Rating: 
Summary: Not so good movie satarizes not so good movies
Review: John Waters is no ordinary director. I've always admired him for being an independent film maker and even for being somewhat of an anarchist. After he became fashionable, he still refused to make 'normal' movies, even though his projects were now financed by mainstream sources. His early works, Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble among them, lampooned the middle and lower-middle classes through an odd mix of cynicism and kindness. Later, in such movies as Polyester, Cry-Baby and Serial Mom, he did the same thing, but with bigger budgets and big name actors. His newest effort, Cecil B. Demented, takes aim at both mainstream Hollywood and low budget auteurs. I am afraid that this time he has missed the mark. The result is a low point in his career.A group of insane would be movie makers, led by Cecil B. Demented [Stephen Dorff] has infiltrated a Baltimore movie house. When a big studio movie premieres there, they kidnap its star, Honey Whitlock [Melanie Griffith], for the purposes of having Ms. Whitlock star in Demented's movie and of retaliating against the Hollywood system. In the part that works best, the gang brainwashes Whitlock into becoming one of them, just as in real life the Symbionese Liberation Army brainwashed Patricia Hearst thirty years ago. To make the whole affair even more, uh, demented, Waters has Ms. Hearst herself play Cecil's mother. The converted Whitlock joins the gang in attacking a multiplex, a movie set and a meeting of the Baltimore Film Commission. There are tons of film references here. Each member of this mad movie group sports a tattoo of his or her favorite director. The film set they attack is one for Forrest Gump 2. The multiplex they ransack is showing Patch Adams - the Director's Cut. As in all John Water's movies, the cast seems to have had one big party during filming. The resulting effect is that of an amateurish high school production. This technique has served the director well in the past, adding to his movies' comic effect, but here it is simply irritating. It helps to confuse us as to just what Water's point is. If the studios can't make good movies and independents can't either, then is he saying no one can make one these days? Based on this picture, it seems at least that he can't. Finally, Cecil B. Demented does not work because it is not so good movie that satirizes the fact that Hollywood produces mainly not so good movies. By turning the spotlight on Hollywood, which is admittedly a good target, Mr. Waters inadvertently shines it on his own movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Long Live Guerrilla Film-Making
Review: Even if you're not a fan of John Waters, which I am, this movie is worth seeing at least twice. Despite Melanie Griffith's somewhat tepid acting,its absolute absurdity at times will have you laughing long and hard. And not only is it a spectacular comedy but, like all John Waters films, it's got something to say. Cecil and the Sprocket-Holes' absolute disgust of mainstream film, while taken to ridiculous measures, makes one think: Why ARE there so many movies based on video games? Why do we insist on re-making wonderful foreign films just so we don't have to read subtitles? WHY ARE THERE TWO BRADY BUNCH MOVIES?????? Being something of a film coneisseur myself, as well as an aspiring film-maker, this movie held a lot more than a few laughs for me. I often found myself screaming obscenities along with Cecil's misfit gang. Stop the mass distribution of mediocre films. Yeah! Bring back the dream. Yeah!!! Family (as in "family films") is just another word for censorship! YEAH!!!!! Power to the people who punish bad cinema! YEAH!!!!! Ok, so perhaps I need to get a life. Be that as it may, Cecil B. Demented is still a great flick. If nothing else, watch it for the laughs...and the Christmas Trees. You'll see.
Rating: 
Summary: Typical Waters Garbage
Review: There's a reason why the vast majority of Waters' film get a turkey in ALL the review books: his movies suck. Period. I kept picking this one up at the local library, but not taking it home. This week I finally relented and gave it a spin. What a waste of 90 minutes! I should sue Waters' for the time I lost! First, this movie isn't funny. Not one single smile cracked my face. Now, before you call me a prude, or a retard, I love wacky cinema. Some of my favorite movies are off-the-wall films that most of my friends see as stupid and immature. This one, though, never got so much as a smirk out of me. The writing is dreadful, the directing and editing turn much of the overall plot into a sycophantic mess. Some of the acting is fairly good, but so much profanity comes out of their mouths. You know, just because someone says f#%k 1,000 times doesn't make them funny. In fact, I find the use of profanity a sign that the comic has run out of ideas and is trying solely to shock. And watching Waters crow over his work in the special features was painful. He's such a no-talent freak, and you could tell his cast was imbarassed to be seen in the same shot is him. (He reminded me of someone the Coen Brothers would make up in one of their paradoys - but I kept pinching myself, saying, "this guy is REAL!" Pathetic.) Take your filmmaking back in the closet, John. How you get any funding is beyond anyone's comprehension....
Rating:
Summary: laughing all the way to hell
Review: Unlike many other early John Waters fans, I have not been disappointed with his most recent efforts. Though perhaps not as perverse as Pink Flamingoes, as psychotic as Female Trouble or as jaw-droppingly appalling as Desperate Living, Cecil B. Demented is a hilarious, smart and even political film about a band of cinema terrorists (The Sprocketholes) who aim to overthrow Hollywood. Melanie Griffith is absolutely perfect as Honey Whitlock, an aging Hollywood starlet, who is kidnapped by the group and forced to star in their Guerrilla-style film "Raving Beauty." Loaded with characters that only Waters could dream up (an ex-porn star gone celibate for cinema, a male hairdresser who's ashamed of his heterosexuality), killer lines ("before I was a drug addict, I had so many problems; now I just have one - drugs!"), oddball cameos (Rikki Lake as Honey Whitlock's assistant, the spectacular Mink Stole - one of the original Dreamlanders - who dies of a heart attack after Cecil kidnaps Honey, Patty Hearst as a Sprockethole's mother, Kevin Nealon as Forrest Gump in the sequel "Gump Again") and overall fabulous costumes and style, Cecil B. is not to be missed. Where else are you going to find references to Fassbinder, Hershcell Gordon Lewis and Mel Gibson's balls in the span of an hour and a half?
