Rating: 
Summary: The Media is Evil!!!! (Fun Movie)
Review: 'Josie and the Pussycats' brings the 70's cartoon about a girl rock band to the big screen. Overall, people who gave the movie a pass the first time around at the theatres will be pleasantly surprised by this fun movie which pokes a little fun at pop culture and music.THE MOVIE: The Story: Josie and the Pussycats (Rachel Leigh Cooke, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson) are a garage rock band looking for their big break. When a huge recording contract and overnight success comes to the girls suddenly they realize all is not as it seems as they uncover a huge media conspiracy. The Cool Stuff: It's all about the story here. All the observers, conspiracy theorists and pundits who talk about how much the media controls the youth of America has their movie right here!! Overall, the movie's a pretty brilliant comedy that touches upon issues such as these as well as simpler, but important, things such as remembering where you come from and who your friends are. Some of the shots against current pop culture were pretty hilarious also (Boy Bands as well as the over abundance of consumerism) Bravo!! THE DVD: Again, like most DVD releases this DVD comes packed full of some great extras to enhance your viewing pleasure. While not quite as packed as some other DVDs what you get here is a nice mix. Among the goodies included here are: 1.Commentary ' always insightful 2.'Backstage Pass' - 25 minute feature that talks about, among other things, the actresses relationships and chemistry and them learning to play together as a real band as well as their rock costumes. 3.3 Deleted Scenes 4.3 music videos: 'Three Small Words' by Josie and the Pussycats, 'Backdoor Lover' by Dujour and 'Dujour Around the World' by Dujour 5.Trailers: The theatrical and teaser trailer plus trailers for other movies. 6.Production Notes ' more insight into the movie 7.Cast and Crew Bios THE VERDICT: Overall this movie was just nice. It may have passed most people's radar the first time around but if you are looking for a nice rental for the weekend or evening this is your film. The storytelling is very solid. The story works on the deeper level as a story about friendship and pursuing your dreams. It also works on a comedy level with its talk about media influencing the youth plus it's bashing of popular culture and consumerism. The DVD features, while a little fluffy, make this particular DVD a great addition to your DVD library if you are so inclined to purchase it. Final Grades: Movie: 5 stars
Extras: 4 stars Total: 4 stars Highly Recommended
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT MOVIE and TOTALLY SURPRISED ! ! !
Review: JOSIE and the PUSSYCATS(PG-13)...I wasn't at all sure what to think when purchasing this movie. I remember seeing the commercials and thinking it was going to be just another teenie-bopper movie. HOW WRONG I WAS! This movie is extremely funny and very well written. It's not the best movie in the world, but it's a great movie for the whole family to sit down and enjoy. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Wry, Funny Girl Band Movie for the MTV TRL Crowd...
Review: (For mine, anything with Rosario Dawson in it has gotta be okay). Rachael Leigh Cook--famously known as the new face of the "this is your brain on drugs" commercial--(Remember? She deeee-molishes that kitchen with a cast iron fry pan. To say nottin' of that egg.) plays a convincing Josie; cute, but edgy lead guitarist for a small town girl band itching to make it big. Papparazzi 'Party Girl' Poster Child Tara Reid plays the lovable drummer who's more concerned over who grabbed the last piece of candy from her stash than anything majorly important. Alan Cummings was made for those snarkily up- to-no-good prissy bad boy roles and he does the record executive who's bottom line is the bottom line quite well. One of the tricks of this movie is how they want to show how product endorsement and product placement work on the mind of the mass audience--and by showing these products the movie ends up doing what it satirizes. I guess you'd have to be there. You can tell what's gonna happen in the end way before it happens, but that *won't* stop you from having an enjoyable ride to that point...
Rating:
Summary: not as bad as you read.
Review: While in theatres "Josie and the Pussycats" - an adorably silly and sometimes-sentimental advertisement for everything from McDonalds to The Gap - did badly. Plain and simple, it just bombed. It barely lasted for a month, when three friends and me went to see it a week after it opened, there were two other people in the theatre. No exaggeration. Why? Well, I don't exactly know because contrary to popular belief, the movie is not that bad. It's juvenile and rarely funny, yes...but somehow the movie flows fairly well. Following a girl rock band from the bowling alley in their hometown to New York City. Where a desperate record executive, who is in dire need to find the next "big thing", before his boss fired him, discovers them.
Ultimately the whole ordeal turns out to be a test of their friendship and a hard lesson in life (at least for the three members of the band).
Rachel Leigh Cook and Rosario Dawson's characters, Josie and Val, are not exactly two dimensional, but they are boring. However, Tara Reid's character, Mel, is ditzy in an endearing way and the greedy record executive and Fiona, his boss, (played by Alan Cumming and Parker Posey) are fun, comical villains.
I'm not sure it's worth the money, but it is worth a try and if, like me, you decide you like it than by all means, buy it.
Rating:
Summary: I love this movie!
