Cecil B. DeMented (2000)* 1/2 (out of 4) John Waters has a very clear message here but it's the perfect example of a director having something to say but not a good way of saying it. In the film, the twisted, underground director Cecil B. DeMented (Stephen Dorff) and he teenage filmmakers kidnap A-list actress Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith) and force her to appear in their film. What's the subject of their film? That Hollywood is pure evil and the only good cinema is the independent movie. If Waters' wanted to give people a message that independent cinema is better than Hollywood then he really should have came up with a better screenplay because as it stands there really aren't too many Hollywood comedies that are worse than this low-budget movie. Again, I understand what Waters was going for but the film is a complete disaster that doesn't have a single laugh in it. There are a couple good things with one of them being Griffith who gives it her all even when the screenplay isn't giving her much to do. The second thing the film has going for it is the fact that it never really gets boring no matter how unfunny it is. With that said, for the most part the film is a complete misfire with one unfunny sequence after another. This "terrorist" group basically go out and film themselves mistreating those things they most object to. This includes malls that show movies, family friendly groups and of course the evil big-budget sequels. Again, the message is clear but the way it's presented is just so poorly done that you can't help but roll your eyes at everything being done. Even worse is the fact that I never could understand why these anti-Hollywood people would want an A-list actress in their film. Waters clearly has a talent but it's certainly not on display here.

If Cecil B. Demented had been in another director's hands, besides the filth elder John Waters', it probably be an underdeveloped, dry exercise. The fact that Waters has surpassed his phase of grotesque shock films and has moved onto smarter, witty satires set in Baltimore shows that he is diverse and willing to jump into any pool even if it's a bit murky.The film is one big kiss to the world of underground cinema, and one big diss on mainstream cinema. I can't say that I disagree with a lot of the film's views. It expresses an extreme hatred for the modern schlock we've been served every week at the movies, and how the independent films will prevail. We're introduced to Honey Whitlock (Griffith), a Hollywood A-lister who is attending her big movie premiere. She is snobby, pretentious, and very condescending to her peers. When Honey enters her premiere, seconds before the movie goes on, independent director Cecil B. Demented (played fantastically by Stephen Dorff) and his band of "kamikaze filmmakers" kidnap her and force her to star in their low budget works of art.The first few minutes, set mostly around the premiere, feature many people involved with Demented's working as attendants and ushers at the event, when really, they are behind a very, very dangerous plot. In John Waters: This Filthy World, a movie that documents his tour across the world, Waters states that if Cecil B. Demented would've been proposed after 9/11 it would've never gotten made. I can see why. The film is a work of "film terrorism" and there are many secretly plotted acts involving violence and the deaths of innocent civilians.Do they work? Most of the time they do. The film is honestly funny, deliciously dark, and a clever commentary on the world of low budget filmmaking. The character of Cecil B. Demented is very funny, and the role of Honey Whitlock is portrayed equally as interesting by Melanie Griffith.Compared to other Water's feature, Cecil might be the weakest one. Pink Flamingos was unexpectedly hilarious in its ugly roots. Serial Mom was overacting at its finest, portraying suburbia like this shiny slice of heaven even when the craziness was unfolding. Cry-Baby captured the fifties era of rebellion perfectly, and I can say that Polyester was a weaker Serial Mom, yet occupying moments of its own. Cecil has the script and the direction of classic Waters, but not the admirable characters of his other pictures. It's a fun exercise, dancing to its own beat, but it isn't on par with his other works of art.Starring: Melanie Griffith, Stephen Dorff, Alicia Witt, Adrian Grenier, Mink Stole, and Ricki Lake. Directed by: John Waters.

John Waters has a wonderful way of poking fun at just about everyone with equal love and ferocity in his films. This hilarious movie is often labeled as a darkly comedic arrow through the cold heart of the Hollywood system, but that's only half of the story. With typical accuracy and aplomb, Baltimore's favorite son here deftly skewers underground and indie filmmakers as well. As always, though we are meant to root for Cecil and his Sprocket Holes, we are also meant to find them absurd, irrational, ridiculous, somewhat hypocritical, and just a bit scary - just like the tens of thousands of would-be cinematic revolutionaries out there shooting pointless nonsense and proclaiming Hollywood the Devil's backyard while secretly waiting for that call from their agent saying they've finally sold their Sci-Fi Channel original series spec script. Just as A DIRTY SHAME would later take on both the sexually repressed and the criminally uninhibited, CECIL B. DEMENTED delights in reminding us of just how crazy we all are.The cast here has an absolute ball with the razor-sharp material. Of particular note are Maggie Gyllenhaal as a Satan-worshiping make-up artist and Adrian Grenier as an actor who has solved all of his other problems by exchanging them for just one, a world-class drug addiction. Melanie Griffith and Stephen Dorff are fun in the lead roles, but it's Alicia Witt who steals the show as pornstar-turned-perpetually horny film terrorist Cherish. In a film full of show-stopping moments (from a projectile vomiting patron at a screening of the director's cut of PATCH ADAMS to a candy fight in front of a theater showing all "family" films), none is more hilarious or memorable than when our idealistic heroes duck into a porno theater having an all night Cherish anal marathon. The group struggles to blend into a crowd of increasingly aroused raincoaters as they watch the on-screen Cherish become intimately familiar with a very adventurous gerbil. Though nothing explicit is shown, this is about as close to classic Waters as a contemporary studio movie could ever hope to get. Not even the water bottle scene in A DIRTY SHAME can touch it for its sheer absurdity and faux-erotic silliness. To her credit, Miss Witt plays this over-the-top scene with the same relish she brings to the role throughout the entire feature.CECIL B. DEMENTED is a hoot. Snooty as this may sound, if you don't like it, it's because you don't get it. And if you don't get it, maybe John Waters is a name you should avoid when perusing Netflix.

This was such an awful film.Awful acting! What an earth was Melanie Griffith trying to achieve? She managed to make herself look old, decrepit and desperate...yes desperate for a part in a movie! Any movie! Awful script! Awful characters! My boyfriend (who has very warped taste) loved this but I found it boring, trashy and without any style or comment. I don't always like to watch heavy duty films but I do like to come away having felt something...sadness, side splitting hilarity or shock maybe...but not aching muscles from yawning.Don't waste your time on this.