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: I am a huge John Waters fan, but this movie does not come close to living up to his usual standards. It seems Waters is trying to balance between mainstream filmmaking for the larger audience appeal, and keep his previous biting cutting-edge. Serial Mom was able to do this -- this movie absolutely failed. It is poorly written, poorly acted (Melanie Griffith a bad actor? Yeah, that's a stretch), and poorly editted. The movie is suppose to be making a statment against Hollywood turning out so much mediocore garbage. This movie is a prime example of the type of garbage that shouldn't be turned out. John Waters' movies are by all means still worth buying and watching, just avoid this one.
Rating: 
Summary: funny and wonderful, Dorff is the man
Review: Stephen Dorff(Blade and S.F.W.(So **cking What) is Cecil B. Demented and he kidnaps Melanie Griffith to do a crappy film that he is gonna direct, but nobody wants it so then he trys to get his way and Griffith makes up her mind and goes on with the show. Dorff is over-the-top in this funny and wonderful movie. Directed by John Waters..if you know him then you know him, if you dont you dont
Rating:
Summary: Melanie Griffith's Finest Moment
Review: The cinematic pairing of John Waters and Melanie Griffith is a match that has been waiting to happen- the master director of "Pink Flamingos" and "Desperate Living" presents the mainstream actress a role of a lifetime and shows what a hilarious actress she really is. The premise of terrorist fimmakers naking their own underground film with a kidnapped mainstream actress not sounds outrageous, it kind of makes sense in a film community delivering products based on computer games or sequels to films that weren't very good to begin with. John Waters reminds us all that there was once a blossoming underground film industry,and Griffith reminds us that not every actor has to win an oscar to be cool. Stephen Dorf also makes an indelible impression in title role, and it's great to see cameos (although they are not long enough for my liking) of legendary dreamlanders Mary Vivian Pearce and Susan Lowe. In my book, an instant classic.
Rating:
Summary: very nutty!
Review: i've seen this movie more than 8 times now and whenever i come across it on the tv i'm very likely to watch it again. a small gang lead by Cecil B. demented (stephen dorff) is inflicting its vengeful hate of hollywood on multimillion budget film-shooting plateaux. why? because hollywood is producing nothing but big budgeted remakes of old classics, special effect-laden bores, cheesy sequels and syrupy love stories to appease the ever growing mob of tasteless cinema viewers. Cecil wants 'real' acting, with no edits, where raw emotions and atmosphere are preserved on film with all their intensity, honesty and boldness. oh, and cecil wants porn too, as hiding that aspect of our society is pure hipocrisy. so this, too, must be part of true, no-holds-barred-cinema. Cecil faces hollywood in his movies, using one of hollywood's dearest, the kidnapped Honey whitlock (M. griffith), who gradually adopts the outlaw gangsters' cause and succeeds in translating Cecil's anti-hollywood ideology with her vitriolic acting and belligerent attitude (cant get enough of her squeeky, high pitched voice). i'm an avid fan of extreme metal/punk/hardcore soundtracks like 'SFW' , 'heavy metal 3', maximum overdrive' or 'Demon Knight'. This movie's soundtrack is in the same league (in quality AND heaviness) with the abovementioned soundtracks; it gives the movie the insane atmosphere and break-neck pace it needs. i think one needs to see movies like that: plots that are thought 'out of the box', leave you with so much questions after the film's over. even if many wiseguys slammed this plot as 'corny' or 'superficial'. i say give this movie a try, it's a very entertaining viewing, with some very comical and witty references, not forgetting the awesome soundtrack ('chow-chow' is priceless)!! i must add that although there's much shooting and killing that occurs here, the directing doesnt focus on them and they immediately become background happenings. this, i think, is a work of genius, and the movie is worth viewing for that alone.
Rating:
Summary: Taste Tester
Review: John Waters' "Cecil B. Demented" pushes the envelope of good taste, which I like. Unfortunately, it didn't work well for me. I was all set to laugh uproariously at an irreverent look at H-wood, but it started going downhill when Cecil asks Honey to take her clothes off, and the cast and crew drop everything to run to this screen and start masturbating. Stephen Dorff who did a nice job in "Backbeat" does his best with this paper-thin role. Alicia Witt who was on TV's Cybil and in "Mr. Holland's Opus" does a valiant attempt as Cherish the porn star. But while these rebellious cinematic mavericks are pursing their goals, they are also killing people. For me, it was a bit like trying to develop a sit-com about the Manson Family; it just didn't work. The end where the shoot's been concluded and everyone starts copulating is cut by the fact that many like Cherish take a bullet to the brain. Self-mutilation & the starry eyed girl running around extolling the virtues of Satan weren't even poor taste; it wasn't funny and didn't work. Melanie Griffith who I do like is the reason I rented; although I've enjoyed Waters' "Pecker" before. She does a fairly good job with the role, but there isn't much depth required nor brought to the change from victim to willing participant. So while bad taste may have it's audience, superficiality may have its entertainment value, and there were lots of clever lines thrown about, this taste tester is not one I savored. Taxi!
Rating:
Summary: some funny stuff!
Review: ok...watch this movie is you wanna laugh at hollywood. its takes the [] out of it, in a funny way!
i love this movie and watch it over all da time "DEMENTED FOREVER!"
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