Pink Flamingos

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully vile filmmaking
Review: John Waters utterly rejects everything decent and clean and entertains us in the process. You can loathe this film, but you can't loathe Divine - he/she's a character like no other. While not a professional actor/actress, she gets plenty of mileage out of her sheer gusto and enthusiasm, and at the end we get to see just how devoted she is to the art of being putrid.

The supporting cast eats up their depraved roles, multiplying the fun. Miss Edie, the Marbles, Crackers, Cotton, and Channing are hilariously vile and grotesque people and I love them all. The awful camerawork, clumsy direction, and scratchy soundtrack add to the scuzzy experience that many won't want to relive but that none will ever forget. This blunt satire really wolloped middle America back in the day, and it obeyed my foremost requirement of satires - annoy conservatives.

The really interesting thing about this flick, though, is that the underground world glimpsed here has more or less become mainstream America. Turn on the TV and you'll see what I mean. It's all obese trash talking losers and bleeped out profanities now. Divine would be in her element.

Rating:
Summary: I don't get it.
Review: Okay, I dig cult films, especially from this time period. I'm not easily offended, and black humor--I get perfectly well. But unlike the general consensus of fans here, I just don't see what is so hilarious about Pink Flamingos. I understand it is a low-budget, over-the-top, gross-out publicity stunt, but I didn't find it particularly clever. Pecker is truly hysterical and Serial Mom is one of the darkest, funniest movies I have ever seen, but Pink Flamingos' is merely one lewd freak show stunt after another. Shocking? Definitely. Memorable? You bet. Witty or imaginative? Not to me. Yeah, the chicken sex made me laugh; but then there's a fat lady in a playpen, a few characters have red or blue hair, we get some rectal gymnastics and the loud drag queen eats poodle feces for no apparent reason. These and most gags range from mildly weird to just plain annoying to obtusely gross to predictably juvenile. You will certainly cringe and have lots to talk about after, but I just don't think you'll be in stitches during this movie. If you like Tom Green, you'll love Pink Flamingos. But if you are a fan of John Waters' later films, you probably won't be that impressed.

Rating:
Summary: Funny
Review: PF was the most unusual mainstream film I ever saw. It's really funny in a sick way. Babs' quotes are hilarious! It was funny when Babs' and her son licked furniture, and sounded as if they werre having sex. That was over the top. The execution scene at the end was even funnier. The part that is questionable, is whether Babs ate the dog droppings or not?

One thing that I found wrong with the movie, is that Divine's name is Babs Johnson in the movie. But she is called Divine through parts of it.

Rating:
Summary: ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE!
Review: Wow!, where shall I begin?! Here in the Netherlands there's also a movie industry, but of course not like the multi billion dollar industry like Hollywood.
Therefore, to draw viewers and to compete with the mainstream, Dutch movies are kinda different. Different in a way, that they often have nudity and/or violence in a way like; here it is, no beating around the bush, but you just see everything, no holds barred.
Luckily, we are a free country too, and very tolerant, so movies are in no way cut or censored; the way it should be. One should choose oneself what he wants to watch, and no censorship should make that decision.
Well, that information provided, I thought I saw it all already in Dutch movies. And American movies are unfortunately often censored, and it kinda looked to me as if it was very prude.
I often don't understand it, because on the other hand, the prude country (NO OFFENCE!) which cuts movies, is also selling guns on every street corner, and has the biggest x-rated industry in the world.
No offence in any way, by the way; don't get me wrong, I'm a USA-fan!
Anyway, as I said, that provided, it was absolutely unbelievable to see this movie coming from the USA.
I just couldn't believe my eyes, especially when I think that this was released in the 70s.
I got one shock after another when watching it, but I just love it.
This is a prove of freedom of speech, one who puts everything in a movie he wishes, without censoreship or what so ever.
Just great! This is FREEDOM!
Besides the "shocking" parts, it was just hilarious and I really loved it.
A great soundtrack and a strange story. An unpredictable story, and not a story that has been used already in 100 other movies.
Divine plays the filthiest person alive, but one couple isn't happy she got that title, and they start a "war" with Divine, to show the world that they are the filthiest people alive.
This male/female couple kidnaps girls, enpregnate them, and sell the babies to lesbian couples.
Haha, how does John Waters think of it! Absolutely brilliant.
Besides that, the male of the couple is a flasher too.
That was the first shocking scene. He flashes 2 girls, and there's no "covering", you just see it hanging there, with even a salami tied to it, haha.
Divine, is filthy, lives in a trailer with her family, including a huge and fat mother who sits in a babybox in her underwear eating eggs all day. Hilarious. Her son, likes to make love not only to girls but simultaniously to chickens. Also this is a -no holds barred- scene.
The only thing that offended me, was that Waters used real live chickens and killed them just for this scene. Okay, he's right in the extras on the DVD, saying that this chicken would have been killed anyway, because they don't land in our meals due to having a heart attack, but nevertheless, I don't think this will make it right to kill animals just for entertainment, so that was the only thing I hated about this movie.
Hence this was the second shocker.
The third shocker was very strange and unbelievable. At Divine's party, a male dancer strips, and shows a very odd "talent'; well, if I tell it like it is, this review won't make the site due to censorship, and I don't really know how to say it delicate either. Well, I'll try; picture you making a fish mouth with your lips, and opening and closing it; well, this dancer opens and closes another "mouth"-like muscle.
The fourth shocker was as hilarious as shocking. The flasher chose a new victim to flash; a pretty girl; he walks to her, and flashes again, and again you can see everything, but then; this girls takes out a [...] and jiggles with it to the flasher, he jiggles his "salami", and -here comes the shocking and hilarious part- this pretty girl, lifts up her skirt, and shows her thing, but it isn't what one expects, she also shows her "salami", whahaha, it turns out to be a transsexual. The flasher is just as surprised as the viewer and runs away screaming; hahaha; I couldn't believe it, I was shocked, but I was also on the floor laughing! Utterly great!
The final shocker, was for real and not that hilarious in my eyes, this scene was just absolutely gay.
No offence to gay people, but I just don't enjoy seeing the "deed". Divine and her son, entered a home, and trashed it, they got so exciting by trashing it (trashing in this case was licking the furniture,haha), that they wanted each other, so Divine gives her son a BJ (you know, the oral thing), and again, you'll see it completely; then, thinking that Divine was really a man, this scene was a bit disgusting to me.
But the rest of the hilarious scenes make up for it.
And the final scene, is truly unbelievable. Divine, proves once and for all, she is the filthiest person alive, by eating fresh laid dog poo. This is for real! I watched this scene, studied and analyzed it, believe me, it is real. You'll see the dog laying it on the pavement, she picks it up, while the dog is still standing there in his position, and in one camera movement you'll see it going from her hands into her mouth. This scene in shot in one movement, without any editing, so in no way they could have replaced the poo by chocolate for instance; it is therefore real poo she's eating, and she even has to gag from it, while "acting". So shocking and unbelievable that it is FUNNY and HILARIOUS.
Over all, I recommend this movie to anyone, who is in for a cheap laugh!
Enjoy it!