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Cecil B. Demented

Cecil B. Demented

List Price: $19.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great and Fun time, watch this movie!
Review: I just want to say that I abosultely LOVED this movie, it was so funny- I am a huge fan of John Waters, anyone who is a fan or not for that matter should really give this film a chance, you may love it you may hate it- I know I loved it!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Recommended, but not so much for the movie
Review: The wonderful new medium of DVD often results in the following bizarre situation: I'm recommending this DVD, but not so much for the movie on it! To be sure, "Cecil B. Demented" is certainly watchable and pretty funny here and there, but this tale of an underground film maker out to destroy all things Hollywood needed to be a little less loud and obnoxious and a little more subtle and clever. No, the reason I really liked this DVD was because of the extras, two of them in particular. There's a great "making of" piece that originally aired on Comedy Central and a terrific running commentary by director John Waters. In both instances, the comments of the director and actors are MUCH more funny than the stuff in the movie. So, buy this DVD or better yet, rent it. But if you rent it, make sure you can keep it enough days to watch the commentary and the extras. To end with a positive comment about the movie itself, it was nice to see Mr. Waters venture back into hard R-rated territory after toiling in PG-13 land for far too long. Some of the... uh... more mature jokes are definitely a riot. So, the movie is absolutely worth a look; it's just that it had too many mediocre stretches between the inspired stuff.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst Movie Ever
Review: Cecil B. Demented is a bad movie in its purest form. I cannot comprehend someone enjoying this movie. People have given this atrocity of filmmaking higher marks in part because of it being an underground film. This is totally absurd because if a movie is bad it is bad regardless of its budget. I want to set the record straight by saying I despise the type of huge budget 'Hollywood Twinkie' movies that are made fun of in this movie. But, what I despise even more are unendurably bad movies that try and get by on being art films or underground films.

In some ways it is impossible to describe why Cecil B. Demented is so bad. It features scene transitions that belong on the Fox Family Channel. It has terrible dialogue, the acting is sub par, the plot is crap (sorry, there is no better way to descibe it), the action and portrayal of the police as merciless killers are so absurd that they almost made me cry, and finally any movie that uses the word horny as much as this movie did (it seems like they say it every other sentence) could not possibly deserve more than two stars.

When, I first watched this movie I watched it with around a dozen of my friends and we all had the same reaction. It was so bad we watched a good portion of the movie on fast forward. One day after first seeing the movie I noticed that it was on HBO, so I decided to give it another try because I found it hard to believe that it could have been as bad as I remembered. Unfortunately for me it seemed to be even worse than I remembered and I was stuck without being able to fast forward. For some reason I watched until the end, which to this day I can not come up with a sane reason as to why I put myself through such suffering again.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absolution for Pink Flamingos: Waters Forgiven !
Review: First, let me say that this is my new Favorite Movie !

I hereby Absolve John Waters for making "Pink Flamingos." He has redeemed himself, with this movie, and all sins are forgiven.

Seriously, "Cecil B. Demented" is destined to be not-only a Cult Classic, but a hit amongst the younger generations. The characters are fascinating and the non-stop Action keeps your attention focused from beginning to The End. Even the opening credits will grab your attention! I am very glad I purchased this movie, because I know I will watch it many times--which is not the norm, for me. A movie must be very well-made for me to watch it twice.

I thoroughly enjoyed the entire movie and there are so many things I would love to mention, but I don't want to ruin the Surprises! The only problem I had with the movie was the way the Police were portrayed....I had a hard time buying that. Yet, if you think of it in context of a social statement, it will not trouble you.

ALL Movie Fans & Buffs (especially Cult film lovers) need this movie. This is a movie MADE for people who Love movies.... perhaps, too much.

The actors are perfect for their parts, Waters is a genius.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not the worst John Waters movie...
Review: ...I think Cry-Baby wins THAT award...however, this isn't that bad, and I found it funnier than Pecker. I would consider this on-par with Serial Mom....

You can read what the movie is about from other reviewers or the synopsis offered. I just wanted to comment on the DVD itself, in particular, John Waters' commentary track. It's very interesting and funny to hear him reminisce about the old days, and also to know about some of the scenes where some of the old "Dreamlanders" made cameos.

I only gave this 3 stars because there is more than the usual amount of corny gags as compared to other John Waters movies. There is a passe scene where the heterosexual hairdresser laments his heterosexuality....PUHLEASE! And every now and then, the movie looks like a cheap 80s comedy...not sure how to explain it, but whenever the crew pulls out of their porn theater hide-out, it looks like a scene from DC Cab or something.

Anyway, there are quite a few laughs to be had. Melanie Griffith is particularly hilarious in the openning hotel scene, and there are a few surprises as far as cameo appearances. I liked Serial Mom, and the humor quotient was about equal here, so I guess I can say I recommend it, but probably only for Waters fans, who are accustomed to overacting and cheesiness.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: madcap fun
Review: Like pretty much every John Waters flick, "Cecil B. Demented" floats for a really long time on its own high-strung energy, with name-brand actors jumping into cheesy camp with gusto. Here, we have a guerrila filmmaking crew (consisting of the cliched Goth, lesbian, stoner, gay, African-American, etc.) led by the title character (played by Stephen Dorff) that kidnaps a stuck-up Hollywood actress (Melanie Griffith) and forces her to be in their movie. At first she's reluctant, but eventually she becomes the typical Waters martyr that shuns the hypocrisy of 'mainstream Hollywood.'

