75 - Josie and The Pussycats

Connection To SIN CITY - Rosario Dawson

I feel like I should put this bit first before I go any further - I have so much affection for this movie. When I first saw this movie it was love at first sight.

The fact that the IMDB rating is 5.3 and a 53% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes (which I guess is the exact same score) makes me think only a small number of people will think it's average will some would have gave it a poor score, whilst others have give it a high score.

I know I heard of the Hanna Barbara cartoon before seeing the film for the first time I can't really remember if I ever saw it, me thinks it must have been on Cartoon Network or similar at one point in the UK and I have seen it (but to be fair certain Hanna Barbara cartoons can merge together).

While the film takes digs at advertising and the like, you could make an argument that it would have hit the nail right on the head if they didn't use actual real companies but still I guess it adds a sense of realism in the film that's not really there otherwise.

The film opens with the boy band Dujour (featuring Seth Green, Breckin Meyer and Donald Faison) performing Backdoor Lover, which does indeed sound like a genuine boyband song from around the time the film was made in 2001, on a plane ride to Riverdale, the boys tell their manager Wyatt (Alan Cumming) that they noticed an hidden message strange in their recording, Wyatt decides to parachute out the plane and let the plane crash, in which he lands in Riverdale's home town and needs a new group to latch on, it's then he comes across the girl band then called The Pussycats and begins use them as the new vehicle for doing sublime messages to youngsters.

The pussycats are played by Rachael Leigh Cook as Josie, Rosario Dawson as Val and Tara Reid as Melody - and Say what you want about Reid and the subsequent decade plus but she's absolutely adorable here as the air-headed Melody, I am not saying the makers of Victorious took the character for Cat but you can't certainly see the similarities. I liked the relationship between the three girls and the jealousy of Val towards Josie is built up well throughout the film.

The film villains are Cumming and Parker Posey, I enjoyed them and it seems like there was having a lot of funny going a bit OTT, though the film is usually better when the Pussycats are the screen, Posey has an awesome scene with a Senator. The best Pussycat related scene is probably the TRL scene.

Overall, the songs are catchy (I really like Pretend To Be Nice) and it's very funny even now after multiple viewings, the girls are pretty too look at and like I said have great chemistry, it's just a shame it didn't set the box-office alight and we got a sequel. I still love this film some 12 years after first seeing it.

33 - The Ladies Man

Connection To DEATH SPA - Karyn Parsons

Films based on recurring Saturday Night Live characters have been a mixed bag - well that's an understatement - for every Wayne's World or a Blues Brothers there's a It's Pat or a Stuart Saves His Family and it's biggest flurry seemed to come off the back of Wayne's World in 1992 that ended with The Ladies Man in 2000, since then only MacGruber as come to the big screen (though I'd pay good money for a Stefon movie). So did The Ladies Man effectively kill the "SNL Movie" or was it just a last gasp on something that was already on the way out?

It's probably a bit of both, the last few SNL movies - A Night At The Roxbury, Superstar - didn't really set the box-office alight and I imagine this was it's last chance and it's not that it's a bad film it's more there is a funny film in there trying desperately to get out.

Leon Phelps (Tim Meadows) is a radio DJ known as The Ladies Man who gives romance advice and lovemaking tips that let's just say and not all ways the best, who goes to far during a broadcast and is fired. He later recieves a note from a former flame who is willing to support his high style, but they haven't signed their name and must go through his numerous conquests, meanwhile a secret group consisting of angry husbands and boyfriends that their partners have slept with Leon find out it was him and want to get revenge.

I maybe jumping to conclusions but when a film comes in a shade over 80 minutes from a big studio, I always a imagine there was a lot of cutting and the final film is sort of like making do

Karyn Parsons, as his producer Julie and obviously likes him perhaps plays it too well, I've seen a few comedies have this problem where why in a million years they would like this schmuck but the warmth they bring in their relationship to the character feels real entirely because of the actresses performance (Christina Ricci in Bucky Larson: Born To Be A Star) was a similar problem).

Some actors who appear are better then the material - Julianne Moore (especially, but boy does she look cute in clown makeup) and Eugene Levy (but those his willingness to appear in the American Pie direct to DVD sequels - quality control isn't exactly his thing). Will Ferrell co-stars among some other SNL alumni (Chris Parnell) as does Lee Evans, whose attempt at American accent (like in There's Something About Mary) is distracting, Billy Dee Williams was also enjoyable as the barman at Leon's regular haunt.

Overall, funny every now and again and at 82 minutes it doesn't take too long of your time, but for a comedy it's just not gut-bustingly funny enough for me.