"Josie and the Pussycats" was directed by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, who directed that awful teen comedy "Can't Hardly Wait." It's not surprising that they struck out again with this virtually unwatchable pop culture satire/nauseating teen-bopper flick.
It's starts off with a bang, spoofing the whole "boy band" craze with Seth Green, Donald Faison and Breckin Meyer (who are all recycled cast members from "Can't Hardly Wait") all part of a group called DeJour. The way they show them flaunting themselves and the millions of annoying girls melting at their knees, screaming their lungs out, hits the target dead-on. Now that's good satire.
The rest of the stuff, involving product placement, subliminal messages and incoming fads becomes preachy and heavy-handed. It even assists the film in wandering into one-joke territory. Only sporadically did I laugh at the often pitiful attempts at satire. I understand what this film is trying to prove! Pop culture can be used for fraudulent purposes! Music managers can screw you over! Bands have a good tendency to break up, with the lead singer starting a solo career! Product placement can go too far! These are all good ideas for satire. But it all lies in the execution. In this case, the execution is very poor. All the satirical jabs are delivered in a forceful fashion. The actors would've been better off reading their lines off cue cards. Maybe if it were handled by a better team of writers and directors, with a better sense of intelligence and wit this could've been much more effective. A bunch of ditsy teen girls screaming out, "Pink is cool! Pink is the new red!" is not funny. It's annoying. But, as it turns out, the film is just as shallow and one-note as their previous disaster "Can't Hardly Wait," only hiding behind a slick, satirical facade.
Tara Reid's character is totally annoying. She plays the stereotypical dumb blonde. Her job is to ape around and say mindless things. Even retarded characters have to be handled with a certain sense of self-awareness. Even the characters of Bill and Ted, though simple-minded, weren't saying stupid things on account of stupid writing. They were saying stupid things on account of witty writing. But Tara saying, "Wouldn't it be cool if I can REALLY be in two places at the same time?" and running around the house like a fool saying, "I can be in the bedroom and the kitchen" and so on and so on--that is just plain stupid! I think the whole dumb blonde gag is one that has been done to death. And unless it's handled very delicately, the gag can fail miserably and sometimes even make you wanna gag. Alan Cumming is amusing as the sleazy manager. He's one of the few cast members to breathe life into this bland comedy. He's a fine actor and breathes more life into almost anything he does. He brings a touch of professionalism into this otherwise sloppy, amateurish work. Cumming brings in a couple of the sporadic laughs I had while watching the film. Also keep your eyes peeled (if you still decide to see this movie) for the great Eugene Levy, who has an amusing cameo. Eugene's the man! Rosario Dawson is a fine actress, who unfortunately doesn't always pick the best scripts. She starred in the awfully overrated "Kids" and the cliched urban drama "Light It Up" and now this? Rosario, you're a good, attractive actress. Make better career decisions.
And of course, we couldn't do without that predictable romantic subplot, in which the guy has a hots for a girl--in this case Josie (Rachael Leigh Cook)--and just doesn't know how to tell her. We know EXACTLY how it's all gonna progress and how it's all gonna end up, so why the hell are you even bothering us with this schmaltzy crap?!!! And why is it that the guy who has a crush on the girl is often brutally handsome. As if the girl hasn't jumped on his bones the whole time they've known each other? The climax is the ultimate exercise in preachiness and couldn't deliver its moral in a more "after school special" fashion.
I liked the title song. The film keeps an upbeat attitude, but there's absolutely no style behind the substance, not to mention laughs. Luckily, I watched the movie on DVD. Boy, was my finger itching for that "Stop" button the whole time. And often I succumbed to that itch. I could NOT watch this movie straight-through! It was too much torcher for me! Please don't get torchered like me! If you were torchered by all that previous teen-bopper trash, you'll be torchered again. Beware!
My score: 3 (out of 10)
It's starts off with a bang, spoofing the whole "boy band" craze with Seth Green, Donald Faison and Breckin Meyer (who are all recycled cast members from "Can't Hardly Wait") all part of a group called DeJour. The way they show them flaunting themselves and the millions of annoying girls melting at their knees, screaming their lungs out, hits the target dead-on. Now that's good satire.
The rest of the stuff, involving product placement, subliminal messages and incoming fads becomes preachy and heavy-handed. It even assists the film in wandering into one-joke territory. Only sporadically did I laugh at the often pitiful attempts at satire. I understand what this film is trying to prove! Pop culture can be used for fraudulent purposes! Music managers can screw you over! Bands have a good tendency to break up, with the lead singer starting a solo career! Product placement can go too far! These are all good ideas for satire. But it all lies in the execution. In this case, the execution is very poor. All the satirical jabs are delivered in a forceful fashion. The actors would've been better off reading their lines off cue cards. Maybe if it were handled by a better team of writers and directors, with a better sense of intelligence and wit this could've been much more effective. A bunch of ditsy teen girls screaming out, "Pink is cool! Pink is the new red!" is not funny. It's annoying. But, as it turns out, the film is just as shallow and one-note as their previous disaster "Can't Hardly Wait," only hiding behind a slick, satirical facade.
Tara Reid's character is totally annoying. She plays the stereotypical dumb blonde. Her job is to ape around and say mindless things. Even retarded characters have to be handled with a certain sense of self-awareness. Even the characters of Bill and Ted, though simple-minded, weren't saying stupid things on account of stupid writing. They were saying stupid things on account of witty writing. But Tara saying, "Wouldn't it be cool if I can REALLY be in two places at the same time?" and running around the house like a fool saying, "I can be in the bedroom and the kitchen" and so on and so on--that is just plain stupid! I think the whole dumb blonde gag is one that has been done to death. And unless it's handled very delicately, the gag can fail miserably and sometimes even make you wanna gag. Alan Cumming is amusing as the sleazy manager. He's one of the few cast members to breathe life into this bland comedy. He's a fine actor and breathes more life into almost anything he does. He brings a touch of professionalism into this otherwise sloppy, amateurish work. Cumming brings in a couple of the sporadic laughs I had while watching the film. Also keep your eyes peeled (if you still decide to see this movie) for the great Eugene Levy, who has an amusing cameo. Eugene's the man! Rosario Dawson is a fine actress, who unfortunately doesn't always pick the best scripts. She starred in the awfully overrated "Kids" and the cliched urban drama "Light It Up" and now this? Rosario, you're a good, attractive actress. Make better career decisions.
And of course, we couldn't do without that predictable romantic subplot, in which the guy has a hots for a girl--in this case Josie (Rachael Leigh Cook)--and just doesn't know how to tell her. We know EXACTLY how it's all gonna progress and how it's all gonna end up, so why the hell are you even bothering us with this schmaltzy crap?!!! And why is it that the guy who has a crush on the girl is often brutally handsome. As if the girl hasn't jumped on his bones the whole time they've known each other? The climax is the ultimate exercise in preachiness and couldn't deliver its moral in a more "after school special" fashion.
I liked the title song. The film keeps an upbeat attitude, but there's absolutely no style behind the substance, not to mention laughs. Luckily, I watched the movie on DVD. Boy, was my finger itching for that "Stop" button the whole time. And often I succumbed to that itch. I could NOT watch this movie straight-through! It was too much torcher for me! Please don't get torchered like me! If you were torchered by all that previous teen-bopper trash, you'll be torchered again. Beware!
My score: 3 (out of 10)