Product Details

• Actors: Sara Foster, Jordana Brewster, Devon Aoki, Jill Ritchie, Meagan Good
• Directors: Angela Robinson
• Writers: Angela Robinson
• Producers: Alexandra Kondracke, Andrea Sperling, Douglas Salkin, Jasmine Kosovic, Larry Kennar
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home E
• VHS Release Date: June 7, 2005
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (113 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00097E6LS
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,669 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

You can say this about D.E.B.S.: director Angela Robinson’s 2005 feature isn’t very good, but it is surprisingly entertaining. The premise, which bears a passing resemblance to any number of previous films (from Heathers and Clueless to Charlie’s Angels and the Austin Powers franchise), involves a secret government agency recruiting young women as spies, based on their smarts, their ability to lie convincingly, and the fact that they look fetching in ultra-miniskirts. Four of the D.E.B.S. are then charged with collaring "criminal mastermind" Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster), who has returned to the States after hatching all manner of nefarious plots overseas. Then comes the twist: Diamond is gay, and one of our heroines, Amy Bradshaw (Sara Foster), unexpectedly finds herself falling in love with her. Out goes the espionage element; in comes the love story, and therein lies the surprise, as this burgeoning lesbian relationship is handled with unexpected sympathy, even tenderness. Sure, the acting, even by veteran grownups like Holland Taylor and Michael Clarke Duncan, is almost uniformly lame, and the script is silly; overall, the film would have to put on considerable weight to even be considered frothy. Still, D.E.B.S. isn’t a bad way to kill a couple of hours. DVD bonus features include a making-of featurette and commentary by Robinson and the cast. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

168 of 180 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful lesbian fun, April 3, 2005

By 

Victor Chen "Herr General" (Hacienda Hts., CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Lots of people, including the venerable Ebert and Roeper, bash this movie for having no plot, bad acting, and unbearable cheesiness. I cannot defend this movie against people who made those claims. I can only say that I, as an audience, was truly entertained by this charming and witty little film. What can I say? The movie worked for me, and I was guiltily won by its unique charms.

Ebert's main criticism was that had this movie been about a heterosexual relationship, the plot would have been so absurdly mundane as to be unfilmable. "The only thing going for this film is the lesbian relationship". I agree. However, he misses the point that we are precisely here to watch a lesbian relationship, not to see some top-notch spy action thriller. We are not even here for the comedy, primarily. We are here to see a film in which a lesbian relationship is portrayed in a positive, light-hearted way that ends with a happy ending which, if you are a connoisseur of lesbian films, you will know is surprisingly rare.

Lesbians, and friends of lesbians (like me) are starving for good positive portrayals of women loving women; not as a guilty side story, not for shock-purposes, but as the main centrepiece of movie. D.E.B.S. succeeds because it portrays the central relationship in a refreshing, matter-of-fact way, while at the same time acknowledging that this is not the norm in our society. This is a very delicate balance that the film succeeds in perfectly. D.E.B.S. also succeeds because of its witty lines, sweet easy charm, and the fact that it's a good-natured film. To anthropomorphise the movie, D.E.B.S. is like a kind-hearted, adorable girl whom you can't help but like. Its heart is certainly in the right place. I'm so please, by the way, that this film received a PG-13 movie. Finally our country is realising that homosexuality by itself does not award an R-rating.

I thought the acting was in general very well done. Jordana Brewster in particular is irresistible and just believable enough to play the delicious lesbian "supervillain" Lucy Diamond, whose combination of hotness and insecurity are enough to cause formerly-straight government spies to question their orientation. Does she really look tough and/or mean enough to be the head of an international criminal syndicate? No, not really, but it works in this movie's slight off-kilter, over-the-top world. The love story between Brewster's character Lucy and the other main character, Amy, is adorable, sweet, funny, and ultimately heart-warming. You really do believe that they work as a couple, and want them to drive off into the sunset living to live happily ever after in Barcelona.

One quick word about the absolutely stunning Devon Aoki (Dominique), who plays the chain-smoking, hapa D.E.B.S. agent who's a sex addict and speaks with a French accent. Obviously her character was designed (and in the movie chosen) for the precise purpose of enticing and seducing men sexually, almost in a comically stereotypic way. (French accents typically being very appealing to American men). The grand irony perhaps then is how well it worked on me. Aoki smoulders on the screen in her few scenes with a kind of almost intolerable sexiness that destroys both reason and resistance with seemingly little conscious effort.

There are many different ways to enjoy D.E.B.S. However, it certainly does targets a certain type of audience, and perhaps it takes one with a certain mindset to be able to enjoy the movie. But if you're one of them, prepare for a rare treat.

