Flashdance+Cocktail+Breaking Away=trashy, mildly entertaining, $$$ generating, bellybutton ring fluff

Rating: Null/10 (14 August 2000)

I just saw Coyote Ugly, and much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed it. That's not to say it's a good movie. But, God help me for saying this, it's still enjoyable.
It's basically a remake of the Tom Cruise movie "Cocktail" mixed with "Flashdance", the exploitation flick that put Bruckheimer on the map. There's scenes showing the heroine taking care of her loveable Dad, and their relationship is reminscient of a really good coming-of-age movie from the 70s, "Breaking Away".
The movie has a cookie cutter plot. The characters are all pretty cliched, and you've seen them a hundred times before. There's the perky heroine who dreams of following in her mothers' footsteps by making it big. John Goodman plays her loveable concerned father. There's a teary-eyed, supportive best friend who hugs our heroine a lot. There's a worldly older woman mentor/boss, and the ubiquitous cute boyfriend with a "mysterious past".
The people and places of New York are squalid, but made palatable and picturesque by the Bruckheimer Dream Factory(tm). There's lots of incidental stereotypical characters (the horny hollering female executives, the bear-like skinhead bouncer, the snooty William Morris Agency male receptionist, etc etc.). And of course, as much beer-soaked T&A (masquerading as feminism) as a PG-13 rating will allow.

This definitely ain't Shakespeare folks. It's more like Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey staged at a wet T-shirt contest, with our hero dressed in a shiny tank top and cowboy boots. Our hero's mighty challenges amount to learning how to sing like Leanne Rimes while twirling Jim Beam bottles and line dancing on a bar.
So what makes this movie worth a look?
1) Energy. It moves along at a good clip. The story arc is pretty standard stuff, with each plot point introduced and tidily resolved in all the ways they suggest in those "How to Write A Screenplay" textbooks. It was done well enough that I didn't mind being manipulated by the movie. It's a well worn formula, but when they do it right, it still works.
2) Slick production values. Everything here is very competently put together. It's well directed, well produced, and especially well edited. The sets are full of expensive eye candy that distracts you from how dumb the movie really is. There's lots of cool stuff, toe-tapping music, and pretty colors to look at. And lots of T&A for the guys. Oh yeah, and a cute guy who does a strip tease for the girls (at one point, his "package" is only barely covered by a bedsheet). And middle aged women bid for him, so Mom won't feel left out either. In fact, there's a stock character for everyone at the mall to sympathize with, and enough humor to disguise the fact that this is basically an exploitation movie.
3) Decent casting/acting. Piper Perabo is a woman from New Jersey in her early twenties, trying to make it in the entertainment biz. She plays a woman from New Jersey in her early twenties, trying to make it in the entertainment biz. And she's cute and sweet and innocent looking too. It's a perfect casting. Everybody else is well cast, and all the performances are good. You get the feeling watching the movie that they all knew this was dumb material, and just had fun with it on the set. That fun shows on the screen, and I found myself enjoying the movie because the cast was enjoying it. I even found myself sympathizing with poor Piper Perabo, when she freaked out upon entering the rowdy Coyote Ugly bar for the first time. It was just like Mark Hamill entering the Alien Bar in Star Wars. (You know, Piper kind of reminds me of a female Mark Hamill...) The cast and crew overcame the limitations of the material, and made lil' ole' jaded me actually care about the characters. Even though it's just a bunch of predictable and manipulative trickery, it worked for me, and I had fun.
4) It was better made than The Patriot. The Patriot stank. At least this movie knew what it was trying to be, and was a well executed production. And there were no stupid Tricorne hats in it. Nary a one. Thank God for small favors.
The verdict: it's worth a look. It's a bit of fluff that you shouldn't pay full price for at the theatre. You'll probably like it a little, but feel guilty because you should know better. Rent Breaking Away to make yourself feel better. It's a better movie, anyway.