Drop Dead Gorgeous

The bulimic and bisexual aspirant model Cynthia (Ivy Levan) is selected by the famous fashion designer Claudio Vestiges (Steven Berkoff) to be the star of the most expensive fashion campaign ever made. An independent crew prepares a documentary about her, the new look in the world of fashion. However Cynthia has an overdose and dies, but Claudio decides to keep her face in the campaign paying a little fortune per day and her agent Robert Baker (Jeremy London) prepares a contract to be signed by her mother. Along the photo shoot, the photographer and his crew have problems with the corpse and the model Brooke (Dawn Olivieri) gives up to participate,.Now the only change to make it work is the addicted and abused model Sabrina (Arielle Vandenberg).

I do not know how or why I saw "Drop Dead Gorgeous" to the very end. I made a mistake and thought this flick was the 1999, with the same title. "Drop Dead Gorgeous" (2010) sucks and is overrated, even with the IMDb User Rating of 2.7; surprisingly there are favorable reviews. This movie is neither funny nor a good critic to the world of fashion. After almost 93 minutes running time, I did not laugh not even once. My vote is one (awful).

Title (Brazil): "Lindas de Morrer" ("Deadly Gorgeous")

There was another film with a similar name? Didn't see it. This was fun and funny, a little T&A, beautiful dead model. Lots of esoteric dialogue so if you're only into action and things that go "boom," this is NOT your movie. Interestingly shot: from a mocumentary perspective, so PAY ATTENTION, people! There were too many people in the film and I got some of the people mixed up at first. Berkoff definitely livened up the film as did the dead girl (no pun intended). Hey, it's hard to play dead...and look good too. So if you call that acting, then give kudos to her. Too many "lesser" roles could have been cut and the film would have moved along just as nicely. Who the hell was the necromaniac and do we really care? All in all, good debut for this new director/writer.

It carries the skinny, emaciated look of fashion models to its logical conclusion, that if corpse- look models are what the fashion industry wants, then corpse models should be even better. After having gone to that length, the comedy becomes even cruder, as all of the people involved have to deal with the physical problems of working a fashion shoot with a stiff, literally. The cast is over-the-top and the script so utterly far out there that it is totally hilarious.The mockumentary crucifies the empty imbecility of the very reason for the fashion industry, women trying to make themselves more appealing to men. This is a film for everyone who has looked at a fashion runway show and wondered, why anyone would ever wear THAT? Fans of Absolutely Fabulous will love this movie!

Sadly, the one 'professional' review of this film has been done by someone who seems more interested in showing us he knows gossip about Jeremy London. Am I expecting too much from a review site that exists primarily to tell you where you can see naked celebrity bodies? That was rhetorical. I, however, am more interested in the illustrious cast member who he has not recognised (surely more important for a reviewer?). Steven Berkoff has a long filmography and is one of the greats of the English theatre. He is wonderful in the film and is an amalgamation of every idea you have had about diva designers.

This is a black comedy and the premise is marvellous. Yes it is done on a shoestring and cleverly. Yes there is some over the top humour, but there is wit and depth here too. And the director shares his inside knowledge of the inanities of the modelling game. If you love America's Next Top Model for humorous reasons (and please tell me you do!) then you will enjoy this.

Young, dead, sexy - as a newer title for the movie suggests too. So no pun intended - nor a weekend at Bernies either ... well that may be intended a little bit. Also it does not take prisoners when it comes to how the movie presents itself and how it displays the story.

That being said, depending on your willingness to suspend your disbelief and your sense of humor, you will like this more or less. I did dig what the movie was trying to do - but I and others may be very aware of what this was trying to do and accept it ... others may not and may hate the jokes ... which is a death sentence for the movie (does that count as a pun? Let' say yes and use it as pun ...