Formulaic story with dancing girls  like a titillating music video but 30 times longer

Rating: Null/10 (1 November 2003)

Aspiring song writer Violet leaves her New Jersey home and moves into New York, full of hope that a record company will pick up her tape and start selling her songs. When she realises the reality of the situation she has run out of money and luck. When she overhears three girls talking about how much money they made in one night, she learns of the bar Coyote Ugly, where the barmaids are so lively and fun that they draw the crowds. She gets a job there  but will it hinder her chances of getting her big break?
I, like almost all men, enjoy the odd music video here and there  it's not hard to watch MTV for longer than 20 minutes and realise that all the videos know that sexy girls shaking their asses will get the viewers watching their songs. This is fine because a) the song may be good so that it's not all visuals and b) it only lasts 3 minutes. The problem with Coyote Ugly is that it is basically a long music video and has the disadvantage that neither a) or b) are true in it's case. The plot is very formulaic and everyone and his dog knows where it is going from the outset. For large chunks of the film nothing of merit happens  even a love interest is thrown in to try and fill the running time out. This leaves plenty of scenes of girls in tight/skimpy clothes dancing on a bar, covering themselves with water etc which is all well and good if that's all you want. However for me, and this brings us to b), I want more from a 90 min+ film  I can get that in a music video.
The running time just drags at times and few of the scenes do anything to help. Scenes of Violet writing on her roof are just uninspiring and it's only the ass-shaking that ever woke me up out of the stupor that the film had put me in. The film is just another slick little meaningless product from the usual stable  it has no substance but has plenty of enjoyable visual images for men to watch. I just needed more than girls to enjoy this.
The cast are average at best. Perabo is dippy in the lead but is likeable enough to do the job. Garcia is a poor love interest and always feels like an afterthought  no matter how hard the film works to crowbar him into the narrative. Of the Coyote girls, none really manage to have any meaningful character and are really just there to sex the film up. Of the three, Banks is treated the worst  her character leaves the bar but then keeps just randomly turning up with explanation. I'm not complaining because I found her the cutest, but it was further proof of the film's focus on image over everything else. Goodman doesn't manage to come out with any dignity either and I'm sure the only thing he'll remember about his part in this film will be how much he got paid.
Overall  wanna see girls dance and be sexy? Then either go to a club in the real world or sit at home and fast forward to the bar scenes in this film. If you want anything more than that (plot, interesting characters, good story, substance) then you'd best avoid this as it basically has none of those qualities in anything other than very meagre amounts.