Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Hulkeasexo it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

tomgillespie2002 Cult director John Waters has always been a favourite amongst those familiar with the 'Midnight Movie' circuit. The Midnight Movies were a bunch of films that included David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977), Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo (1970), and Waters' own Pink Flamingos (1972), that were screened in New York in the 1970's to an audience looking for an artistic vision that tended to push the boundaries of taste and subject matter, and led to re-discoveries of films now considered classics such as Freaks (1932) and Night of the Living Dead (1968). Waters, as well as championing the great auteurs such as Pasolini and Fassbinder, was always an outspoken fan of zero-budget schlock like Criminally Insane (1975) and the work of Herschell Gordon Lewis. And this is the focus of Cecil B. Demented, a movie essentially for cinephiles, and one that has the movie business as a whole fixed in its sights.Hollywood starlet Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith) is on the verge of another smash hit when she attends the premiere in Baltimore. In front of a shocked audience and many cameras, she is kidnapped by psychopathic film director Cecil B. Demented (Stephen Dorff). Demented takes Honey back to his studio, where his loyal crew, calling themselves the Sprocket Holes, have a vision to take cinema back for the auteurs, and crush the studio system (who are in production of Forrest Gump 2). Honey is to be the star in the first of a new movement - Outlaw Cinema - a process that strips back all production values in favour of achieving ultimate reality. They have also taken a vow of chaste, and will not have sex until the movie is done. Seeing opinion of her drastically slide on television, Honey starts to sympathise with Demented's movement, and eventually she wilfully comes over to the cause.It can be said that true satire cuts both ways, and that is certainly what Waters achieves with this. As an obsessive movie fan myself, there's many a time when I've been eager to tear down the poster of a new Zac Efron movie or punch someone in the face when they've describe how much they love Marley & Me (2008). I sometimes want to scream about how much they're missing through ignorance and that it's their fault so much s**t gets made. But there's times when I've looked back at my own pretentiousness and felt embarrassed at criticising someone who ultimately wants something entirely different out of cinema than I do. Demented's bunch of misfits are nothing more than dysfunctional psychopaths; cartoon cut-outs that are too extreme to not laugh at. Waters seems to be amused more by these scarf-wearing chin-strokers than by those who inadvertently fund the studio system.Although a lot doesn't really work in Cecil B. Demented, I still got a lot out of it. This is mainly due to the fact that I share a lot of Waters' opinions, and can get as much enjoyment out of a tacky old Larry Cohen or Herschell Gordon Lewis horror as I could with something from Godard or Bunuel. Occasionally the bad taste humour doesn't go down so well, such as the sloppy penetration sounds when the gang can finally get down to it, or the rather silly 'Demented Forever' sing-a-long, but Stephen Dorff's wide-eyed, energetic performance managed to be a nice distraction. Demented could be seen as an answer to many of Waters' fans objections to his occasional dabbling with the mainstream, with his colourful efforts Hairspray (1988) and (the very enjoyable) Serial Mom (1994) playing in direct contrast to Pink Flamingos, which infamously contains a scene of dog-s**t eating. But this is a criticism and a homage to the movies, something that all cinephiles can understand.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

winner55 Set in the film capitol of America - Baltimore, Maryland - "Cecil B. Demented" is a brilliant reminder that the art of film once was - and ought to be - a craft for those who make love to and through a camera, not industry management types who sit on their rosy behinds muttering platitudes about "what the audience expects".Although "Hairspray" was Waters' most accessible film for the general public, it was not quite a "John Waters film". This is.As actors, I have hated Melanie Griffith, and hated Stephen Dorf. But in this film, they both have their respective characters down pat, they give excellent performances here, I'll have to rethink my judgments on their talents; perhaps it was all just bad scripts in the past.the rest of the cast is kinky and earnest and funny.In fact this is one of the funniest films I've ever seen.Of course it is about the love of film - specifically about the passion needed to make film just as film.I keep seeing all these interviews and documentaries about contemporary film-makers - they blather on and on so self-confidently about their love of video, of CGI, the way they use such technology to stay as far away from the camera, the actors, the editing deck as possible; heck why even show up pretending to be the "director", why not just phone it in - better yet, hire someone else to do it - with three hundred million bucks, even after the cocaine's gone you should have enough to hire someone else to do the job; all Hollywood directors are whores - god, they make me sick.I've made films myself; there's no replacement for the feel of celluloid between your fingers, it is an enjoyment preferable to a good lay. After a good lay, you fall asleep; but a good film lasts forever.the era of cinema is probably over; eventually a generation will come along convinced film is nothing more than bad advertisement for computer games. Perhaps that generation has arrived.So this is certainly a pleasing celebration/ faretheewell for one of the great forms of entertainment modern humanity invented - a gorgeous reminder that it was all about passion, not money, about getting it down as quickly as possible, not about getting it to "look good".Cinema is - or was, or ought to be - an act of desperation, as much for the audience as for the film-maker.This film captures that superbly.A brilliant film by one of America's true eccentrics - and when all the CGI has bored its audiences into an early grave, their children may yet rediscover this, and with it the possibilities that were cinema.Thank you John Waters.

