One out of
five stars
Don’t be fooled by the raunchy trailers – this is a cunningly-disguised
chick flick, and a bad one at that.
Headstrong young dreamer Violet Sandford (Perabo – wetter than the
proverbial haddock’s bathing costume) decides it’s time to quit her bar job
and head for New York to try and make it as a songwriter.
She apparently doesn’t have all that far to go though, as she can still make it back every weekend in order to do the laundry for her protective-but-slobbish father (John Goodman).
Once in New York, she swiftly runs out of money and ends up working at Coyote Ugly – a real-life raucous bar where the waitresses are expected to dance around on the bar and drench the customers in beer. For fun!
And if that’s not enough cheese-strewn plot for you, there’s also her
tedious romance with "Kevin" (Adam Garcia) – a guy who moonlights for a fish market in order to feed his 1000-dollar-an-issue comic-book habit...
This was initially touted as Flashdance 2000, since producer Jerry
Bruckheimer was responsible for both movies. Coyote Ugly may turn out to be a more fitting title, though – the term refers to the kind of one-night-stand for whom you’d chew your arm off rather than have to face them in the morning – something I’d certainly think about doing if I was made to sit through this again!
Sadly the movie fails to deliver on every level: the music is appalling, the romance unconvincing, and –as the 12 certificate reveals- it even fails to deliver on the ‘raunch’ factor seemingly promised by the trailer.
Rent Flashdance again if you have to, but give this a miss.
And that goes for the bar, too.