Drop Dead Gorgeous

I love movies about good people committing bad deeds. This film checks a lot of boxes for me; solid jokes, my fav actresses and excellent use of color & costumes. I am really happy that people are finally starting to come around to this modern masterpiece. The mockumentary-style is an under appreciated artform and I would love to see more of these types of movies getting made today.

This is the funniest movie I've seen so far this year, although I think it loses steam in the last 20 minutes or so. Also, my political correctness must be showing when I feel that the Will Sasso character is in unnecessarily poor taste.

I won't spend a lot of time with spoilers or fancy adjectives to describe this super movie. I will just say it is one of those movies you can watch again and again to pick up additional subtleties you missed the previous times, like the original "Airplane" spoof. This spoof on misdirected ambitions hits home to most of us who have at times teetered a bit with fairness and honesty when a giant ambition or goal is at stake. The words to best describe this movie might be: achieve an ambition vicariously through your offspring!!

Blistering sendup of pageant culture and especially the Midwest, "Drop Dead Gorgeous" is dark comedy in the best sense there is. It never fails -- if I'm in a bad mood, this is an instant tonic. Its sense of humor is so gloriously wrong, absolutely wicked, and it always has me in one laughing fit after another. And this cast is incredible, I don't think anyone is dead weight. As much as I love Alison Janney, oddly enough, I have to give credit to Kirstie Alley for making someone so hateful still rather enjoyable. There is one person however who steals the movie (not an easy feat, I love everyone here) and that's Brittany Murphy. Charming beyond belief, and that laugh! I am deadass serious, if you don't at least smile when you hear her, check your pulse. Her contribution is immense.

People have commented on the similarities with Spinal Tap. Well I thought Spinal Tap was hugely overrated (it's funny but hardly a classic) whereas Drop Dead Gorgeous takes the mockumentary and injects it with genuine wit and comedy. Why it didn't do better at the box office is probably due to its satirizing of American patriotism (shock horror!) and restrained humour. The yanks probably thought it was an in-depth documentary about beauty pageants and stayed away. The best comedy of 1999, Drop Dead Gorgeous gets funnier with each viewing.

I looked at my watch about four times during this film. Apart from one, maybe two scenes, it's all but a lost cause. Using a psuedo "documentary" style for this "comedy" just didn't work for me. The direction was terrible. Much of the film just lays there, with a lot of silly, unfunny filler thrown in to keep things moving along. This is probably the worst movie I've seen this year and I nearly walked out about two thirds through the film. What a TURKEY. ** STAY AWAY **

The more I've watched this movie, the funnier it gets. Yes, not as serious a "mockumentary" as Chris Guest's stuff. But tons of black humor. Some very overt; "The 'tards' pants are completely off", to the more subtle: "Oh yeah. Guys get out of Mount Rose all the time on hockey scholarships... or prison." Just lots of little things that are brilliant. Much of the humor actually surprised me, didn't think you could still get away with it: "Tim! Carla, you two don't Jew me down too much on that dinette set, and I'll throw in a hutch for free..." Unreal. Notice that everyone smokes, even the firemen....at the fire. I could watch this movie once a week, easily. A $50 "scholarship" to a Voc-Ed of their choice???? A tape player coming out of Afghanistan? John Dough always wears beige... I was just happy to see Miss Vermont represented at the end...look carefully.