At the start of CECIL B. DeMENTED, we see a cluster of close-ups showing teens posing as ushers, doormen and whatever, getting ready to celebrate the premiere of a new film starring Honey Whitlock (MELANIE GRIFFITH), an overage Hollywood diva making a personal appearance to promote her new flick. All of them are treating the premiere as a countdown to some sort of disastrous event because they're all in on the kidnapping plan.
Well, the disastrous event does happen--but it's this John Waters film that scores big in that department! Just awful. All the dialog, all the sight gags, all the performances are just short of amateurish, so painfully bad that I forced myself to pay attention until the final out of control ending, by which time director Waters seemed to have lost all control of his project, his cast and his story.
Ironically, the theme of this "comedy" is supposed to be "down with mainstream film-making" as the insane Cecil B. DeMented intends to kidnap movie star Griffith so that he can use her as the drawing card on his own underground film where only the first take is ever used because he's a seeker of "the truth" and pure vision. But Water's film, while making fun of mainstream trash (and sometimes rightfully so), is itself an example of less than mediocre craftsmanship, crude, tasteless, and full of puerile humor, the kind that grosses some people out, as well as an unhealthy dose of vulgarity.
It's when director DeMented (played by STEPHEN DORFF) takes his film-making crew on the road into the real world that all hell breaks loose. None of the cast has anything more than paper thin characterizations to worry about so they appear to be having a good time as they wreak havoc everywhere. The laughs are scant and the film itself just keeps getting worse as it wobbles on and on toward what is supposed to be an exciting finale.
Summing up: Lots of R-rated stuff. Keep the kiddies home for this one.
Strictly amateur night material which had me wondering whether MELANIE GRIFFITH was so hard up that she had to take part in such an enormous mess. She fully deserved her "Razzie" Award for Worst Actress of the Year. Too bad someone didn't do her a favor and really kidnap her to prevent her from showing up at the studio!
I felt like I was watching an Ed Wood film, except it wasn't in glorious B&W!
Well, the disastrous event does happen--but it's this John Waters film that scores big in that department! Just awful. All the dialog, all the sight gags, all the performances are just short of amateurish, so painfully bad that I forced myself to pay attention until the final out of control ending, by which time director Waters seemed to have lost all control of his project, his cast and his story.
Ironically, the theme of this "comedy" is supposed to be "down with mainstream film-making" as the insane Cecil B. DeMented intends to kidnap movie star Griffith so that he can use her as the drawing card on his own underground film where only the first take is ever used because he's a seeker of "the truth" and pure vision. But Water's film, while making fun of mainstream trash (and sometimes rightfully so), is itself an example of less than mediocre craftsmanship, crude, tasteless, and full of puerile humor, the kind that grosses some people out, as well as an unhealthy dose of vulgarity.
It's when director DeMented (played by STEPHEN DORFF) takes his film-making crew on the road into the real world that all hell breaks loose. None of the cast has anything more than paper thin characterizations to worry about so they appear to be having a good time as they wreak havoc everywhere. The laughs are scant and the film itself just keeps getting worse as it wobbles on and on toward what is supposed to be an exciting finale.
Summing up: Lots of R-rated stuff. Keep the kiddies home for this one.
Strictly amateur night material which had me wondering whether MELANIE GRIFFITH was so hard up that she had to take part in such an enormous mess. She fully deserved her "Razzie" Award for Worst Actress of the Year. Too bad someone didn't do her a favor and really kidnap her to prevent her from showing up at the studio!
I felt like I was watching an Ed Wood film, except it wasn't in glorious B&W!