Josie and the Pussycats (2001)

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Record industries inserts subliminal messages into music so that they can make teenagers do nothing but buy whatever is requested. Whenever a musician or band finds out the truth, the record company silences them to keep the truth from coming out. When boy band DuJour discover this, their manager, Wyatt, has the plane they are flying in crash, and leaves him looking for a new band to use for evil schemes. Enter Josie and the Pussycats, a small band who wants to make it to the big top. When they are discovered by Wyatt, they give in and become big rock stars. But will they find out that they are just pawns for the record industry or will fame take them over......Cruelly overlooked on initial release, this film is a damning satire on product placement, which manages to fit placement into almost every scene. It kind of defeats the purpose, but its intentionally hilarious.It's camp from beginning to end, and I can imagine that many on here have given it a low rating because they are ashamed to admit this film is rather good, but hey, life's too short, and its a lively fun movie, that doesn't hurt with the fact that Leigh Cooke is beautiful to look at and makes the film really easy on the eye.Read between the lines of the film, it really does stick a big middle finger up to teens and manufactured bands who clog up media attention one minute, and disappear next.It's very topical, and I for one feel that this movie should be shown to teenagers between the ages of 13 to 18, to be used as a warning that these boy bands, girl groups are just there to make you buy lots of poorly made goods at stupid prices.Actually, this film is probably based on true events.Hilarious and probably kryptonite to Simon Cowell.

It looks like just about every cartoon series is being transformed into a film. Some examples include The Flintstones, Scooby Doo and Josie And The Pussycats. Some were good and some were bad.The film is about a boy band named Dujor whose manager named Wally played by Alan Cummingss thinks that the band died in a plane crash and has to find a new band. He stumbles upon a band called The Pussycats that consist of 3 members, Josie played by Rachael Leigh Cook, Valerie play by Rosario Dawson, and Melody played by Tara Reid who are quickly turned famous overnight now calling themselves Josie And The Pussycats. Liitle do they. Know that all of their songs contain subliminal messages that take over the minds of who ever is listening.This was actually not that bad. The good things I Have to say: The 3 main characters are fun to watch, Dujor is also pretty funny, the cameos are put to good use and the story is not that bad. I also like how the movie over does everything and basically makes fun of itself. However Missi Pyle is awful as always, the plot is tired and recycled and the movie is surprisingly raunchy for an adaptation of a children's cartoon. I have not seen the family version but I am pretty sure they cut a lot out. I still say check it out though.Rated PG-13 For Language And Mild Sensuality.1hr 39min/99min.***/****

This manic, rainbow-hued comedy is like The Monkees by way of the Disney Channel, but I mean that in the best possible way. It is fast, funny, satirical and has a surprisingly good soundtrack. The cast seems to be having a ball and the whole thing kicks off with an inspiringly hilarious opening scene. About the only criticism I can make of Josie and the Pussycats is that much of the humor is at the expense of teenagers and youth culture, so it's more enjoyable the older you are.Based on the old Archie comic book about a three-girl rock band, this film quickly sweeps them out of Riverdale and into a fairly sharp tongued spoof of the music industry and American consumerism. There's Josie (Rachael Leigh Cook), the leader of the band who's never sure she's really good enough to be a rock star. There's Val (Rosario Dawson), who's more confident on the outside but is worried about falling into Josie's shadow. And then there's Melody (Tara Reid), the spirited ditz with a sunny disposition.Wyatt Frame (Alan Cumming) is the record label executive who latches onto the Pussycats as the vehicle for the schemes of his nefarious boss Fiona (Parker Posey). They put subliminal messages in the Pussycats' songs to make teenagers buy all that crap they don't need. Fiona and Wyatt also subliminally brainwash Josie into becoming a diva and ditching her two best friends. Add in Alexander Cabot (Paulo Costanzo), the putative manager of Josie and the group, his obnoxious and skunk-haired sister Alexandra (Missy Pyle) and Alan M. (Gabriel Mann), the sexiest boy in Riverdale and Josie's secret crush, and you've got the makings of a movie that's like a cross between a shallower Legally Blonde and a faster Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.Now, there's nothing at all here to be taken seriously and the film does barrage the viewer with music video-style montages and the most intentionally obtrusive product placement in movie history, but it's all part of Josie and the Pussycats' veritable charm. This is a smart, snappy movie that's probably one of the most entertaining comic book adaptations ever.

To make a comedy, is a good way to entertain. But when you put something serious into the comic mix while remaining entertaining, so that's close to perfect.Despite the goofy looks of this movie, the fact that there were no big stars to support it, and even its reputation as a financial flop; it's a very good movie indeed. The comedy was fine, and the performance (including, believe it or not, Tara Reid) was wonderful ! The final hurly-burly wasn't a real hurly-burly as it should be, but it managed to be all good. The most important thing of it was its message about the modern pop culture. That will make it live longer than any shallow teen comedy. And it was totally conspicuous for me to find out that not one but three works aimed at the same issue, in the same time, by almost the same viewpoint !On 25 February 2001 an episode of (The Simpsons) titled (New Kids on the Blecch) was aired, involved Bart and his friends joining a boy band. While watching a video for the Party Posse, Lisa notices the phrase "Yvan Eht Nioj" being repeated continuously by belly-dancers. She plays the video in reverse and finds that it means "Join the Navy". Also, an Uncle Sam "I Want You" poster can be seen in the video frame by frame. The joke was that the United States sends subliminal messages in order to recruit people!Strangely, or not, at the same year, right on 11 April 2001, we got (Josie and the Pussycats), where large secret organization advertises anything some businessmen produce by inserting subliminal messages through low tracks mixed in underneath other louder tracks in innocent girl band's songs to influence the listeners' actions, mainly the teenagers, to just consume very trivial goods. It confirmed so comically that the modern pop culture aims at making us stupid petty creatures with no consciousness and no thinking at all (I loved the way how anyone starts to think has to be kidnapped immediately as the peak of the movie's hilarious paranoia). On 29 June 2001 (Pootie Tang) was released to nearly say the same, but through a spoof of a superstar. Aside from his imbecile mentality and idiot songs, his sexual charisma brings him all : money, fame and companies that want to exploit that to the utmost. As you see, the star became a commodity more than an artist. So it's wholly a game of marketing, not art anymore.Thus, art or media became only a way to affect meanly, or accurately a "cat's-paw" that big parties (the government, the huge corporations, whatever..) manipulate capably to control the ever surrendering recipient, to plunder their consciousness, so their freedom, transforming the whole process into mass hypnosis or ultimate scheme. It's all the way about the blind acceptation, the absence of thinking (or the critical mind) and the insistence of the pop culture to be nothing but dull, trite and vapid.It's great that in simple comedies you find satirical messages as important as this. It is how the pop recovers itself and comes to its senses. And when 3 works in one year say the same, I won't think that their makers turned all into conspiracy theory's freaks ! But rather the term "No smoke without fire" will come to mind, or maybe the word "believable".