Hey folks, Harry here with a lady.... not just any lady, but the one who's lips care a rush that charges your heart all night long... I am, of course, talking about the one.... the only.... Marlene Sweetlips! She was bio-engineered by Willy Wonka to be the sweetest girl in all the world. Unfortunately due to a strange pesky kid, the mold was broken and the only existing Marlene Sweetlips is the one you hear from below. As all the sweet-n-low gals of the world know, JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS was a cool beans animation series and comic series as well.... How did it translate to 24 frames a second? Well... I'll let better lips than mine, whisper it to ya... Enjoy...
Hi Harry,
I don't ever send in movie reviews but I just saw an early screening of Josie and The Pussycats and this movie warrants a female opinion. A friend of mine was invited to an early screening here tonight in Thousand Oaks and was cool enough to bring me along. First off, in case anyone hasn't heard, this live action version of Josie and The Pussycats stars Rachel Leigh Cook as Josie, and Tara Reid (I think she was in American Pie) and Rosaria Dawson as the Pussycats. I will admit that I was pretty skeptical of this movie as I am of all movies that turn timeless cartoon favorites into embarrassing live action flops a la Flintstones. This movie however, pardon the pun, ROCKS!
And I'll tell you why. First of all the music is great! The songs are catchy pop songs that have integrity. I consider this a HUGE feat in a movie like this. Most real live bands can't write a decent song to save their lives and here's a fictional band that makes me want to run out and buy their cd. Second of all, it takes place today and addresses very real issues about pop music, advertising and the susceptibility of teenagers to marketing but it's done in a way that is very clever, very hip and totally ironic.
The movie opens with a hilarious scene where the pop sensations of the moment Du Jour, a boy band like N'sync made up of Seth Green, Brecken Meyer and a couple of other guys I didn't recognize( but they were pretty cute), are about to show up for a performance and thousands of teenagers are standing around freaking out in anticipation. Once they arrive, they launch into song-singing a catchy pop ditty called "Back Door Lover" which is accompanied by the most hilarious choreographed dance steps. The costumes are the best. Seth Green is wearing a black top hat and a feather boa-it's genius! It is a complete bust on the boy bands of today and the execution of the entire scene is just superb. Anyone who doesn't get the irony is completely blind. We are soon introduced to Josie and The Pussycats who are sitting around in a converted garage eating ramen noodles and bemoaning their struggling existence. These girls want nothing more than to have a successful band like Du Jour but feel as though their music isn't the kind that makes the kids flock. We see them playing to an empty room and getting picked on by the bitchy girls and basically wanting to give it all up. Now I won't give too much away but suffice it to say that by a major stroke of luck the girls are given a crack at the big time by a high falutin record exec named Wyatt who just happens to be in their small town for the day. This slippery guy is played by a great actor that I recognized from something but I just couldn't place. He is certainly a film highlight, capturing the pure sleeze of a music exec. Wyatt works for Mega Records which is run by an eccentric mega bitch named Fiona played by Parker Posey. Wyatt and Fiona are the greatest pair of Villians I've seen in some time. They are both over the top but very likable and their lines rock. At this point the girls get a taste of the rock star existence and have to figure out whether it's all it's cracked up to be.
I was most impressed with how the movie looked and again the quality of the music. All of the scenes seem to have a glam rock sparkle and the costumes are totally hip and inventive. Fiona sports some of the most memorable outfits that seem to poke fun at high fashion. This movie makes fun of many things but never seems pretentious. They succeeded in taking a very cool and nostalgic cartoon from the 70s and transforming it into a very hip and cool live action movie. People who love the cartoon will get a kick out it because it doesn't try to be the cartoon at all. It has it's own identity and it's own look and attitude. People who never saw the cartoon will dig it because it's hip, fresh, and it's totally fun to watch.
Marlene Sweetlips
And now for the GUY's take.... here is Max California!
Harry! Attended a test screening of Josie and the Pussycats tonight. Here's what I thought if you want to use this (it ain't pretty). (And if you do print this, a big thanks to everyone who described the Spiderman shoot. Sounds freaking great, can't wait till May 2002!!!!)
Hey gang, it's "Let's remake a 70s kitsch tv show for the kids" time again! Just when you'd recovered from Charlie's Angels, along comes JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS. Let me just say that I had no previous experience of Josie and co.; I had not read a single issue of the comic nor had I seen one episode of the show, so I have no idea whether or not this movie is a faithful adaptation of either. All I really knew was that the creators of FLINTSTONES : VIVA ROCK VEGAS were involved, so I wasn't really dying to see this. In fact, let me also say that under ordinary circumstances, i.e. if this wasn't a free test screening, I probably wouldn't be interested in shelling out my $8 for this thing. Tonight's epic was a workprint-from-hell that was possibly held together with duct tape and featured the occasional blurry scene and really bad CGI.
