Customer Reviews

Josie and The Pussycats (Widescreen)

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

One word sums this movie up: 'irresistable'. With a variety of cute characters, bubblegum rock tracks and satire of commericialist pop music it is too cute to resist. It follows a rock group, Josie And The Pussycats, on their way up to the top. The only problem is that their music is being used to transport subliminal messages to the youth of America, dictating trends and fashions to them. This is certainly a great idea and amusingly, each scene is filled with promotion for other products. By far the best scene is at the start as hit boy band Du Jour (including Seth Green and Breckin Meyer) fight and bicker in an obvious satire of manufactured boy bands everywhere.

Yes, so it's a one joke movie but it goes a long way on this one joke. The actresses all look the part, especially the scatterbrained Tara Reid and record executive boss Parker Posey. Whilst there are some unfortunate sidetracks into moral territory, with frienship and togetherness both getting in there, this rarely impinges on the light-hearted nature of the movie. Like the music that the Pussycats play, this is bubblegum pop at its very best.

So sue me. I absolutely loved this movie and the music was great (except for Du Jour :) The punkish remake of the cartoon song is just out of this world. This may be mindless fun, but it's fun, and was a pleasure to watch. Good R&R, over-the-top story played toungue in cheek, and the band was cute. What more do you want from a movie based on a cartoon from the 70's.

But you knew that just from the title!!!

This twist on the characters created by the same people who brought you Archie and Jughead is actually a feature-length movie with the same plot as a "Simpsons" episode, namely the one where Bart, Milhouse, Nelson and Ralph Wiggums all are a concocted boy band with subliminal messages to get people to join the navy.

In this case, it is to buy merchandise related to Josie and the Pussycats. Tara Reid as Melody shows a lot of butt cleavage -- that is the best acting she does. Rosario Dawson has potential as the smart Valerie who gets jealous of Josie as the alpha female. Rachel Leigh Cook - who thought this was a good follow-up to "She's All That" -- is all right but needs to pick better scripts.

The funny thing is, it's not fiction --- the movie producers DO want you to buy merchandise related to the movie. That knowledge -- coupled with the bad writing --- just makes it too hard to think it's funny, unless you like laughing at yourself.

"Josie & The Pussycats" is a facile, lame-brained "satire" of pop music commercialism that gets crushed by its own bizarre stupidity. Co-writers/co-directors Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont overstuffed the script with 1,000,001 random "jokes", slipped in a few bare-bones "plot" details, and ended up with a movie that feels like a horrific, nonsensical drug trip brought on by a dangerous mix of heroin, speed and sugar. For every minor chuckle, there are at least 100 misfired gags, and Parker Posey scores the only real guffaws with her odd, stress-induced lisping. And, just out of curiosity, if "Josie" is so anti-commercialism, then why didn't it just make up sponsors instead of cramming it with real ones, ironically turning itself into the kind of soulless product it was "criticizing"? Who knows? Who cares? Avoid this movie!

I think in the years to come, when people are studying film, this movie, though a flop, will be discussed as an example of the large problem that product placement or "brand integration" has become in Hollywood. Josie and the Pussycats is bad enough to begin with (despite having the characters and general idea from the comic and early 70s TV cartoon, the movie really didn't succeed in transferring the feel of the comic to the screen -- Alexander and Alexandra are wasted); but when the viewer is assaulted by product placement throughout it just becomes too much. I have never felt so insulted by a movie. This isn't a story, it's an hour and a half advertisement. Products and logos are so awkwardly inserted into every frame that I was overwhelmed. The filmmakers claim it's a subversive in-joke: I see it as deception. After all, the moviegoer still had to pay to see this movie.

The movie itself is a travesty. Tara Reid has the comic timing of a slice of bologna. Her Melody (with an oddly gin soaked and cigarette hoarse voice) made me miss Jackie Joseph's pitch perfect voicework of the cartoon. Reid is an awful actress and it's agony to watch her try (and fail) to be funny. Alan Cumming and Parker Posey were entertaining as usual but I was ashamed that they did this and am hoping these were their "paycheck movies." Rachel Leigh Cook spends the entire film with the same questioning, bewildered expression on her face. Maybe she was wondering what she was doing in such a bad movie.

Avoid at all costs. The one good thing about the film is that it may make people return to the ad free and infinitely more satisfying environment of books.

Someone's lost their sense of humour!

Well, I rented this video last night. I was pretty damn pleased with it, not least because of the pretty girls and pretty songs, and the back-door-lovin boy band. Many bits made silly-ol'-me fall of my seat laughing , like the Honk if you love pussy......cats. This sets the tone of the film and introduces us to the completely gorgeous lovable wacko Mel). The plot is laughable, but so what? Very cute Rachel acting as Josie is a little flat but who cares? The film pokes fun at a horribly real cross-mass-marketing culture, in which all forms of media gang up to sell us the same products, and feed us the same drivel about what's going on in our world. But it didn't get bogged down in a lesson in ethics. It's a very watchable film, and that's all you need to know.

