Coyote Ugly (PG-13) No Rating

Review Date: August 4th, 2000

Girl leaves small town for big city. Girl gets robbed. Girl meets boy. Girl loses boy, but of course, girl gets boy back. Meanwhile, girl loses her paralyzing stage fright and gets to sing with LeAnn Rimes.

Story

Struggling songwriter Violet Sanford (Piper Perabo) is down to her last dollar when she overhears three hot chicks talking about how they make $300 a night as "coyotes." A few scenes later, she's dumped her wimpy name and now goes by Jersey, and she's the latest bimbo -- er, female rugged individualist -- to dance atop the bar at Coyote Ugly, a roughneck tavern in New York's meat-packing district. Of course, her widowed, tollbooth-worker father (John Goodman) disapproves and her fry-cook boyfriend is jealous. In other words, the story is pure crap, but the girls are nice to look at.

Acting

Perabo, as the girl-next-door lost in a concrete jungle, and Adam Garcia, as her enabling boyfriend, are OK, but all eyes are on the array of hot women -- Tyra Banks, Maria Bello, Bridget Moynahan, Izabella Miko (even their names are attractive). John Goodman does a single-note fat joke throughout the film.

Direction

Ostensibly, this film was made by David McNally, but the real imprint is that of producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Hearkening back to his "Flashdance" days, there's impressive dance choreography and (more importantly) scantily clad women getting doused with water (or maybe it's beer, in this case) from above.

Bottom Line

This movie is supposed to be about women who "call the shots" (Get it? They're bartenders). OK, fine. If women buy into the shallow post-feminism theme, men will have something to keep their eyes busy.

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Starring Piper Perabo, Adam Garcia, Maria Bello, Melanie Lynskey and John Goodman.

Directed by David McNally. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Released by Touchstone Pictures.