The Champagne Gang (2006)

hyped garbage

How sad is this?

Absolutely the worst movie.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Of the four previous reviews, three condemn this movie and the fourth praises it, so I guess I'm going to please no-one by admitting that although I certainly found the film disappointing, it was reasonably well directed and by no means a total write-off. Of the four members of the not-so-called "Champagne Gang" (there is no champagne in the movie that I can recollect), three of the ladies are certainly beautiful enough to display their assets with a modicum of success. True, there is no total nudity, but enough feminine flesh is on display to keep the eyes of the average male viewer glued to the screen. The story is not bad either. It moves at a fast enough clip, has plenty of action and the director makes good use of more actual locations than you would normally see in a lifetime. True the alluring cover of the Maverick Entertainment DVD does seem to promise more feminine flesh than is actually on display, but that is by no means an uncommon occurrence with DVD releases in general - even from the most prestigious studios!

Wow! I haven't seen a movie this good since Caligula! The lead actress (Lacey Toups for those not in the know) is a cut above the rest. It was very cool to see Forest Whitaker do something small and indie like this for a change. As for the story, if I didn't know any better, I would have thought Michael Mann had something to do with the script. Every single detail of the Gang's criminal enterprise is scrutinized under an incredibly watchful eye. It makes sense though. The Champagne Gang is based on a true story and it shows. The sense of reality is a prevailing feeling throughout the movie. This is a must-see and most definitely a must-own. Awesome!!!

This film probably didn't have a bad concept, and at some point, I expect it will be remade with actresses you may have heard of who can actually act. And maybe they will get a screenwriter who can actually write dialog. Other than that, it was an excuse to put girls in bikinis and have them run around on the beach. Not that I normally object to that sort of thing, but... They start the movie out by telling you how it ends. We are told from the get-go, they are going to get arrested and sent to jail. Well, that kind of destroys the suspense, doesn't it? Then they go into the story of how this gang of shoplifters were recruited by a crime boss and taught how to engage in the glamorous job of robbing supermarket safes... Okay, more jiggling, more party scenes, a little burglary school montage (where is the "Team America" Montage song when you need it?), a few close calls, and they get caught. That only virtue of this movie it was direct to DVD, so you could fast forward through the boring parts, which is about half the movie.

Somewhere in the first 5 seconds of this horrible movie I realized that it didn't even have the budget to have some edge to it. I don't know how in God's name this was cycled into my local "Redbox" except maybe because it was shot entirely in San Diego. There is no redeeming quality to it whatsoever. I suppose I was supposed to be feeling allured by the cinematographer's choice to always center the camera on the "T" or the "A", but somehow it's like watching "The View" with the same approach.It's as if the director desperately wanted to give depth to the girls, but the cameras and everything else in the entire universe just wanted to turn them into objects. The closing shot of the movie was a close up on the butts of each of the girls, yet the dialog suggested something out of a feminist handbook.I think the biggest slap in the face to this worthless waste of 30 minutes of my life ( out of self preservation I had fast forwarded through most of it) is that after hearing throughout the entire movie, that these girls were the real deal, and they did these crimes in San Diego, and it's """"""based on a true story""""" that the true story was in fact about 4 MEN IN CANADA!!!! The setting and the fact they were hot girls were the ONLY two selling points, and you find out that neither EVER occurred.I could forgive everything else if it weren't boring, but it was, if there was intrigue or character development, or motive, or acting, or even a steady camera. There was nothing. I have made better movies with my brother in my backyard when I was 14.