JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS

2001

Get 3 scantily clad beautiful women together and you too can make a movie about... well, that's not important is it? Based upon the popular Archie comic book, Josie and her pussycat band members, along with a few other comic strip friends, uncover a plot to control the nation's youth by planting subliminal messages in rock music. I KNEW it! Those right-wing activists have been right ALL ALONG! Anyways... JOSIE somehow manages to both attack and embrace the commercialization and hysteria of the music industry that is its central theme. Overflowing with sarcasm, hypocrisy, exaggeration and sexual innuendoes, I'm not sure how any of this relates to the comic book, but I guess it doesn't really matter. There are three bright points in what is otherwise a pretty flat and lackluster film. They are Parker Posey and Alan Cummings as the evil record company executives and the cheesy boy band "DuJour" (obviously a spoof of N'Sync and the Backstreet Boys) with their smash hit "Back Door Lover." Can't you just picture millions of teenage girls (and a few people you work with) singing along with it?

2.5 Stars

CDF