Desperate But Not Serious

Although at first glance, this movie looks terrible, I really enjoyed it. With appearances by people such as Vincent Gallo, Henry Rollins, and the oh so hot Stacey Sanchez, it kept my attention (even with the 20 other movie channels available on digital cable).

I often wonder how an L.A.-centric film will be accepted by people who have no Los Angeles experience. For instance, this film's constant Pink Dot references. Does Joe Nobody in Peoria get the joke??

Maybe as an aspiring screenwriter, I should toss the idea of writing for middle America and just right for Larry Studioexecstein. As long as he likes it, I get the greenlight right??

Your thoughts are welcome...

This is not a great movie, and maybe even good is too strong a word, but there is something goofily charming about it and I got sucked into watching it. Christine Taylor is cute and ostensibly the lead in search of her perfect match, played by John Corbett. It's a trite storyline but at least it lets the rest of the film happen. Paget Brewster is her hip would-be actress friend who leads her around LA from one party to another in search of her friends guy. So, it's a horrible story with a predictable ending, but the parties they go to and the people they meet are a bunch of nice jabs at the movie industry and the culture around it. Claudia Schiffer and Joey Lawrence appear and cameos by some mid-grade stars only add to the comedy. The scenes with Patton Oswalt and Brian Posehn are the funniest things to ever be recorded on film in the history of film. A mediocre movie with lots of treats to make it worth watching, and Paget Brewster is impossibly cute. Watch all the way to the end of the credits to see the funniest scenes in the film.

I don't know the real story behind the genesis and making of this film but it seems to have been made by an un-talented offspring of a Hollywood agent or TV producer.

They were obviously able to pull in a lot of favors in dragging in a bunch of semi-famous TV actors - everybody was scared to say no and didn't want to risk offending the powerful parent.

You know any movie is in trouble when the best actor in a movie is Joey Lawrence and Claudia Schiffer is second.

There are probably 10,000 unproduced scripts in Hollywood about fringe Hollywood players and their story in modern day Hollywood/LA. You know the cliches - usually, it's some unattractive schlub cruisng the Strip, the Hills, etc ... with his best bud - making the scene - all the name of ripping the lid off of the true Hollywood. Of course, it's not very revealing or interesting - SWINGERS is probably the exception to the rule. They get credit for casting a woman in the lead, Paiget Brewster (TV actor) but they made (with her help) her character shrill, annoying, un-likeable, vile and like the men who played the exact same part in 1,000 movies before her - making her so unattractive you wonder why anyone would care what happens to her.

The story - riddled with a million bad cliches ultimately even gets smaller - and ends as a tribute to "Pink Dot" - the ultimate Hollywood insider wink-wink. AS IF WE CARE!!!!! It's not even funny or clever - there's no point in explaining what Pink Dot is but here goes (it's a late night delivery service - the Hollywood webvan except they've been around for 20 years) - are you laughing yet?

This is a movie where the kid of a powerful person decided to make a movie - since their life's experience amounted to hanging out with second-rate wanna-be's and ordering from Pink Dot - that's the movie! Now, you figure how many favors you can call in and you write the story around when they can show up.

There are cable access shows with more imagination.

Just bad.

This childish escapade featuring a couple of California bimbos shouldn't appeal to anyone, thanks to the labored humor and mindless performances. What this picture lacks is what it really needs: the leads should have taken their clothes off as often as possible to offset their acting abilities. Everyone is noticeably taller than Joey Lawrence in this movie.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something that blows...such is the screenplay of "Desperate...", a kookie comedy about an all night odyssey of two ditzy females through the clubs and parties of Hollyweird. Brewster gets all the good lines and steals the show while Taylor plays straight man in this lukewarm low budget little comedy which has it's moments, few and far between though they may be. Recommended for young adult females who, at this writing, have not voted sufficiently on IMDB.com to offset to inordinately low marks given by the male audiences.