Review: Josie and the Pussycats is one of the best movies I've ever saw. It didn't do very well at the box office, but its because they didn't market themselves correctly. There are so much things to rave about, but I think most of the reviews spoil the movie by telling what its about, and I don't think the film makers wanted you to know because they never mentioned the other plot in the trailers. (Yeah I know my review sounds confusing!) But the other great things about this movie is that the characters are very likeable and hilarious. The girls actually look like rock stars, and the music just makes you wanna get up and dance. I swear after you've seen this movie, you'll have to get the soundtrack. The boy band DuJour is hilarious, and I loved the I Want it That Way spoof of the Backstreet Boys (although the Backstreet Boys aren't a boy band, they're a harmonizing group) although I wonder why there's four of them instead of five. Alan Cunning and Parker Posey are just perfectly cast, and they're such great actors. In short, JUST SEE THIS MOVIE!
Rating: 
Summary: Not your mother's pussycats. Or mine. Or yours.
Review: I think in the years to come, when people are studying film, this movie, though a flop, will be discussed as an example of the large problem that product placement or "brand integration" has become in Hollywood. Josie and the Pussycats is bad enough to begin with (despite having the characters and general idea from the comic and early 70s TV cartoon, the movie really didn't succeed in transferring the feel of the comic to the screen -- Alexander and Alexandra are wasted); but when the viewer is assaulted by product placement throughout it just becomes too much. I have never felt so insulted by a movie. This isn't a story, it's an hour and a half advertisement. Products and logos are so awkwardly inserted into every frame that I was overwhelmed. The filmmakers claim it's a subversive in-joke: I see it as deception. After all, the moviegoer still had to pay to see this movie. The movie itself is a travesty. Tara Reid has the comic timing of a slice of bologna. Her Melody (with an oddly gin soaked and cigarette hoarse voice) made me miss Jackie Joseph's pitch perfect voicework of the cartoon. Reid is an awful actress and it's agony to watch her try (and fail) to be funny. Alan Cumming and Parker Posey were entertaining as usual but I was ashamed that they did this and am hoping these were their "paycheck movies." Rachel Leigh Cook spends the entire film with the same questioning, bewildered expression on her face. Maybe she was wondering what she was doing in such a bad movie. Avoid at all costs. The one good thing about the film is that it may make people return to the ad free and infinitely more satisfying environment of books.
Rating:
Summary: Too much fun! How could you not love this?!
Review: Josie McCoy and her best friends, Valerie and Melody, make up The Pussycats, a struggling garage band from the town of Riverdale, U.S.A. They're gorgeous, they're talented, they're pretty naive, and they can't seem to get a break in the record business! Little do they know that Wyatt Frame, the main man at Megarecords, is looking for a new act, and he just happens to be looking in Riverdale. After the tragic deaths of the members of his most recent pop sensation find, boy-band Du Jour, Wyatt is desperate to find a replacement. When he stumbles upon Josie and the girls crossing a busy street with their instruments in hand, he signs them immediately, without hearing a single note of music from them. Suddenly, the newly dubbed Josie and the Pussycats are on a rollercoaster ride to fame and fortune, and within a week they have a number one song and a sold out concert on the horizon. But the girls don't know that the sinister music industry has been slipping subliminal messages under their tracks, using their music to sell everything from tennis shoes to Gatorade. When Valerie begins to catch on, Wyatt preoccupies her with the idea that Josie is hogging the spotlight, and when simple-minded Melody ALSO begins to get a bad feeling about things, Wyatt's boss, Fiona, decides the two trouble-making pussycats must be eliminated.
Josie and the Pussycats is fun beyond belief. A perfect cast and a smart, funny script carry this movie to a level few comedies have been able to reach recently. The potty humor is to a minimum, focusing the laughs on quirky characters and a great plot about trends and product placement advertising. Despite what some reviewers might say, this live-action version of the famous cartoon band does an excellent job of staying true to the characters, while updating them for a 21st century audience. The excessive product placement is meant to be a joke, not a huge ad. Anyone who says otherwise must have completely not understood the plot of the film, which is pretty sad since it was extremely clear and simple. A warning should be placed on the soundtrack to this movie though. The songs are great, with very sexy voices, but there is a LOT of sexual innuendo here and there. As for the perfect casting I mentioned before, Rachael Leigh Cook is gorgeous and talented as usual, a perfect choice, and definitely one of my top dream-girls. I only wish she had been cast as Sailor Mercury years ago in the live-action Sailor Moon movie that was almost made. Tara Ried and Rosario Dawson were well cast too. Though Tara's character, Melody, aside from being gorgeous, may also seem ridiculously stupid at times, this is only in keeping with the original cartoon character's personality, so God bless 'em for not changing her! Alexander and Alexandra were well cast as well, and really added some extremely funny moments to the film, as did the hilarious villains, Fiona and Wyatt. Alan M. was also well cast, though extremely scrawny in comparison to the original cartoon character, but that's the modern image of a hunk I suppose. Oh, and Du Jour, the boy band parody, was too, TOO funny! Great casting there too! Seth Green is always hilarious! All in all, this is simply an awesome movie! You can't go wrong by buying a copy! Definitely rising in ranks to one of my all time favorite films. As for DVD extras, there's a behind the scenes featurette, great deleted scenes, a hot little Pussycats video, two very funny Du Jour videos, and some other little niblettes. A warning though, for all the other guys like me, who'd do just about anything for a date with Rachael Leigh Cook: Though the Backstage featurette will give you some adorable scenes of Rachael, including seeing her with beautiful, long, brown hair, and again later with hideous, chopped and bleached hair, ha, you will also have to suffer through her going on and on about how gorgeous the guy who plays Alan M. is. It can be a tough segment to watch.
