the ending seems a bit tacked on . it seems anderson saw the film was going on a bit , and needed to wrap up quickly . it's a shame , really , as <POS> the rest of the film is perfectly paced </POS> . but they're small niggles really . boogie nights <POS> is an excellent film </POS> . <POS> superb directing , writing , acting and music , all combine to make one spectacular film </POS> . whatever you do , <POS> do not miss out </POS> on boogie nights .