We are introduced to Josie and the Pussycats (Rachael Leigh Cook as Josie, Tara Reid as Melody and Rosario Dawson as Val), a struggling punk-pop band in the town of Riverdale who play at such luxurious locations as the local bowling alley for $20. We are also introduced to DuJour, a Backstreet Boys parody boy band (featuring Seth Green, Breckin Meyer and others) and their slimy manager Wyatt (Alan Cumming, who apparently is bent on cornering the market in "nerdy villain" roles). On board their private jet, DuJour discover that there is a strange sound underneath the music on their latest single. When they ask Wyatt about this, he and the pilot promptly parachute out of the plane, leaving the band to their fate.
By an extraordinary Movie Coincidence, Wyatt lands in Riverdale, and needs to fill DuJour's space fast. By another extraordinary Movie Coincidence, he nearly drives his car straight into Josie and the Pussycats. He signs them to his record label, and off they go to the studio.
The studio (MegaRecords, or something else equally creative like that) is run by Fiona (Parker Posey, in an absolutely ridiculous OTT what-was-she-thinking performance). The scam she and Wyatt are running is putting subliminal messages into their bands' songs to buy certain products (the strange noises that DuJour were asking about), and Josie and the Pussycats are their latest hot band to send out these messages.
Well that's the main plot, for what it is. We also get a token romance between Josie and some Whoa-Dude nerd (Keanu called - he wants his DNA back), which involves the usual cliche of them not being able to tell each other how they like, ruhhlly feel about each other. No, don't look for any creativity in this movie, you'll be sorely disappointed.
The performances...well since this movie was adapted from a cartoon, it looks like everybody decided to act like they were in a cartoon. Fair enough, it ain't Truman Capote we're dealing with here, but there is such a thing as TOO cartoonish, Parker and Alan. There is an attempt to actually give the Pussycats different personalities; Josie I guess is supposed to be the smartest of the bunch, Val is the suspicious one who senses that something is not quite right with their whirlwind success, and Melody gets to be "the cute/ goofy one", which consists of her actually being a one-note retard who apparently hasn't matured past the age of eight (Just like the creators of this movie? (Cymbal Clash!)...hehe only kidding...maybe). I must repeat that Parker Posey is really bad. It's the kind of performance that makes you wonder if her whole indie princess thing was just a fluke.
Oh yeah...this movie is a comedy if I didn't mention that already(!) But the thing is, I never really laughed. I know I'm not the target demographic for this movie, but there just wasn't anything in it for me. Remember that Simpsons episode a couple of weeks ago where Homer became smart and went to the movies? And the entire theatre was laughing at the movie except him? That was me tonight. None of the humor operated at anything above the lowest common denominator. The idea of wit in this movie is to have Alan Cumming make an in-joke about Romy and Michelle's high school reunion (hey, that's all like, ironical and shit, yo!), or for Tara Reid to meet Carson Daly and have both of them declaring the other to be cute. Hey Carson- Joe Dirt and now this, quite the movie career you got going here!
But the real insult of this movie is its theme. The EEEEVIL plan of Fiona and Wyatt is to push products to kids, and yet the entire movie is crammed full of product placements; I swear there was something with a logo on it in every scene. Now I presume that some of these were meant to be funny (such as when Josie goes to an aquarium and we can see an Evian sign in a fishtank behind her. Oh please tell me that was meant to be a joke? Please???!) but other placements were there to pound you into submission. Target, Coke and Starbucks were the particular offenders here. Wyatt takes the Pussycats to Starbucks when he meets them. Just so we don't miss that they are in Starbucks, there is a Very Big Sign in the frame. The Pussycats all go to the bathroom together, and even in the freaking bathroom there is a huge STARBUCKS COFFEE sign behind them, in fact Starbucks ought to campaign for a best supporting actor nod for this movie. The message at the end of this movie is that you should, like, think for yourselves and stuff, and your friends are more important than material possessions, etc etc, and it's all about The Music, not The Marketing, but coming from Universal studios that's a bit hollow, isn't it? Look for those T-shirts, soundtrack CDs and Josie action figures coming to your local mall soon, kids!
Yes so, I basically thought this movie sucked. I know I'm not the only one, as I saw several walkouts, and there was some minor applause at the end but hardly a standing ovation. I can't honestly think of any aspect of this movie to recommend. Well except for Rachael Leigh Cook in a bathtub in one scene (NO to the question you all just asked - strictly PG13 territory here). There is one atrocious scene that really needs to go; when Fiona invites the Pussycats into her room to get to know them...what the hell was that all about? It was just awkward and unfunny. Take that scene out at once! Burn it! It's horrible! And it wasn't just me, nobody was laughing. Also the scene where Fiona and Wyatt do some OTT Bond villain style evil laughing, it goes on for about a minute and is just painful. Yes, evil laughing, haha, we get it. But try the "less is more" approach when we go back to the editing suite, please?
Anyhoo, the kids near me in the theater were into the movie, and they are who the movie is aimed at after all. So if you're 13 or under, or have either a rabid Rachael Leigh Cook obsession, or the ability not to think when you go to the movies, then this is the flick for you! Anyone expecting anything other than bland, formulaic cutesy "fun" should best avoid.
Max California
