Netflix A-Z: Coyote Ugly (2000)

Wow! Netflix A-Z is on fire! Its actually becoming quite a motivating force for me.

This next movie, Coyote Ugly, has been sitting in my list for a long time. I keep eyeing it and then brushing it off.  That actually is part of the point of this Netflix A-Z and thats to get to those movies I keep pushing away for unknown reasons.

Its interesting that I say 2000s and all the guesses of female lead movies, which is incredibly close. Good job!

Without further ado, lets get right to it! 🙂

Coyote Ugly (2000)

Director: David McNally

Cast: Piper Perabo, Adam Garcia, John Goodman, Maria Bello, Izabella Miko, Tyra Banks, Bridget Moynahan, Melanie Lynskey

Violet Sanford (Piper Perabo) is an aspiring songwriter from a small town in New Jersey who decides to head out to New York City in hopes of getting her big break.  There she realizes that the big city is lot more complicated and a ton of bad news.  On top of that, to become a songwriter, she needs to conquer her stage fright and perform her own songs.  In the meantime, she ends up finding a job at a bar called Coyote Ugly.  This place is run by Lil (Maria Bello) who hires girls to be her Coyotes that tease their (primarily) male customers, hoping for them to order more drinks and get drunk while enjoying a good show/time.

I’m not going to lie, when Coyote Ugly started, I had scenes of Burlesque, Flashdance and Magic Mike pop up in my head. Small town girl, aspring musical artist and lots of dancing and drinking.  Lets get the crap out of the way okay.  Coyote Ugly isn’t impressive.  I sat around and finished it because I didn’t really want to waste another evening watching it or it wasn’t such a long movie that deserved to be cut in two.  Whatever it was, I finished it. The story is as cliche and predictable as it gets.  There wasn’t much to figure out and the dialogue was equally foreseeable.  Small town girl meets random struggling dude, works at sexy job to pay the bills, hard-ass boss, gets robbed and doors slammed in their face, family problems/disagreements, overcomes fears and happily ever after.  You’ve seen it once, you’ve seen it all. But then, that’s never stopped me from rewatching Burlesque or any of the Step Up movies or whatever else.

Cliche stories just create a little indifference which is where I’m at with Coyote Ugly.  For one, I’d much rather sit through this one than Flashdance.  I haven’t reviewed that one even though I saw it within this past year.  It just got lost in the backlog but I hated the lady in that one.  She was annoying.  At least Piper Perabo playing Violet Sanford was good.  The highlight for this obviously goes to John Goodman playing her father and her boss Lil, played by Maria Bello.  Their roles were dynamic and they had some good fun dialogue.  The guy, Kevin played by Adam Garcia was decent.  He had a good boy next door charm that worked really well and they had decent chemistry to make their relationship believable even if it did proceed pretty quickly (but its a movie so I’m willing to suspend my belief). The other girls said weird things but they were really there for the fun and sexy parts and they did that very well.

Leading on that point, the dancing, sexy moves and music was really fun.  There were some nice moments.  Talking about that, one of the really fun ones was when this happened.  It was a little weird at parts but still a guilty pleasure moment 😉 Plus, there’s so many ladies up there that its nice to add a little balance, right?

I don’t really have much to say about Coyote Ugly.  Its an average drama-comedy music-related flick.  There’s a lot of guilty pleasure value to it whether its for the lovely ladies or for the music or that whole moment with Adam Garcia’s Kevin stripping and dancing awkwardly. Its a fun movie even if the story is nothing special.  Go in there solely to see some pretty ladies and some fun and you’ll be having yourself a nice time! 🙂

Have you seen Coyote Ugly? What did you think?

The next one with movie starting with D will be a special double feature.  One is an incredibly meaningless movie (its just here because I  and the other is a horror/sci-fi thriller that I have no idea what to expect. Any guesses?

Valentine’s Marathon: Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998)

I apologize for the sporadic reviews going up.  I’m still recovering from my cold, so energy levels are still not quite how they were.  It should almost be over *cross my fingers*.