Polaris_DiB John Waters, the master of bad taste and a big proponent of underground cinema himself, has brought to screen probably one of the greatest tongue-in-cheek renditions of the struggle between the Mainstream and the Art House--Cecil B. Demented, a film about a renegade crew of film lovers who kidnap an A-list actress from her impending swan dive and attempt to forever change the face of independent film-making. They have a vision, they have a drive, and they have their actress. Let them lose and see where these cinema anarchists lead you! This film is outrageous, and outrageously glorious. Waters douses the screen with characters, references, and action that any film lover can enjoy (though maybe there might still be a few film snobs out there who just can't take a joke), and pretty much let's his imagination run wild as usual while the motley crew makes one of the best cinematic creations never created.The movie itself is full of irony, a seemingly lost art in contemporary film. Full of big name actors and generally having a pretty accessible storyline, "Cecil B. Demented" is far from the audacity of "Pink Flamingoes". A highly quotable cult picture itself ("Hey MPAA, how many films have you censored today?" and "Hi I'm Raven, I'll be your hairdresser. I'm a Satanist!" are my favorites), it's message is also underlined by the very mainstream critic quotes that pepper the DVD cover, bringing to mind the movie's own line, "Death to all critics who say everything is good!" But that doesn't change it's lovable and eccentric attitude, and helps underline a point itself: this film is a dreamland that every aspiring director hopes for but can never attain. It's filled with the kitsch of success and the nirvana of artistic freedom, and yet it still stars Melanie Griffith (but hey, she does a great job)! A must for any fan of independent cinema, and a good time for anybody with a sense of humor, "Cecil B. Demented" is one of the most pleasing John Waters films of all time.--PolarisDiB

fedor8 Has Waters succeeded in his quest to finally make a good movie? The answer is a predictable and resounding "no".And don't you fall into the trap that he doesn't want to make a "conventional" high-quality movie. Like all outcasts and misfits (I'm not referring to his homosexuality, all you "Homophobia" PC Police spies) he only PRETENDS to revel in making garbage. (Garbage is all he CAN do, so what choice does he have?) Secretly, deep inside him, there is a lonely, ambitious, and quite normal boy who wants to be just as good as Kubrick, Fincher or the Coens. Alas, when you lack even the minimum amount of talent required...So, knowing that he can't match any of the masters - not even enough to get one of his fingers on the Hollywood Walk Of Infamy - he indulges in being the "rebel". Many misfits go the rebel route: whether it be punk music, hippy crap, or "maverick" cinema. Anything to get attention.("Maverick cinema": the area of movie la-la land often inhabited by lesser talents who scream for attention by being "outrageous" because no-one would notice them if they placed their unskilled hands at something worthwhile.) A largely crap cast in a badly written and even more badly directed crap film. It's John Waters, that untalented (and pretending to be proud of it) indie director, so it's no shock.ONCE AGAIN Waters tries his clumsy hand at satire, a genre which he neither understands nor is capable of doing in his wildest dreams. Satire is at its best when it's subtle, not to mention clever - and not to mention funny, but Waters once again takes a stab at it with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.His attack on mainstream Hollywood is to an extent in order - but look where it's coming from: from the gay/transvestite/indie/porn/trash-for-the-sake-of-it scene which totally overestimates itself while ignoring the obvious fact that while Hollywood does turn out big amounts of filmic garbage every year, it also produces a couple of gems now and then.Waters ridiculing Hollywood is a bit like Ted Bundy complaining that Hitler was a genocidal psychopath.What about the indie scene? (And I mean the very low-budget type.) While a lot of its movies are watchable, very rarely do they come up with a great film, and in spite of the fact that hundreds, even 1000s, are being dumped into the internet and seedy cinemas every year. Most of these movies delve in clichés, trite PC characters, and most of them are about meaningless relationships between very boring people and their uneventful environments.Don't get me wrong: I'm not anti-gay, and I even find Waters likable as a person, i.e. the way he presents himself in interviews, but affability is a very long way away from making him a great director.To see just how pathetic Waters's taste in movies is, he shows us by the way of tattoos of various directors on the arms of the "cinema terrorists" who kidnap Griffith (all supposedly representing the true independent directors through the ages): Spike Lee, Sam Fuller, Otto Preminger, Passolini, and a few others. What a sad bunch. Not a single one of these dolts belongs on the directorial Olymp, and - obviously/predictably - some of them have to be gay. Kubrick's greatest mistake was not being gay, otherwise he too wouild have had the honour/privilege of being featured as a tattoo on one of Waters's retarded "terrorists".You wouldn't expect Waters to worship Kubrick, Scorsese, or Fincher, now would you. Waters makes fun of "Patch Adams" and "Forrest Gump", which is to be encouraged, but these are easy targets to ridicule, and he does so in an inept, dull manner. Besides, the alternative he offers us - though quite different - isn't any better: just look at his movies! Waters hasn't made a single mediocre movie yet, and I mean that in the reverse sense, of course: he has yet to RISE to the "elusive heights" of mediocrity, for even that seems like an unattainable goal for him. His films are plain AWFUL.The gags are dumb, the humour is beyond "America Pie"-level. The acting is manic, amateurish, and well... wateresque. Another "water constant" is that all his flicks start off bad, and then get progressively worse. The script seems to melt away as the time passes in a Waters movie; things get even unfunnier, even dumber, and even more manic. If you enjoy French banana-peel comedy, you might disagree...The cast is "blah": Griffith, Dorff, Witt. I can understand why unknown actors would snatch a chance to appear in a Waters film (i.e. any film), but there is no excuse for any of the more or less established faces to appear here: every single actor who says "yes" to starring in a Waters movie is a complete and utter moron - no "ifs" and "buts" about it. Did they actually think they were improving their CVs by working with "yet another master"? How clueless can you get...