Drop Dead Sexy (2005)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Sick Product of a Sick System

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Some loser former used car salesman and his dumb gravedigger friend decide to work for some mobster/strip joint owner. Their first job is to drive a truck with cigarette boxes across the border. They make a quick stop and the truck blows up. Now they owe the mobster.To get the money they come up with the brilliant idea to dig up the corpse of a rich lady that died recently, in the hopes of stealing an expensive necklace. They dig her up to find no necklace. When a fellow cemetery employee shows up they decide to take the corpse with them to the house of the mom of one of them.The loser figures a plan to kidnap the corpse for ransom and try to get money from the rich husband. In the process they learn more about the dead woman's past and discover some mysteries all the while the mobster is trying to get his money back.As with all comedies, the story is intricate and the movie has some heart despite the bizarre circumstances. The goofs are likable enough. The women are gorgeous, in particular Melissa Keller and Audrey Marie Anderson. A somewhat unrecognizable Amber Heard is in this movie, too. Unfortunately, the movie makes no good use of the beautiful women. And they can't save this comedy. A raunchy comedy, even if black, should be, well, raunchy and funny. But this movie fails miserably on both counts.

It seems like Drop Dead Sexy started out with an interesting idea for a dark comedy, but ran aground somewhere in the writing process. The plot holes, awkward characters, and rather thin resolution make me wonder if money ran out somewhere along the way and the script was hastily finished and/or doctored up to get the movie released quickly.Jason Lee is surprisingly flat as the main character. I am guessing the problem is, again, more in the writing than the actor since Lee is doing a great job playing another hapless loser in My Name Is Earl. Crispin Glover was probably the only consistently funny character in the movie (and, I must admit, the reason I checked it out in the first place). His innate awkwardness lends a special humor to a role that could have otherwise been played as the naive idiot sidekick.Drop Dead Sexy isn't without its funny moments, most coming from the interactions between Lee and Glover, but it does suffer from lowbrow humor (e.g. the running joke about a gay biker named Tiny) that actually feels like an afterthought. In better hands this could have been a great dark comedy and possibly a cult classic, but instead it will probably languish as a trashy comedy stuck next to Dorm Daze in the local Blockbuster.

Saw film at its Austin premier. Expected comedy but 'Drop Dead Sexy' exceeded my expectations. I usually stifle my giggles and snorts of enjoyment in darkened theaters. However, like most of the audience, I too let loose and chuckled away! The characters all worked in hilarious harmony. Individually each held a scene on their own. Great casting! The writing was also superb. Lee and Glover were a perfect bungling duo. Keller's drop dead role was carried off without her ever speaking a line. Shaye's portrayal as a mother figure was a scream ~ right down to her beaver. Vince and Reitman earned my respect as bungling bad guys that heightened the over all humor. To say that I liked this movie is an understatement. Like last year's independent film, 'Sideways', this little film should make it big. Especially when movie goers who enjoyed the likes of 'Fargo', 'One Night at McCools' and 'Raising Arizona' see it and spread the word. Great job cast and crew.

The last thing we need is another film about a heist gone wrong from amateur criminals that try too hard to make us laugh. The Coen Brothers have exhausted the quirky criminal element, and quite frankly they're a force one shouldn't try to live up to, which is what this film does. It tries to be a lot of things, but comes up short in so many ways I'm thinking about creating my own website dedicated to criticizing this film. I got a copy from the same team who made the pathetic and silly film "Pendulum," and I must say I saw very little signs of improvement. Jason Lee can't act, and he never could, and Crispin Glover, well, he's Crispin Glover and so what. The novelty of his persona has run so thin I predict he'll be appearing in the center box of Hollywood Squares by the end of this year, and that's only if he's lucky. If you stay away from any film this year, please, let it be this one.