Drop Dead Gorgeous
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DVD details
Actor: Allison Janney, Denise Richards, Ellen Barkin, Kirsten Dunst, Kirstie AlleyBrand: NEW Line Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-12-14
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: N4927
Studio: New Line Home Video
Product features:
- TESTED
DVD Reviews of Drop Dead Gorgeous
DVD Review: "If they ask you to take your top off, get the money first."
Summary: 4 Stars
I pull out "Drop Dead Gorgeous" every once-in-awhile for an honest laugh. The movie is a "fake" documentary about contestants in a beauty pageant, some of whom meet unhealthy fates - hence the double meaning of the title.
Kirsten Dunst plays "Amber Atkins", and Denise Richards plays "Rebecca Ann Leeman", the two main contestants. Amber is kind of a natural inexperienced contestant and lives in a trailer park, while Rebecca has that fake professional sincerity so important to contests and lives in a big colonial house. She is also vice-president of the local Lutheran Sisters gun club, and was given a "nine mil" by her mom on her thirteenth birthday. Their mothers are played by Ellen Barkin as "Annette Atkins" and Kirsty Alley as "Gladys Leeman". Annette is a former contestant, and Gladys is a past pageant winner and is also the chairman of the pageant organizing committee, but swears impartiality. Amber is competing because her two favorite people in the world - her mom, and news-personality Diane Sawyer - competed in them. She practices her talent (tap-dancing) while at work - at a mortuary doing hair and makeup on the deceased. She wants to be a "big-time reporter" like Diane Sawyer.
Brittany Murphy is a giggly contestant "Lisa Swenson". She is in it because "if you're seventeen, and not a total fry, it's just what you do." She is hilarious, especially when she shows pictures of her brother who is dressed as Liza Minelli, Madonna, And Barbra Streisand. "Tess" is another contestant, but very plain looking. Unfortunately, her former pet dog bit her, but as she says (and shows)..."they remade my belly with skin from my [back]." Another contestant, "Molly", was adopted by a Japanese couple after they came to America. They have a Japanese daughter as well, but they yell at her speak English. The previous winner, Mary Johanson, is now in the hospital suffering from an anorexia. Amber comes by the hosptal weekly to "do" Mary's hair (which is falling out). Rebecca also drops by the hospital (to be on camera), and brings her a box of chocolates.
Judge #1, "John Dough", gets a little nervous when asked about judging the young girls. "I don't get off on that kind of thing. That's really why you're askin', right? Someone say somethin'?" Judge #2, "Harold Vilmes", runs a paint and hardware store, and has a rather slow-witted brother, Hank, who approaches the camera and excitedly asks "Are we on Cops, are we on Cops?". Judge #3 is a straight-laced woman, Jean Kangas, who works at the Leeman furniture store.
Amber is asked out by the captain of the football team, Brett, and is excited, but then she thinks she'll probably have to work at the funeral home - "we're real busy this time of year...hunting season." Brett goes duck-hunting, and indeed, Amber will eventually do his hair and makeup, too.
Amber gets a photo of the first killed girl, "Tammy", with "you're next" printed on the back. Later, there is an explosion and fire at her trailer. Although her mother survives the blast, she ends up with a beercan fused into her hand. "Well, I sat down to have a beer, and 'kablooey', next thing I know, somethin' blows through my kitchen window, and I'm ass-up in somebody's flower bed." Amber wants to quit the pageant but her mother talks her into continuing - "You're not the one who knows how Jiffy Pop feels, missy."
At the pre-contest interview, all the other constestants are asked simple questions ("what kind of a tree would you be?") except Amber, who is asked to name and spell all 50 states in alphabetical order. At the dress-rehearsal, another contestant wants to switch numbers with Amber. Tragically, an overhead stage light falls on the contestant as she is performing her interpretive dance with sign language - a light meant for Amber?
I won't spoil the rest of it.
It takes place in Minnesota. A few Minnesotans (and others) have complained that the accents are a bit much. However, in my job I talk to people all over America, and every single person I've spoken to in Minnesota has that accent, you betcha.
Amber and Annette's neighbor, "Loretta", is played by Allison Janney. She has a small role but funny dialog. Adam West (original "Batman") has a small role as the pageant host, and pokes a little fun at himself.
Some politically incorrect phrases such as "Jew", "cripple", "Japs" and "retard", pop up, so if you are sensitive, you unfortunately should watch something else.
The PG-13 rated DVD has the full-screen and wide-screen version, cast and crew text, a trailer, and DVD-ROM script-to-screen. Not many funnier movies out there. And cheap, too.
Description of Drop Dead Gorgeous
DVD - MovieSubtle is not the word to describe Drop Dead Gorgeous, a mock documentary purporting to cover the Sarah Rose Cosmetics Teen America Beauty Pageant in Mount Rose, Minnesota. Ellen Barkin (Sea of Love) and Kirsten Dunst (Interview with a Vampire, Dick) are perfectly cast as a mother and daughter whose only ambition is to use the pageant to get out of their claustrophobic small-town lives. Opposing them are Denise Richards (Wild Things, Starship Troopers) and her mother, Kirstie Alley (Look Who's Talking), who just happens to be the pageant's organizer. The plot, which centers on contestants being murdered (mostly by flaming explosions), is clearly secondary to the backstage shenanigans and satirical portrayals of vanity, small-town corruption, and family dysfunction. There's not much suspense to the pageant itself, but Dunst is an endearing protagonist and along with the broad jokes are some excellent acting turns from the cast, particularly Barkin, Brittany Murphy (Clueless), Nora Dunn (a Saturday Night Live alumna), and the great character actress Allison Janney, who's played small roles in countless movies but finally gets a chance to shine as the supportive neighbor of Barkin and Dunst. In fact, for all the jokes and satirical jabs, in the end it's the characters' relationships that stay in your mind. A bonus: the soundtrack features a hard-rocking version of the theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, performed with cool aplomb by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. --Bret Fetzer
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