Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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150 of 160 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delightful lesbian fun, April 3, 2005
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.
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48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's the small things., July 18, 2006
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'
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55 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as bad as the critics say, June 15, 2005
When barely released to theatres in early 2005, DEBS received almost universal negative reviews. I had no interest in it, so I wasn't concerned that the studio didn't even bother to open the film in my area.
But, soon after, I was watching the Sundance Channel and they showed the short film that it was based on. It was surprisingly funny. Since it was good enough for the Sundance Channel, I began thinking that maybe the critics were wrong on it.
The film follows a group of four secret agents, working for a government group led by Michael Clarke Duncan and Holland Taylor. They were all recruited by secret questions hidden in the SAT tests.
When sent on an assignment, to bring in master criminal Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster), Lucy falls in love with the head DEB Amy (Sara Foster of THE BIG BOUNCE) who just happens to be writing a thesis on Diamond.
The film, sort of CLUELESS meets AUSTIN POWERS, may not be the most original, or funniest of films, but it is fast paced and well made. The director, Angela Robinson, who also wrote and edited the film (making her a female Robert Rodriguez) has genuine talent and is one to watch in the future.
The DVD has a terrific widescreen transfer, bright and colorful. It also features two commentaries (one with the director, the other with the cast), a few deleted scenes, a 12 minute making of documentary, and a few other extras.
One major flaw though, the DVD does not contain the original short!! This really doesn't make sense as it is still in rotation on the Sundance Channel and would be a natural to be on this DVD. While a clip is seen in the documentary, the entire short isn't here.
DEBS may not be the greatest of films, but it isn't as bad as many of the reviews make it out to be.
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