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If there's
one thing that Fargo taught me it's that Minnesota accents
can be lethally hilarious. That lesson is epitomized by New
Line's Drop Dead Gorgeous, but while the film does have a
really nasty side to it that I highly appreciated, it's still
not quite a home run. There are some really funny moments
to be found in the film, but alas they're just too few and
far between.
Drop Dead
Gorgeous uses the mock-documentary style that was really effective
in parodies like This is Spinal Tap, though not quite so much
here. The film revolves around the early stages of a teen
beauty pageant in the small Minnesota town of Mount Rose,
population 5,076. It's a place where competing in the Sarah
Rose Cosmetics American Teen Princess pageant is almost mandatory.
All mothers and daughters must at some point carry the torch
and enter the pageant.
On the 50th
anniversary of the pageant, the competition is particularly
fierce. Former American Teen Princess Gladys Leeman (Kirstie
Alley), now the local pageant organizer, has entered her own
daughter, Rebecca (Denise Richards) Rebecca has the most competition
from Amber Atkins (Kirsten Dunst), a girl who worships Diane
Sawyer and has an afterschool job doing the make-up for corpses
at the morgue. Luckily, this provides her with ample time
alone to practice her tap routines for the pageant!
The best
thing to be said for Drop Dead Gorgeous is that it really
is relentless in its attack of just about every facet of the
pageant. Just watching the former American Teen Princess perform
her lipsyncing of Melissa Manchester's "Don't Cry Out
Loud" had me rolling because it was just so wrong.
So many movies want to pull in the reigns so that they don't
offend anyone. Drop Dead Gorgeous wouldn't allow for that
and for that reason is much funnier than it probably should
have been. Like I said, a good solid double, maybe even a
triple, but just not quite all the way home.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Another
fabulous transfer from New Line! The disc contains both a
anamorphic widescreen and full-frame version on a dual-layered
disc. The picture is beautiful with bold colors, solid detail
and strong blacks. There's almost nothing in the way of any
visible compression artifacts to be found. This is a drop
dead gorgeous picture from the company that always knows how
to do them.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
There's
less to speak of in the audio department. The English Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtrack is primarily focused in the front,
but spreads wide across the left, center, and right channels.
Dialog is clear and free of masking or distortion while the
music score provides the bones of the front soundstage. Dynamic
range is acceptable but never has a reason to be otherwise.
The surround use is subtle when used but for most of the movie
is completely absent from the mix. This is purely and simply
a standard comedy track where nothing's necessarily wrong,
but nothing will impress you either. An English 2.0 surround
track is also offered that isn't quite as defined as the 5.1
but offers more surround envelopment in its place.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? The film's
original theatrical trailer is presented in anamorphic widescreen
with 5.1 sound. Digging through the cast and crew listings
will also provide trailers for Deconstructing Harry under
Kirstie Alley, Wag the Dog for Kirsten Dunst, and Loaded Weapon
1 available under Dennise Richards filmography. All three
of these trailers are also anamorphic widescreen with 5.1
sound although the Deconstructing Harry and Loaded Weapon
trailers are mixed with all sound in all channels and don't
really sound that great. One other thing while on the trailers,
you'll notice a momentary glitch at the 48 second point of
the Wag the Dog trailer. This was also a glitch on the Wag
the Dog DVD and now seems to be a glitch in the trailer's
mastering and not the discs themselves.
One other
special mention must be made for the menus. While they're
not the most elaborate I've seen, they are perfect for this
movie and made me laugh when I was first going through the
disc. Each of the selections that can be made also has a girl
underneath it. When you make a selection, the item falls on
the corresponding girl and knocks her to the ground. Pretty
witty!
Parting Thoughts
While the
movie contains a lot of extremely funny parts to it, overall
I found it to not quite go all the way. The disc has it in
the video area but it suffers slightly in the audio and supplemental
portions. I'd give this one a rent to see if it's something
that you'd actually want to own.
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