Coyote Ugly
(2000)
Reviewed by Scott Marshall
Rating: 7.5 Beans

ow do you get men to go to a chick movie?
Pretend it’s not a chick movie. That is the
insight which producer Jerry Bruckheimer
seems to have had in his stewardship of
COYOTE UGLY.

Bruckheimer and his late partner Don Simpson
are not known for their chick movies: THE
ROCK, CON AIR, TWISTER, and TOP GUN are
all pretty much testosterone fueled. When I saw
the trailer for UGLY, I assumed- naturally- that is
was about 5 hot women who shake their stuff in
(and on) a bar. Each character was touched on,
implying that it was an ensemble piece. An
image of ROAD HOUSE combined with
COCKTAIL came to mind.

Sadly, no. PRETTY WOMAN with COCKTAIL
would be more accurate. It is very much the tale
of one woman, the painfully vulnerable Piper
Perabo, who dreams of moving to The Big City
and being a successful songwriter. People are
mean to her and she pouts a lot, but her spirits
are raised when she meets a hunky Australian
who collects comic books. I put up with all of
this for the first little while, figuring that when
she starts working at the bar, it would be time to
feature the other, sexier women.

No such luck. There are some good scenes in
the bar but the rest of it is a tiresome
paint-by-numbers story of pursuing your
dreams. Remember how the ending of
PRETTY WOMAN was test-screened and the
original downbeat, realistic conclusion was
replaced with the chick-pleasing Cinderella
fantasy? This movie didn’t even need a test
screening. The outcome is never in doubt, and
the too-brief bar scenes are the only relief in this
two-hour tease.

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