57 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's the small things., July 18, 2006

By 

Michael Joseph "mikkj1" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: D.E.B.S. (Special Edition) (DVD)

First, as a straight male, I agree that this was a great characterization of a lesbian relationship. I found myself forgetting that it was two women, and merely hoping that they could make it work. Also as a straight male, the great looks of all the actresses didn't hurt, but that soon became background, sort of like after a while at a nude beach, it all seems normal. Or not.

Speaking of backgrounds, one of the reasons I enjoyed this movie so much was the obvious joy with which the cast performed in, and the crew participated in, the making of this movie. I'm going to point out some VERY funny jokes that were in the background that no one has mentioned, but not all of them - go watch it again, and find some on your own.

1. The "punk bar" itself. Those punks were obviously cast and crew members moms, dads, grandma, etc., who they called up and said "Hey! Wanna be in our movie?" Either that or, they were the oldest group of punks I've ever seen.

2. The "punks" were drinking out of glasses with "bendy straws", highly un-punklike behavior.

3. In this dangerous, underground punk bar, there was an undamaged foosball table. Doesn't this strike you as funny?

4. The pink fire hydrant.

5. Lucy's license plate - "NDASKY" - from the Beatles song "Lucy in the sky with Diamonds".

6. Perhaps the funniest, to me, joke was when Lucy and Amy sat down at the booth. Lucy set two beers down, one in front of each. The beers were Dos Equis, the logo of which is XX. What is the chromosomal difference between men and women? Men are XY, women are XX. This was a deliberatly placed joke. Two beers, deliberatly faced forward, one in front of each "girl", marked with the genetic symbol for "girl", in a "girl/girl" romantic scene. It was a deliberately concoted case of humorous overkill. That joke was one that someone thought up, everyone agreed that probably no one would get it, but said "What the heck WE'LL know it's there, and it's funny!".

7. The fact that she had a "beef" with Australia, of all countries, and that the large globe in her apartment had a big red "X" through the continent.


8. There's the "handle with care" signs in the final scene, but that's all I'm giving you, go look.

The point of this review is that some of these movies are a joyful labor for those involved. They know they're not going to get an Oscar, but they like the script, they like each other, and they go the extra "Green Mile" to put everything they've got, and everything they can think of into it. I often enjoy these small-budget movies more than their big-budget relatives, because they ARE labors of love, and that comes through the screen, as does the cast and crews affection for each other.

Too many were locked into watching beautiful girls in short skirts to look beyond them to the REAL humour and art contained in this movie. It's there, and it's worth the effort. Give it a shot.

Love is love, and funny is funny. I'm just sayin'

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars D.iscipline, E.nergy, B.eauty.... Great movie !, June 18, 2005

By 

Cedar Waxwing (Boulder, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: D.E.B.S. (Special Edition) (DVD)

Glad to have seen the more positive reviews on this movie, I almost passed it up. A PG13 rating helped, too.

How could anyone not like this movie.

The premise of the movie is a secret espionage agency that recruits high schoolers who score high on an SAT test that is secretly manipulated to show innate traits (or high probabililty) to lie, cheat, fight, or kill.

Four recruits have spent the last 4 years at James Morrison University, a rouse for espionage school. Amy (Sara Foster), Max (Meagan Good), Janet (Jill Ritchie), and Dominique (Devon Aoki) are a squad and are assigned to spy on the master criminal Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster).

Lots of perspective in this gem of a movie. Amy is writing a thesis on the elusive Lucy Diamond. When Amy finally comes face to face with her, all her assumptions are "torpedoed." Sensing an attraction, Lucy Diamond pursues Amy, when the conventional doesn't work, she resorts to creating events that bring Amy to her. The name Lucy Diamond may invoke "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds": LSD (cultural drug used heavily in the 60's and 70's, during the civil rights struggle and the Vietnam war). Amy says "...love should be irresistible like a drug. When it happens, you're not able to help yourself..." you want more. Amy broke up with her boyfriend of 8 months and she reflected this thought when Lucy asked her why.

Many clever themes are barely under the surface in this movie. Angela Robinson used not so obvious to point to the obvious, very clever indeed. One more example, Amy is the best spy ever recruited and is nicknamed the "perfect score." This information leads Amy to the truth when she discovers that she holds the perfect score for lying. The espionage agency took the information to mean she is the perfect spy.

A bow to Angela Robinson for creating a unique story, sprinkling it with memories of Charlie's Angels, Mission Impossible, and I can't think of the other show there was a tinge of. The cast is delightful, all-star. It is wonderful to see Holland Taylor (Ms. Petrie), Michael Clarde Duncan (Mr. Phipps), and Jordana Brewster (Lucy Diamond) who played the first "Nicki Munson" on the daytime soap "As the World Turns."

This story could go on forever. It is young love at it's best as the song in the movie suggests: "It was young love at it's best and it is You that I'll remember." (song, Into the Morning, sung by The Weekend, the D.E.B.S soundtrack).

Thanks Angela Robinson, it was great fun. This is a one of a kind movie.