Coyote Ugly (2000) [The Unrated Extended Cut] – DVD|Blu-ray Disc

*½/****
DVD – Image A Sound B+ (DD)/A- (DTS) Extras C
BD – Image A Sound A- Extras C
starring Piper Perabo, Adam Garcia, Maria Bello, Melanie Lynskey
screenplay by Gina Wendkos
directed by David McNally

by Travis Mackenzie Hoover J. Hoberman once nailed the work of '80s trash director Adrian Lyne by calling it "the spectacle of female self-actualization (as enacted for a male viewer)." This shrewd playing of both sides of the gender fence figures heavily into Coyote Ugly, which combines a cheesy uplift story with bounce-and-jiggle eye candy to maximize the number of potential ticket buyers. But though it was produced by former Lyne benefactor Jerry Bruckheimer and practically channels the director's empty-calorie flash, the his 'n' hers formula doesn't work this time around: whatever else could be said against the dissipated Brit, there was a hysterical urgency to Lyne that his substitute, David McNally, can't match. You see the flesh, you hear the pain, but aside from some very obvious body-double skin added to the film for DVD, none of it adds up to anything you can't get from Moses Znaimer on a Sunday night.

Like the much-reviled Lyne opus Indecent Proposal, Coyote Ugly offers up a woman's script subverted by a male eye. Gina Wendkos clearly wrote a would-be sensitive melodrama about a girl trying to make it in the big city–hence our gal Violet (Piper Perabo), who yearns to be a songwriter in New York but can't seem to nudge past various supercilious receptionists. Violet's meekness naturally changes when she stumbles upon Coyote Ugly, where the tough-as-nails female barkeeps dance suggestively while dishing out drinks. (Think a cross between Hooters, the Hell's Angels, and the Moulin Rouge.) Once in full cheesecake mode, her confidence level naturally skyrockets, and, coupled with the meet-cute she shares with a hunky Australian (Adam Garcia), the sky is apparently the limit.

Not for the movie, alas. Though one could say I'm prejudiced against this kind of thing, Coyote Ugly has problems that go well beyond that. A Bruckheimer production is usually terrible in a way that gets you hot-and-bothered–that's horrifying and kinkily fascinating at the same time. Yet the nice-guy nothing-going-on-here attitude destroys even that possibility, resulting in high-gloss eyewash that has no impact whatsoever. Where an earlier Bruckheimer director would have immediately seized on the wretchedness of pre-fame life and the exploitable vulnerability of its inmates, McNally soft-pedals everything, meaning one doesn't so much root for (or, more likely, fear for) the heroine as wait for a foregone conclusion to roll agonizingly into the station.

Compensatory pleasures are minimal. Against all odds, Maria Bello hangs on to her dignity: she gives her cynical bar-proprietor role a hell of a lot more gravity than it requires, leading you to wonder if she's not responding to her place in the movie as much as she is to the plight of her character. And Perabo is remarkably appealing as a character only marginally better developed than a chorine in a '30s musical. I suppose there's a little bit of brute excitement in Amir Mokri's DayGlo cinematography but the praise stops there, because the exercise is bloodless enough to leave you cold and artless enough to be forgotten in an hour. Even if McNally is to be congratulated for not being Michael Bay, forgive me for not raising my glass to propose a toast.

THE DVD
Coyote Ugly looks frighteningly vivid in its "Unrated Extend Cut" form on DVD. The 2.40:1, 16×9-enhanced image is brilliantly saturated, with colours managing to leap off the screen without bleeding. Fine detail is just a notch below perfect, though with hues like these you're not likely to notice. Dolby Digital and DTS configurations of the film's 5.1 audio also grace the disc, but although their general makeup is excellent, the mix itself is hobbled by its tendency to use only the front hemisphere of the soundstage. The DTS track has the edge because it combines the elements into a transparent whole where the Dolby track's localized effects call attention to the lack of support from the surround channels.

The pointless array of extras rates tediously as follows:

Coyote Commentary
"Coyotes" Piper Perabo, Maria Bello, Tyra Banks, Bridget Moynahan, and Izabella Miko dominate this yakker but offer nothing approaching insight into the process. Mostly they marvel at the intricacies of the set, recall their own starting-out blues in detail, and generally lavish praise on co-stars and bit players (while failing entirely to identify veterans Bud Cort and Ellen Cleghorne). This has its qualities as entertainment, with soulful Bello coming off as the most substantial–and despite the headache-inducing number of people here, you miss them when they're swapped for a less enthusiastic Jerry Bruckheimer and David McNally and their probably-scripted banalities.