"Cecil B. Demented" is a worthwhile effort that owes a debt to "Ed Wood" and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," but is consistently amusing even when it starts to lose momentum near the end. Like in most Waters films, the humor and situations tend to get exhausting toward the the third act, and this is no exception. But as a whole, "Cecil B. Demented" easily outshines anything the Farrelly brothers or the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker team has come out with in the past decade.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a treat for real movie lovers
Review: All you "movie lovers" out there who are the genuine article, prepare to laugh - HARD! In "Cecil B. Demented," famed off-Hollywood filmmaker John Waters has turned his attention to a subject that is obviously near and dear to his heart, and, in fact, near and dear to the hearts of all true lovers of movies everywhere. In his latest wild comedy, he has tackled the seemingly irreconcilable conflict that exists between the worlds of big budget mainstream Hollywood moviemaking and low budget, renegade independent cinema - a conflict that the latter always seems unfairly and unfailingly to lose. Waters certainly knows whereof he speaks - he, himself of course, being one of the great pioneers and icons of the underground film movement. He launched his directorial career and made a name for himself in independent film circles way back in the 1970's with such crude landmark underground classics as "Pink Flamingoes" and "Female Trouble." Since that time, he has himself received some heat from diehard indie film purists who have considered him something of a sellout for producing offbeat but decidedly more "commercial" works like "Hair Spray," "Cry Baby" and "Serial Mom, " often with big name actors and actresses in starring roles. Yet, even with this more polished sheen, Waters' films have always retained that quality of outrageousness and that willingness to push the envelope that distinguish his vision from that of more mainstream filmmakers.

"Cecil B. Demented" is a particularly funny film for those who share Waters' outrage at the mass audience's seeming preference for the bland unoriginality of much of the product churned out by the cinema factory known as Hollywood and its seeming dismissal of the cutting edge experimentation and originality that define so much of independent filmmaking. And he lambastes a money-hungry industry that is all too eager and willing to supply the public with the big budget, special effects-ridden pablum it seems to crave. Or is it - in classic chicken-or-egg fashion - really the STUDIOS that condition the audience into thinking that those are the films that they want to spend their hard earned money to see? At any rate, Waters' clever parody follows a Patty Hearst-type storyline (as usual, Patty Hearst herself appears in the film) in which a group of bizarre, renegade independent filmmakers kidnap a Hollywood starlet (Melanie Griffith at her most likable) then force her to star in their reality-based new film which involves them filming themselves as they storm, guns blazing, into theatres that are showing putrid mainstream films, all in a righteous effort to bring commercial cinema to its knees.

"Cecil B. Demented" provides a rapid-fire onslaught of clever inside jokes lampooning both mainstream and independent filmmaking. Although his heart obviously lies with the latter, Waters also can remain objective enough to skewer some of the self-righteous pretentiousness that occasionally creeps into that type of filmmaking as well (he even shows that, as a director, he is damn good at staging one of those slick car chases he professes to abhor). Yet, as this clever parody plays itself out, most of us watching the film can't help but nod our heads in amused agreement with much of what he is showing us. In addition to the jokes themselves, Waters provides amusement with his sharply delineated comic characters each of whom satirizes a different aspect of the renegade subculture. We have, for instance, the maniacal, fanatical, single-minded director (delightfully played by Stephen Dorff) who sees himself as nothing less than the messiah sent to destroy commercial filmmaking and erect a cinema based on iconoclasm and originality in its place. We have all his devoted followers who run the gamut from Satanists to porn stars to punk rockers to straight hairdressers to gay truck drivers etc. Without question, much of the zestful energy that propels this madcap film forward comes from the dead-on performances of the actors and actresses in these roles.

Energy and originality are in fact the hallmarks of this film from start to finish. "Cecil B. Demented" may not be Waters at his most outrageous, but it provides loads of pleasure for film lovers who have been thinking many of the same thoughts that only Waters, in his uniquely humorous way, could effectively get across. Real movie lovers of the world unite! Cecil B. Demented is here to save the day!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: CECIL B. DeMENTED
Review: Cecil B. DeMented is a young amatuer film maker, who along with his assembled band of 'cinema terrorists,' kidnaps Hollywood star Honey Whitlock and forces her to appear in his first underground film called 'Raving Beauty.' Cecil decides to shoot his movie out in reality, using real places and terrorizing real people in order to give his movie a more realistic quality.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Mix of J.W.'s Early Offensive Flicks and the Mainsteam
Review: This movie may be a bit of a bore for those longing for the offensive, low budget flicks in Waters' early days. The offbeat scenes cannot measure up to those found in Pink Flamingos or Desperate Living, but the story line does a well enough job on its own to make it worth watching. Griffith does an excellent role as the middle aged movie star fading away in the mainstream who gets caught up in a low budget anti-social film after she is kidnapped by Cecil B.'s gang.

Much of the humor is only tongue in cheek and not the belly roll laughter generated by the totally perverse comedy of the early J.W. films. Many of the original Waters "movie stars" are in this movie, but to my dismay, Mink Stole is killed off early on, which may be one of the reasons why this is not the best effort from the demented Baltimore film maker.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: OH NO!!!
Review: First off I want to start by saying I am a big John Waters fan. Sometimes he may not come up with the best movies but at least they are interesting, that is until this one. I found myself bored stiff watching this and couldn't even make it half way through. Let's hope it is just an abberation. This is one of the worst movies I have ever seen


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