Next up is Ever After: A Cinderella Story, as mentioned yesterday, also one with Drew Barrymore.  I’ve also never seen this one before but I personally love Cinderella stories so I wonder why I haven’t till recently.

Let’s check it out! 🙂

EVER AFTER: A CINDERELLA STORY (1998)

Director: Andy Tennant

Cast: Drew Barrymore, Dougray Scott, Anjelica Huston, Patrick Godfrey, Megan Dodds, Melanie Lynskey

 Danielle (Drew Barrymore) grew up under her father’s care until he dies suddenly after bringing home a stepmother, Rodmilla (Anjelica Huston) for her along with her two daughters, Marguerite (Megan Dodds) and Jacqueline (Melanie Lynskey). Her father’s death passed over the ownership of her home to Rodmilla and her daughters, dropping her down to being a servant.  However, she still grew up to be strong-willed and happy and knew how to defend what was right.  On a random meeting, she meets Prince Henry (Dougray Scott) who wants to escape his fate to marry the Spanish princess, hoping instead to be able to marry his true love, knowing little that he would end up falling for a girl who will awaken him to not only love but also the society/kingdom that he is supposed to take over.

Ever After is set up as a retelling of the “true” Cinderella story.  Cinderella’s real name in this case was Danielle de Barbarac played by Drew Barrymore.  I’ve seen a lot of really fun takes on the Cinderella story and while none is quite as enchanting as the Disney version, and some are just enjoyable in a rather silly way, this one adds a nice twist to it that makes it not only entertaining and fun but also really enchanting to watch.  There’s something that just draws you straight into the story and I believe it has to do with the wonderful cast here.

Drew Barrymore really takes on this Cinderella business and owns it.  I think this is my favorite role of hers of what I’ve seen so far.  Danielle’s gone through a lot but she’s smart and knows how to make positive change to make sure things are for the better and thats the person that should be with our Prince Charming here, Henry.  I think Prince Henry, played by Dougray Scott, which took me forever to figure out that he is Norman in Hemlock Grove was really cool.  I’m not exactly sure I really liked Prince Henry but the chemistry from Danielle and Prince Henry was amazing. I was pulled into their love and I’m not sure if that happens to others but for me, when I get into these love stories and they have the misunderstanding/breakup part (and you know they always have it), my heart kind of throbs a little because I feel the pain.  Thats when I know that I’m drawn into a good love story.  Its been happening less and less but its nice to feel it again for this one.

What Cinderella story is complete without an absolutely worthy villain in the stepmother.  I’ve seen Anjelica Huston a few times before this one although I can’t remember what exactly anymore but she was totally evil in this one as the stepmother Rodmilla.  Plus, we add in her evil influence on her favorite daughter, Marguerite (played by Megan Dodds) and their whole evil scheme and they just brew up quite the annoying and hated group right there.

The twist I did like was that we usually thought that both stepsisters were pure evil and spoiled but in this one, they make the younger daughter, Jacqueline, played by a young Melanie Lynskey, as a pretty good-hearted girl.  She’s neglected and pushed aside by her mother and in a way, she can relate to Danielle who really just wanted her stepmother to accept her so that she can feel motherly love, which of course never happened.  Another twist is that the fairy godmother in this one turns out to be a very silly Leonardo da Vinci who guides and encourages Danielle and Henry separately on love.

Ever After is a really awesome twist to the Cinderella story. It has a nice story with a convincing romantic chemistry between the leads and the supporting characters are equally fun to watch.  There are humorous moments as well as some sweet ones as well.  This is definitely one of my favorite roles by Drew Barrymore. I’d totally recommend this one.

Have you seen Ever After? Are you a Drew Barrymore fan? 

