Cecil B Demented (2000)

John Waters spoofs independent filmmaking at its most absurd fringe with this affectionate portrait of a guerrilla filmmaking collective that declares war on Hollywood drivel. Bitchy screen queen Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith, whose kewpie doll voice and aging baby face are right at home) is kidnapped by would-be auteur Cecil (Stephen Dorff), a slogan-spouting bottle blonde with a cult-like crew of cinema outlaws called "The Sprocket Holes." Cecil has declared war on Hollywood with the ultimate underground movie, "Raving Beauty," and his reluctant star Honey soon adopts her young misfit captors like a worried Mommy as her cultural cachet rises: the falling star has turned into a cult cinema rebel. It's a bizarre revision of the Patty Hearst story (with Hearst herself in a supporting role) full of film insider jokes and '60s revolutionary references, but it's more spoof than satire. Waters's primitive style is often clumsy, and the picture moves in fits and starts, but the cast's enthusiasm brings it to life. Waters has always celebrated misfits, outcasts, and cultural rebels and their self-made families, and this is his most outrageous, anarchic such bunch in decades. Through all the shootouts, bomb throwing, and fights with angry teamsters and suburban moms, there's an odd sense of innocence to the enterprise. It's as if Waters wants to remind us: it's only a movie. --Sean Axmaker Amazon.com

Extra Review

Since I was an extra in this movie, I have to say it was fantastic. I didn't give it 5 stars because Mr. Waters has done better...but it's entertaining, nonetheless. October 24, 2008

B. Demented, check it out...

John Waters at play in the fields of his beloved Baltimore, once again. This time with a "gang of cinematic misfits" led by Stephen Dorff.

Melanie Griffith gets kidnapped and gets her hair bleached "right off the deep end of the Clairol color chart!". Gratuitous sex, violence and pornographic hijinks ensue.

Extra treat: Patricia Hearst plays the much-loved 'mom' of one of the cinematic "terrorists". B Demented and feel free to check this out. July 7, 2008

Garbage still smells like stank the next morning.

I know that if my garbage can is lined with a scented bag, the insides still reak of yuck. Even if I tie it with a knot and place it on the curb, and the knot is finely taught and the bags lined in proportion, deep down somewhere in the recesses of my minds eye, I still know, no matter how hard I may want to candycoat it, that it is still trash.

Here then is Cecil B. Demented. I understand that my foulness of this horrible film will be a flame war for those avant-garde, art house, belly churning, curtled milk type, Grindhouse-praising 'as-if-it's-the-next greatest-thing-to-sliced-bread' groupies, however if you are a die hard john waters fan, what's there not to love?? If he made poop walk, you would think it was fascinating.

Waste money, buy this, and then trash it. It is as appealing as leaving your trash untied and unkept in your living room. Pure and total ca-ca.

April 4, 2008

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Film starts out fresh and funny and is outrageously similar to the Patty
Hearst kidnapping, but the characters then progress into cartoon dolls,
each getting shot or burned at least five times before the end. South
Park was similar to this. Why do they bounce back when hit or land on
their feet jumping three stories down? Satirical pokes at genre film
audiences get laughs, but the violence is overboard and believable only on a comic book level. August 12, 2007

Not his best

I have been a John Waters fan for many years. I thought he could do no wrong until I saw this yawner. The expression "mailing in your performance" shouldn't apply to a director, but this film shows none of Waters's usual wit or cheek or in-your-face style. I almost stopped watching halfway through, except I kept hoping for some spark. Disappointed is not a strong enough word. June 29, 2007

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