Dom Robinson reviews
Josie and the Pussycats
Distributed by
MGM
Producer:
Tony DeRosa-Grund, Tracey E. Edmonds, Chuck Grimes and Marc E. Platt
Screenplay:
Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan
Music :
Cast :
Josie McCoy: Rachael Leigh Cook
Based on a comic book and subsequent TV series, Josie and the Pussycats Rachael Leigh Cook ), ditzy Melody (Tara Reid ) and
seemingly token black girl Valerie (Rosario Dawson ), once the boyband,
Dujour, make an unceremonious and untimely exit, leaving smarmy agent Wyatt
Frame (an excellently wry performance from Alan Cumming ), from MegaRecords,
having very little time to track down a new one and so events lead him to sign up the
aforementioned trio.
Melody and Valerie start to feel a little jealous though about the fact that
Josie's taking centre stage, even though she's the lead singer. The question
is begged as to whether they will become another slave to the usual marketing
ploys or if they can break free of those trappings. Then again, once you see
the influence that MegaRecords has on the general population it will prove
to be a tough cycle from which to break out.
Product placement. That's what's being built into the music through subliminal
messages, instead of the usual accusations of the satanic variety. However, this
does grate a bit as so many product names get mentioned during the course of
the film - and it doesn't make me want to buy any of them :)
The rest of the cast is complemented by Parker Posey as weird MegaRecords
boss Fiona, Gabriel Mann as Josie's fledgling rock boyfriend "Alan M.",
Paulo Costanzo as the band's original manager and Alexander Cabot III
and, finally, Missi Pyle , playing his sister Alexandra who, by her own
admission, is only along for the ride because her character was in the comic!
And if you've never seen the comic book or cartoon series, neither have I.
Must be a part of American culture that never made it to the UK. As for the
film, it's very entertaining for a while, helped largely by Ms. Cook and to a
lesser point Ms. Reid, but it doesn't take long to fall into the same traps
and go down the same roads as plenty of other films of the same genre.
Fame comes quickly.
The picture looks almost flawless and any minor defects are the type that would
only be spotted by close examination of the screen. The film is presented in
the original 1.85:1 widescreen ratio and is anamorphic with great colour definition
that's oft-used in the multi-colour world of a pop band.
I have zero complaint with the sound, which comes across clearly in DD5.1 in
three langauges but, apart from a few rock tracks, there's not a great deal
to test your speakers.
The extras begin with a 2-minute Trailer in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen, a
24-minute Featurette , "Backstage Pass", with 16:9 non-anamorphic clips
and nothing that diverts from the unexpected apart from Rachael Leigh Cook's
cropped dyed-blonde hair in the overdubs which doesn't really suit her.
Three brief Deleted Scenes are included, along with three Music
Videos , two by Dujour and one by Josie and the Pussycats themselves.
Alas, from the Region 1 DVD, we're missing a DTS soundtrack, directors' commentary,
Production Notes, Cast and Filmmakers Notes and DVD-ROM features.
There are a mere 16 chapters to the movie, dialogue comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 for
English, German and Italian, while subtitles come in 7 languages: English and German
(both being for hard of hearing), Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and
Danish. The menus contain animation in the form of film clips and the "3 Small
Words" track.
FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
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