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A DVD Review of...
 
Images (C) Disney |
Genre: Drama
Cast: Piper Perabo, Adam Garcia, Maria Bello, Tyra Banks
Synopsis: "Coyote Ugly" is the story of one girl's wild adventures in the big city. Velvet voiced, 21-year-old Violet Sanford heads to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a songwriter. Her aspirations are sidelined by the notoriety she receives at her "day" job as a bar maid at Coyote Ugly, the hottest spot in town. The club features a team of sexy, enterprising young women who tantalize customers and the media alike with their outrageous antics.
Film Review: Jerry Bruckheimer's update of "Fame" (well it is in a way) is a surprisingly entertaining little drama about a young girl trying to make it in the big city. Bruckheimer knows how to keep the pace going along steadily despite only a so-so script. The acting on the other hand is mixed - Perabo is fine but a little wooden at times, whilst Garcia seems very comfortable in his role. The highlight though is Bello as the hardened female owner of the bar - cynical, yet nice. Whilst the bar scenes themselves are fast and great fun, most of the other scenes are just so-so due to the weak script. The story as well feels more like a TV movie of the week, though the directing is quite interesting with some unusual lighting. The soundtrack is also pretty strong, but unless your a young girl (or a desperately horny man) - this would make a better video than a theatre night out. - Garth Franklin
"Coyote Ugly"
DVD Details In Brief (Region 1)
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 101mins
Versions: 16:9 Enhanced Widescreen, 4:3 Letterboxed
Aspect Ratio: 2.35: 1
Sound: Digital 5.1 Surround, DTS 5.1 Surround
Language & Sub-Titles: English, French, Spanish
Audio: Commentary Track 1 by Tyra Banks, Maria Bello, Izabella Miko, Bridget Moynahan, Piper Perabo. Selective Commentary Track 1 by Producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Selective Commentary Track 2 by Director David McNally
Documentary: Three 'Making of' Featurettes
Deleted Scenes: Deleted Scenes
Clips: Full Theatrical Trailer, 'Action Overboard' Featurette, LeAnn Rhimes Music Video
Region 1 vs. Region 4: No Details for Region 4 |
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DVD Review: For those hoping it would include the nudity they couldn't get away with in the PG-13 version, forget it as you won't find it. Those who enjoyed the film though will enjoy this. The video quality is superb with the multi-coloured bar scenes coming up spectacularly whilst the sound in these scenes is replayed extremely well. Its a great transfer from Disney.
The commentaries with the Coyotes is the best extra feature here. While the girls are serious on screen they're darn funny on this track with each laughing regularly and having a good time recounting stories about how they filmed it and what ended up on screen (eg. the scene on the car boot was shot and added just before the film's release). Bello is the serious one, Perabo and one of the other girls are regularly talking between themselves, but its actually Banks whose the most fun. What's wierd is the 'selective commentaries' by Bruckheimer and McNally - both just talk during five one-minute scenes in the film, most of which are pretty low-key scenes too. Woul've really liked to have heard more from Bruckheimer but he's only in it for a little bit.
With the Documentaries there's the 7-minute "Coyote 101" which talks with the girls and filmmakers who describe what they think of the bar, how they related to it and how they wanted to capture the atmosphere. Preceding that is a 3.5 minute featurette on the songs in the film - mainly the singing scenes on the roof/bar/stage. Before that is the most interesting of the bunch - a 11-minute three part featurette which describes the auditions and how they selected the coyote girls, Perabo and Garcia.
The quite good LeAnn Rhimes music video is included in 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Thanks to the great set and the actors, it fits well into the film and in fact its hard to tell sometimes which parts belong to the clip and film - the actual music's not bad either and suits the movie (not as much as "Pure Shores" fits "The Beach" but close). 'Action Overload' is a 65 second clip cut to jazzy piano music and is basically a series of 1 or 2 second long flashes of the bar scenes with the girls dancing, pouring, spraying, etc. The trailer is pretty good too.
In the end its a nifty little DVD with nice menus and some quite solid content that's easy to navigate and fits in with the film's atmosphere. One was hoping for more racier material and more stuff from Bruckheimer, but what's here is still pretty good. It's a girls movie and a girls DVD. - Garth Franklin
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