Drop Dead Sexy

After failing to get into several movies, we waited for an hour and a half to see this movie at it's premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, TX. The crowd at the premiere was probably biased, seeing as how the movie was filmed in Austin, but most of the crowd seemed to enjoy the film.

The film provides a different sense of humor, though somewhat dark. To avoid spoiling the plot, I'll tip-toe around the exact plot. The movie provided good laughs, if you are willing to get past the weirdness of the plot content. I did spend a good portion of the film almost afraid the content was going to cross the line. There were interesting twists, and never it lets you be certain where the plot line was headed. The plot left a few rough edges, unanswered questions, and characters that either appeared out of no-where, or disappeared just as fast.

I'm not a big fan of Jason Lee, but he seemed to play his character to the letter. Crispin Glover's character really threw me at first. I'd expect him to play this character given the content of the film, what I didn't expect was his accent. It's a tough fit for him, but he seems to do a pretty good job at pulling it off. I thought the supporting cast filled in very nicely alongside of the main actors and actresses.

The cinematography was pretty straight forward with the exception of flashback scenes, which I thought were nicely done. Aside a few technically cheesy shots, the filming was done alright.

All together, I give the movie decent marks for a somewhat original and twisted plot line, bringing a different sense of humor that's worth a few laughs. However since the movie's dark humor goes against my typical sensibilities, I drop my rating a mark or so.

Overall, I give it 6.4/10 to round to an even 6/10.

This film is definitely not for the faint of heart because it goes into some necrophiliac moments. A few people walked out on the film because of the material, but it was all in good fun. Although Jason Lee and Crispin Glover couldn't make it to the premier it was still an experience i will remember. This movie has it's really laugh out loud moments and also it's really stupid pen dropping scenes. But overall, i enjoyed it, this is a treat for Crispin glover fans because he does such a great job with his character that his lines really heighten the comedy. To conclude this comment, i just have to say this one is probably more of a rental. I'm giving it a 6.4 of ten. Only because i love all Jason Lee movies.

DROP DEAD SEXY 2005 (JASON LEE, CRISPIN GLOVER) DIRECTED BY: MICHAEL PHILIP ~ THE RUNDOWN: Did you see the title? The cover, perhaps? If so, you knew exactly what you were in for and got exactly what you expected: a lame comedy low on laughs and about as original as the name John. ~ I really shouldn't be reviewing this because there's nothing I can say that the DVD cover doesn't. But, what the hell, I'm a Crispin Glover fan and when I saw it sitting there on the shelf at Blockbuster I couldn't resist. Crispin, as usual, was fun to watch, and the rest of the cast was nicely assembled and actually gave the movie quite a bit of life even though Jason Lee is as annoying as an elderly driver. I guess the other good thing about it was that, at only seventy-nine minutes in length aside from the credits, it was nice and short. Still, it was essentially a complete waste of my time except of course I'm an avid Glover fan, which at least gives me some sort of excuse even though you probably don't have one. ~ Aside from extremely occasional chuckle-worthy moments, the movie's attempts at causing laughter are cheesy, predictable and absolutely futile, good enough only for stupid teenagers and/or people very high on something. The premise of the movie is ridiculous, cheap and slightly more generic than Dr. Thunder, and pans out like a deformed Cohen Bros movie. Those films are, of course, brilliantly written, while this was lazily written at best, chocked full of a complete lack of imagination.

It seems like Drop Dead Sexy started out with an interesting idea for a dark comedy, but ran aground somewhere in the writing process. The plot holes, awkward characters, and rather thin resolution make me wonder if money ran out somewhere along the way and the script was hastily finished and/or doctored up to get the movie released quickly.

Jason Lee is surprisingly flat as the main character. I am guessing the problem is, again, more in the writing than the actor since Lee is doing a great job playing another hapless loser in My Name Is Earl. Crispin Glover was probably the only consistently funny character in the movie (and, I must admit, the reason I checked it out in the first place). His innate awkwardness lends a special humor to a role that could have otherwise been played as the naive idiot sidekick.

Drop Dead Sexy isn't without its funny moments, most coming from the interactions between Lee and Glover, but it does suffer from lowbrow humor (e.g. the running joke about a gay biker named Tiny) that actually feels like an afterthought. In better hands this could have been a great dark comedy and possibly a cult classic, but instead it will probably languish as a trashy comedy stuck next to Dorm Daze in the local Blockbuster.

"Drop Dead Sexy" is a pretty funny, but dark comedy. The plot: Frank and Eddie (Lee and Glover) are friends who are looking for a big score. When Frank is sent to deliver cigarettes to the evil Spider (Pruitt Taylor Vince), their truck explodes. But the plot thickens when Spider wanted them to die. Frank needs to get money fast, so when he sees that a rich young woman named Crystal (Melissa Keller) died, Frank and Eddie decide to dig up the body and blackmail the husband. They realize her death isn't all what it seems. Eddie also begins to fall in love with Crystal...

Jason Lee and Crispin Glover have good chemistry together. They make most of the jokes work. The movie does get into some themes with necrophilia, which could turn some people off. Vince plays a scary gangster, Brad Dourif (The voice of Chucky) makes a weird cameo appearance as a way too interested morgue attendant. The movie is set basically around a strip club, so there's lots of gratuitous nudity. (That's not a bad thing...) This is the time of year when Lionsgate puts a movie out that's normal not shot on digital junk like "Heebie Jeebies". See also "Creep" (2004) or "Blind Horizon" (2003) Overall, "Drop Dead Sexy" is worth seeing for the actors and somewhat unusual plot. For more insanity, please check out: comeuppancereviews.com