Coyote, Space can’t rely on beauty, veterans
‘Coyote Ugly’ relies on beauty of cast,
rather than firm plot
Stories about bars, or scenes that take
place within them, have a firm place in
movies. Maybe it’s the romanticism of
these establishments, the communal
bloodletting, the booze-tainted conversa
tion about love and life that likely couldn’t
occur outside its trappings. The diner, the
night club, the disco dnd, now even the
rave, have established themselves along
side the bar as settings with built-in sto
ries. It’s unlikely an original plot ever
could be concocted about a bar today, but
good stories still can be extracted from
them.
Coyote Ugly is a movie about a bar
with the same name, and there is promise
in the idea. Based on a real bar in
Manhattan, also by the same name,
“Coyote Ugly” is about the bar’s women,
who run, operate and generally live and
die through the hole in the meat-packing
district. Their style of serving drinks
comes with more than a smile, and they
don’t serve water unless it’s shot out of a
gun into the crowd.
The leader is a 30ish woman named Lil
(Maria Bello), and well, there seems to be
a story there, some sort of strange desper
ation in the eyes behind her red pilot glass
es. Two other barcats aren’t without their
troubles. And one of them (Tyra Banks, in
no more than a cameo) is leaving, taking
the easy cash she scores every night to law
school.
There is a very good scene about mid
way through the movie, when Lil explains
the name of the bar and boots some hun
gover patrons into the early morning sun. I
like these moments, inevitable in every
good bar movie, where the bar clears
itself, and few workers are alone, sur
rounded by a dive of wood and spilled
alcohol. Customers come, they go. Lil
never leaves at all.
But this movie is not about the bar or
Lil. It is all too much about a Jersey girl
named Violet (Piper Perabo), an aspiring
songwriter who won’t hit Solid Gold until
she conquers her stage fright as a bartress
at Coyote Ugly. She has a father (John
Goodman), a best friend, a boyfriend
(Australian Adam Garcia, who’s better
than I thought he’d be) and a dream, you
see, a dream.
ThenViolet actually says the line
“What do you do when all your dreams
come true?” “Coyote Ugly” becomes that
type of movie. Perabo, who joins actress
Monica Potter in the Julia Roberts look-a
like sweepstakes, is a likable persona. She
uses the proper face for each trial and tra
vail. She generates good chemistry with
Garcia. She could be a good actress very
soon.
But this is not really a movie, is it? It
couldn’t have adequately existed without
the bar scenes, which seem sexually
exploitative, but only because there’s noth
ing to surround them. Roughly half of
“Coyote Ugly” actually takes place in the
bar, and I’m hard-pressed to name one
particular value Violet gains from the
place.
The script, written by Gina Wendklos,
isn’t properly in love with its subject, but
PIPER PERABO, center, stars as Violet Sanford, a fledgling musician from Now Jersey who goes tt New York City seeking faaM°iR
“Coyote Ugly.” The Tonchstone Pictures film also features Tyra Banks and John Goodman.
rather with a bunch of songs written by
Diane Warren and the voice of LeAnn
Rimes, who doubles for Perabo’s larynx
for most of the movie. There are no less
than seven scenes in which Violet sits on a
rooftop with her synthesizer and belts out
the same song over and over.
That repetition is baffling, especially
when there four other characters with
flashing “develop me!” lights above them.
Instead of a cliche-ridden story about one
person, I prefer a cliche-ridden story about
several people, maybe even the bar they
inhabit. At least then, the cliches get
spread out.
Much has been made cut of this being
a Jerry Bruckheimer picture, which essen
tially means lots of noise and gloss, little
substance. I loathed his “Gone in 60
Seconds” and firmly believe
“Armageddon” is one of the biggest
turkeys ever to hit the movie screen. But
I’m not sure he’s to blame here. I could see
him wanting to see more flash from the
Coyotes, a little less of Violet. “Coyote
Ugly” still might make a pile of cash, but it
would’ve made more had the script heeded
the title. Strangely, I think it would have
been a better movie, too. ★★
Special effects all that save ‘Hollow
Man’
A movie like “Hollow Man” is a rare
feat indeed - it challenges with both bril
liance and utter ignorance in a 90-minute
timespan. Here is a movie with special
effects that are genuinely amazing, creepy
and effective, all at the same time. The cre
ators deserve some serious awards, for
they will have saved what I consider to be
one of the strangest final 20 minutes of a
science fiction movie I’ve ever seen. Why,
it turned into a creature feature - complete
fantasy.
initially, the story is intriguing, as sci
entist Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon with
his evil long hair, as opposed to his nice
guy length) works on a re-visibility serum
for lab animals. Caine, you see, easily was
able to make creatures invisible. Bringing
them back was the hard part.
He cracks the code (with the aid of
Twinkies and coffee), but hides it from his
military superiors in order to keep control
of the project. Coworkers and subordi
nates Elizabeth Shue and Josh Brolin
share the secret. And eventually, Sebastian
wants to go invisible himself to see if the
serum will work on a human.
Up to and through these chemical pro
cedures, the effects of invisibility and re
visibility are stunning. Instead of simply
disappearing, die serum works through the
blood system so that veins reappear fust,
then the heart, lungs, bone, etc. It’s about a
three-minute process both ways, crawly
and suspenseful. Paul Verhoven, who does
well with special effects (see “Starship
Troopers”) has so many cameras whirling
around these scenes, they create a visceral
energy.
out the re-visibiuty process fails on
humans, which means Sebastian could
remain invisible indefinitely. He wears a
mask that inspires the title, as his eye holes
are hollow. Apparently, to be invisible
incites some sort of mental rage, because
the scientist, who was a megalomaniac to
begin with, drops off the deep end. The
movie follows suit.
Sebastian escapes his underground
compound. Now imagine you’re out in the
world - completely evil, invisible, insane
and a genius. What would you do, consid
ering you could do practically anything
you desired? Would you return to the
underground compound, like Sebastian
does, to bludgeon a barking dog to death
inexplicably? Would you engage in high
grade buggery of co-workers and sneak
out to spy on them at their apartments?
Then, when you left, would you make sure
to throw a rock through their window so
they knew, for sure, you were there?
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