Movie Review

Critics have savaged this movie; Entertainment Weekly even went so far as to give it a grade of F in their review. I’m not particularly bothered by this since each bad review I’ve read starts out with a line that reads something like “A parody of Charlie’s Angels…” Don’t you just love it when critics cannibalize each other? It would be a lot more fun if they did it for real, then maybe people with some perspective could actually comment on movies.

This movie, which started out as a short film and was completely redone with a new cast for major motion picture release, isn’t actually a parody of Charlie’s Angels any more than it’s a parody of any James Bond movie. This movie can’t decide if it’s a parody or a spoof, or both at the same time, and that is one of its few weaknesses.

Working off the premise that there is a secret test hidden inside the SAT, a test that measures someone’s ability to lie and cheat, among other skills a spy might need, the D.E.B.S. attend a no-so-top-secret spy college. Our featured squad of D.E.B.S is Amy (Sara Foster), a perfect scorer on the hidden test and the academy’s poster girl; Max (Meagan Good), leader of the squad, driven and more than slightly intense; Janet (Jill Ritchie) a bit of a ditz who may not graduate unless she earns her stripes; and Dominique (Devon Aoki), only seen without her ever present cigarette if she’s snuck a boy into her bedroom after curfew.

Sent to observe a public meeting between Russian assassin Ninotchka (Jessica Cauffiel) and notorious super-villain Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster) which isn’t really business at all but a blind date set up by Lucy’s number one henchman Scud (Jimmi Simpson, playing deadpan to excellent effect) as he attempts to get Lucy out of a funk and back on the romantic merry-go-round.

America’s current paranoia about security and the conventions of espionage movies are put to excellent use as the D.E.B.S. observe Lucy’s disastrous blind date from above, in the company of the CIA, FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security, represented Bobby (Geoff Stults), a guy Amy has just dumped because she’s not “in love with him.” Bobby’s attempts woo Amy back turn what should be a quiet stakeout into a complete debacle of a shootout and lead Amy into a chance meeting with Lucy, a chance meeting that Lucy turns into something much, much more.

This movie is what it is: cute, funny, well shot, and likeable. It’s not great art, and it’s not pretending to be. It’s junk food, and as junk food goes, it’s pretty damn tasty.

The girls are more than attractive (also bowing to espionage flick convention the D.E.B.S. uniform is revealing — very short plaid skirt with a white blouse — and those of you with a Catholic girls’ school uniform fetish will appreciate it), the film is well shot, and the love story is sweet and charming. Jordana Brewster, who could not look more like a young Demi Moore if she were trying though she’s a better actress I think, and the rest of the performers in this first film directed and written by Angela Robinson are all right on the money. The scenes are confidently shot and even veteran actors Michael Clarke Duncan, playing the president of the D.E.B.S. academy, and Holland Taylor, as the head mistress, are directed with a sure hand.

For all of this, and for the sly, sly pun on the license plate of Lucy’s powder-blue 1958 Cadillac, I give this movie 4 popcorns out of 5.

D.E.B.S stands for Discipline, Energy, Beauty and Strength

Visit the official site

In western culture women generally have two coming of age periods: the first happens when a girl, hopefully a young woman, reaches her sexual maturity; the second happens when that same woman realizes that she is responsible for her own self-definition and begins to piece together an identity from the roles that have been thrust upon her (woman, girlfriend, daughter) simply because of her sex. For some women these life changes happen in close temporal proximity, and for some they are separated by decades. While Hollywood has tackled both these important times in a woman’s life, it has never managed to make the latter about anything except a woman’s search for her father’s love. It’s appropriate, then, that this is the essential theme of Elektra.
[Read more…] about Elektra

Movie review catch-up

D.E.B.S.

Elektra

House of Flying Daggers

Blade Trinity