Christmas Marathon Double Feature: Arthur Christmas (2011) & Happy Christmas (2014)

Christmas is here in only a few days and I have a TON of stuff (tentative) that I want to put on, so I’m going to do a double feature.  Now, Arthur Christmas really deserves its own post BUT I’ve already reviewed it once HERE when I saw it on a flight back in 2012.  Except, I felt that it deserved a rewatch because when I’m on the flight, at a certain point things just feel really blah because I feel really blah and I think that affected my view of the movie. And then, there’s the issue of the second movie Happy Christmas but I’ll go more in detail below.

Lets get this started!

ARTHUR CHRISTMAS (2011)

Director: Sarah Smith & Barry Cook

Cast (Voice): James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Ashley Jensen

December 24th is a busy day for Santa and aside from popular belief, its not a one man show.  Santa (Jim Broadbent) has a whole group of support helping him be the most efficient possible to make sure every child isn’t missed. The biggest help comes from his older son Steve (Hugh Laurie) who is hopeful in being the next Santa.  Santa’s younger and much more clumsier son, Arthur (James McAvoy) is a full believer of Christmas and admires his father but is sent to take care of Letters.  When he realizes that a child was missed, he is determined, even though his father and brother believe it is impossible to deliver it on time to the child, to get the gift to there with the help of GrandSanta (Bill  Nighy).

Arthur Christmas is a brilliant animation and believe me, its a lot more engaging and entertaining to watch it on a bigger screen than the plane screen (obviously). The dynamic characters and the fun approach of a modernized Santa versus the traditional Santa works out to be a lot of fun.  Its full of hilarious moments intertwined in some awkward but still funny ones. It takes what we believe and adds a new little twist and its completely believable.

The voices are done so well. Arthur Christmas makes Arthur out to be so different, scared and abnormal in his family but also its him that makes this so heart-warming, fun and contributing to what makes this absolutely funny.  Arthur is a lovable character because he is unique as the clumsy worry wart who doesn’t believe that he can do anything other than worry and be scared. But he has the purest of hearts and that makes him awesome 🙂

I’ve already reviewed this once before but second viewing in a normal setting definitely accentuated the awesomeness in Arthur Christmas and in my last review, I said its not one I’d go to for Christmas every year, well, I take that back.  This one is definitely worthy for annual viewing 🙂

Have you seen Arthur Christmas? What did you think about it? 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS (2014)

Director: Joe Swanberg

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Melanie Lynskey, Lena Dunham, Mark Webber, Joe Swanberg

After a breakup, Jenny (Anna Kendrick) moves in with his older brother (Joe Swanberg), his wife Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) and child.  Jenny is irresponsible and not very trustworthy as they learn about it quickly but while she is getting over her breakup and moving forward, Kelly is also dealing with having a hard time finding the inspiration for her next novel.  With the help of Jenny and her friend, Carson (Lena Dunham), she starts finding that she needs to create a balance between her career, her family and her husband in order to feel more motivated and happy with her own life.

First things first, other than being set during Christmas, do not let Happy Christmas fool you with its title.  It has nothing to do with Christmas.  In fact, its pretty much an indie drama to the core.  Its a lot of low-key issues piling up together and moving in a realistic way of just watching a family interact with each other.  I’m not particularly a fan of movies like this especially since they always end in this somewhat weird abrupt fashion.

The cast did well with what they had and I could get on board with what the story was trying to say but in the end, it felt like I watched 82 minutes of really not much going on.  Maybe I’m too emotionally stunted to watch these things. Or maybe, I just don’t like to watch such profound movies with some deeper meaning to it, which kind of makes me feel really bad (like I have no depth) when I say that.  Except its the truth.  It just feels so meh.  The only thing I liked was the characters but the story itself didn’t have much going on.

I don’t know how to review something like this.  Reason for the double feature. I wasn’t exactly impressed with the movie but Anna Kendrick is fantastic in this so that kind of works out 🙂

(I’m kind of cheating to put this in Christmas marathon but it was part of my rundown and the title has Christmas in it, so it kind of works, right?)

Have you seen Happy Christmas? What did you think about it?