For those who go a little deeper:

How can so many viewers/reviewers/critics can miss the very very obvious running joke about the totally OTT product placement, and instead tell us that there's a lot of product placement in the film. That it becomes exactly what it satirises? Isn't satire all about the characters drawing attention to unpleasant reality by living that reality hilariously? Lighten up!

How can anyone think that the ridiculous McDonalds shower-scene and Mel's urge to eat big macs after hearing their music played back through a "processor" will really make all the kids flock to McDonalds to buy Big Macs and Ronald McDonald bath-sponges? (I'd rather buy a shower with Mel in it, but maybe that's inappropriate)

There's nothing subliminal about all this, IT IS JUST A JOKE. Many seem to have lost their sense of irony. If we're assuming that kids won't get the joke, we're being very patronising. And maybe the fact that the distinction between
celebrating/slating the whole consumer culture is occasionally blurred in this film, makes the valid point that, WE MAKE UP OUR OWN MINDS. If you wanna diet coke, get one, otherwise don't!

Recently, Justin Timberlake has teamed up with McDonalds here in the UK for a massive "I'm lovin it" ad campaign. No joke! Stick a Timburger in your CD player.

The fact that MTV avoided showing much about this film suggests that MTV felt targetted, not flattered, by being cast as distributors of the corporate propaganda. Not a celebration but an attack. Surely a good thing?

So..... cute likeable girls (esp Tara Reid), great one-liners and comedy timing by the pussycats as well as the other characters, bright sparkly production, fun fun fun!

Did I like the film? Definitely. Would I buy the DVD? Yes, I think so. Was it better than Rock 'n' Roll High School which I bought last week (silly plot, stupid gags, great laughs and of course the Ramones)(...) well(...) that would be telling!

Some reviewers can't spell PARODY (parity, parroty, perrady). Can we blame them for missing the gags? Watch it again, I say.

The only truly subliminal message in the movie, from the gig scene at the end, managed to work through my mind into the title of the review. Whoops!

JOSIE and the PUSSYCATS(PG-13)...I wasn't at all sure what to think when purchasing this movie. I remember seeing the commercials and thinking it was going to be just another teenie-bopper movie. HOW WRONG I WAS! This movie is extremely funny and very well written. It's not the best movie in the world, but it's a great movie for the whole family to sit down and enjoy. I highly recommend it.

(For mine, anything with Rosario Dawson in it has gotta be okay). Rachael Leigh Cook--famously known as the new face of the "this is your brain on drugs" commercial--(Remember? She deeee-molishes that kitchen with a cast iron fry pan. To say nottin' of that egg.) plays a convincing Josie; cute, but edgy lead guitarist for a small town girl band itching to make it big. Papparazzi 'Party Girl' Poster Child Tara Reid plays the lovable drummer who's more concerned over who grabbed the last piece of candy from her stash than anything majorly important. Alan Cummings was made for those snarkily up- to-no-good prissy bad boy roles and he does the record executive who's bottom line is the bottom line quite well. One of the tricks of this movie is how they want to show how product endorsement and product placement work on the mind of the mass audience--and by showing these products the movie ends up doing what it satirizes. I guess you'd have to be there. You can tell what's gonna happen in the end way before it happens, but that *won't* stop you from having an enjoyable ride to that point...

This movie was great, it showed the excessive amounts of sponsorship which many bands deal with. (An example is Target's symbol made into pillows in a hotelroom.) I bought this because Parker Posey is my favorite actress and she did a great job as the "villainess" in this movie. There is a twist ending and the songs are great.

Thinking back to the good ole days with the Josie comics I thought, hey, why not check this out. I loved Josie and The Pussycats when it was a TV show, maybe this new version will fill the place a had for it in my heart.
Well...
It did! This movie is great for teenagers! It made me change my mind about all things trendy and "in". This take on society today, is a hilarious journey. From the first time I popped it into my DVD player until the end I nearly fell off my chair laughing.
Josie, Valerie, and Mel created their own band with their own original music. When they get discovered from out of the bowling alley to the big time, something seems fishy. In One week and they are number one and everyone loves them? Who knewn there record company was an evil one bent on taking over the world? Can they conquer MegaRecords, and will people like their real music with out the sublitale brain washing messages?
This movie not might be for everyone though; a lot of people I know who watched it hated it. But if your looking for a good teen movie that isn't full of sick jokes like other teen movies this is perfect. It's perfect if you ever thought of making your own band too.
I recommend this for anyone who is interested in music and people with their own unique personality they aren't afraid to hide. I hope you won't be disappointed; because I wasn't.