Rating: 
Summary: Buy this DVD! Eat Big Macs! Drink Pepsi one! Join the Army!
Review: Someone's lost their sense of humour! Well, I rented this video last night. I was pretty damn pleased with it, not least because of the pretty girls and pretty songs, and the back-door-lovin boy band. Many bits made silly-ol'-me fall of my seat laughing , like the Honk if you love pussy......cats. This sets the tone of the film and introduces us to the completely gorgeous lovable wacko Mel). The plot is laughable, but so what? Very cute Rachel acting as Josie is a little flat but who cares? The film pokes fun at a horribly real cross-mass-marketing culture, in which all forms of media gang up to sell us the same products, and feed us the same drivel about what's going on in our world. But it didn't get bogged down in a lesson in ethics. It's a very watchable film, and that's all you need to know. For those who go a little deeper: How can so many viewers/reviewers/critics can miss the very very obvious running joke about the totally OTT product placement, and instead tell us that there's a lot of product placement in the film. That it becomes exactly what it satirises? Isn't satire all about the characters drawing attention to unpleasant reality by living that reality hilariously? Lighten up! How can anyone think that the ridiculous McDonalds shower-scene and Mel's urge to eat big macs after hearing their music played back through a "processor" will really make all the kids flock to McDonalds to buy Big Macs and Ronald McDonald bath-sponges? (I'd rather buy a shower with Mel in it, but maybe that's inappropriate) There's nothing subliminal about all this, IT IS JUST A JOKE. Many seem to have lost their sense of irony. If we're assuming that kids won't get the joke, we're being very patronising. And maybe the fact that the distinction between
celebrating/slating the whole consumer culture is occasionally blurred in this film, makes the valid point that, WE MAKE UP OUR OWN MINDS. If you wanna diet coke, get one, otherwise don't! Recently, Justin Timberlake has teamed up with McDonalds here in the UK for a massive "I'm lovin it" ad campaign. No joke! Stick a Timburger in your CD player. The fact that MTV avoided showing much about this film suggests that MTV felt targetted, not flattered, by being cast as distributors of the corporate propaganda. Not a celebration but an attack. Surely a good thing? So..... cute likeable girls (esp Tara Reid), great one-liners and comedy timing by the pussycats as well as the other characters, bright sparkly production, fun fun fun! Did I like the film? Definitely. Would I buy the DVD? Yes, I think so. Was it better than Rock 'n' Roll High School which I bought last week (silly plot, stupid gags, great laughs and of course the Ramones)(...) well(...) that would be telling! Some reviewers can't spell PARODY (parity, parroty, perrady). Can we blame them for missing the gags? Watch it again, I say. The only truly subliminal message in the movie, from the gig scene at the end, managed to work through my mind into the title of the review. Whoops!
Rating:
Summary: Wry, Funny Girl Band Movie for the MTV TRL Crowd...
Review: (For mine, anything with Rosario Dawson in it has gotta be okay). Rachael Leigh Cook--famously known as the new face of the "this is your brain on drugs" commercial--(Remember? She deeee-molishes that kitchen with a cast iron fry pan. To say nottin' of that egg.) plays a convincing Josie; cute, but edgy lead guitarist for a small town girl band itching to make it big. Papparazzi 'Party Girl' Poster Child Tara Reid plays the lovable drummer who's more concerned over who grabbed the last piece of candy from her stash than anything majorly important. Alan Cummings was made for those snarkily up- to-no-good prissy bad boy roles and he does the record executive who's bottom line is the bottom line quite well. One of the tricks of this movie is how they want to show how product endorsement and product placement work on the mind of the mass audience--and by showing these products the movie ends up doing what it satirizes. I guess you'd have to be there. You can tell what's gonna happen in the end way before it happens, but that *won't* stop you from having an enjoyable ride to that point...
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie!
Review: This movie by far does not get the recognition it deserves. I just saw it for the first time about 2 months ago. I honestly thought it looked dumb at first, and that it was nothing but a cheesy chick flick. But I was wrong. My friend showed me this movie, telling me it was really good, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm very glad I did. Recommended for anyone!
|