Search for the Stars
A three-part ode to casting the leads. "The Dreamer" (4 mins.) waxes poetic on Piper Perabo, with the usual she-auditioned-and-we-just-knew-it gush. (Perabo also contributes reminiscences of first-lead jitters.) Meanwhile, "Coyotes" (4 mins.) details the performers and personalities of the barmaids-with-'tude; the segment occupies a place between PLAYBOY and pro wrestling. Finally, "Mr. O'Donnell" (3 mins.) sings the praises of Adam Garcia, noting his wit and dedication without really sketching very much of his character.

Coyote 101
A second three-part lesson in all things Coyote, as if anyone who's seen the movie will be asking for a refresher. "A Place to Get Ugly" (2 mins.) describes the bar, including its similarities to and digressions from the genuine article. "Calling the Shots" (1 min.) untangles the intricacies of the Coyotes' bar gymnastics–which are far less effortless than the film suggests. Lastly, "Shakin' It" (3 mins.) details the dance moves, an arduous task when repeated over and over for increasingly indifferent cameras.

"Inside the Songs" (4 mins.)
An exploration of a) vocalist Leann Rimes and b) indefatigable songstress Diane Warren, described by Rimes as "one of the best songwriters who ever lived!" Delight in the intense talentude of both participants.

Additional Scenes
Five cutting-room floor-hitters that leave no question as to how they ended up that way. Two are blink-and-miss transitions, one is a superfluous exchange between Perabo and a cheating ex-boyfriend, and another is a flow-breaker where Perabo happens upon some of her stolen belongings. The sole surprise is an anecdote Bello delivers about the bar's origins and the ex-husband she was trying to defy. Not exactly Pinter, but Bello shines as ever.

"Action Overload!" (1 min.)
"The hottest moments from the movie–music video style!" If your pleasure is a rapid montage of women behaving prettily, get ready for a shot of adrenaline like no other.

"Can't Fight the Moonlight" Music Video
Leann Rimes stands on the bar to be assaulted by clips from the movie. Is this the second "Action Overload"?

The film's trailer plus trailers for The Pacifier, "Home Improvement: The Complete Second Season" and "Scrubs: The Complete First Season" round out the Touchstone platter. Originally published: June 16, 2005.

THE BLU-RAY
by Bill Chambers Coyote Ugly debuts on Blu-ray looking more than ever like a birthday cake threw up, at least during that section of the film where the main character is impelled, like every live-action Disney heroine before her, to try on funny hats. Strictly speaking, the 2.35:1, 1080p transfer is terrific despite a bit of murk (not crush, just soft shadow detail) in nighttime exteriors; sadly, I've no choice but to place Coyote Ugly in the upper tier of Buena Vista's catalogue titles, image-wise. Audio-wise, the DD 5.1 audio (640 kbps) is on a par with the DTS option of the most recent standard-def release, which is to say that it's loud yet remains, as Travis wrote, "hobbled" by the hemispheric nature of the original mix. (The 16-bit PCM uncompressed alternative will have to wait until I upgrade my receiver–or Hell freezes over.) This "Double-Shot Edition" features both the 101-minute theatrical and 107-minute extended cuts of the film via seamless branching while recycling all of the unrated DVD's bonus material, though the Bruckheimer/McNally & Coyotes commentary–consolidated as one track for the extended cut–becomes two separate yakkers when the theatrical cut is selected. Trailers for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and National Treasure: Book of Secrets cue up on startup and Coyote Ugly's own trailer is buried among the extras. Note that this disc's BD-Java interface was initially so slow and unresponsive that it necessitated another firmware upgrade for my player.

• DVD – 107 minutes; Unrated; 2.40:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 5.1, English DTS 5.1, French DD 5.1; English SDH, French, Spanish subtitles; DVD-9; Region One; Touchstone
• BLU-RAY – 107 minutes; PG-13/Unrated; 2.40:1 (1080p/MPEG-4); English 5.1 LPCM, English DD 5.1, French DD 5.1, Spanish DD 5.1, Spanish DD 2.0 (Stereo); English SDH, French, Spanish subtitles; BD-50; Region-free; Touchstone