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DROP DEAD GORGEOUS

What You Need To Know:

DROP DEAD GORGEOUS tries too hard to make a political statement not by bashing unfair practices but by bashing every group and social value in the world of beauty pageantry to the expense of basic good comedy. The end result is a mean spirited view of middle America which goes far beyond satire and enters into the realm of a crude unbelievable fantasy including many blasphemous, Christian-bashing elements and violence.

Content:

Strong pagan worldview satirizing & making fun of Christianity with worst characters depicted as Christians; 8 profanities, 1 blasphemous, sacrilegious musical piece using Jesus as an effigy & 5 obscenities; moderate violence including explosions & implied burns, shooting & images of corpses; no depicted sex but sexual innuendo; no nudity but images of teenage girls in underwear; extensive alcohol use; smoking; and, making fun of retarded people, anorexic people, excessive vanity, extensive hypocrisy, vomiting joke, lying, & cheating.

More Detail:

Perhaps more aptly titled “Pageant from Hell in the Heart of Hollywood,” DROP DEAD GORGEOUS from New Line Cinema tries too hard to make a political statement not by bashing unfair practices but by bashing every group and social value in the world of beauty pageantry at the expense of basic good comedy. The end result is a mean-spirited, jaundiced view of middle America which goes far beyond satire and enters the realm of a crude, totally unbelievable fantasy.

Mount Rose, Minnesota is having a teenage beauty pageant. Mount Rose is a typical farming community in the heartland of America, complete with rich folk manipulating everything that happens, naïve middle class immigrants and poor white trash. All are vying for the big prize, a ticket out of town, which in this case takes the form of a college scholarship and trying out for the national pageants. The pageant is being sponsored by the Sarah Rose Cosmetics Company, which doesn’t care for anything but promoting its products (a trait that sounds a lot like the producers of this movie).

DROP DEAD GORGEOUS begins as a film crew arrives at Mount Rose to make a documentary on the making of the pageant. The crew interviews Gladys Leeman (Kirstie Alley), rich, a former pageant winner, President of the Mount Rose Civil Serviettes, honorable member of the Lutheran Sisterhood Gun Club and mother of Becky Leeman (Denise Richards), the spoiled, self-absorbed front runner. One by one, through the eyes of the camera crew, the audience is introduced to the rest of the contestants who will demonstrate such incredible talent skills as lip synching, animal calls and interpretive sign language. The intended funny twist, however, is that this is not just a teenage beauty pageant, but rather a no holds barred, win at all costs contest showing the ugly side of middle-America, as well as America itself (which has the face of conservative values, capitalism, gun clubs, and religion).

As the documentary crew interviews multiply, so also do the dead bodies, which start arriving at the local funeral home, where Becky’s main opponent Amber Atkins (Kirsten Durst) works part time as a make-up artist for the dead. Amber is smart, beautiful, emulates liberal journalism icon “Dianne Sawyer” as her idol, and hopes to do the same type of work some day. Even more ominously than that, she stands in the way of Becky’s success in the upcoming contest.

The preparation for the pageant goes into high gear. The first item of the day is the selection of the judges. Among them is a hardware store owner with a retarded brother (who performs the only innocent humor of the lot) and a local pervert, who drools at anything female that breathes. Meanwhile, the lovely teenage nominees are being eliminated left and right, literally speaking. Even Amber’s loving mother Annette (Ellen Barkin) cannot avoid the carnage as her trailer mysteriously blows up. Annette is rushed to the hospital with her can of beer fused tightly to her fingers. Though Amber makes it through the contest alive, Becky wins nevertheless. However, in an unexpected twist of divine justice, the “Mexican” made float she rides on during her triumphant parade through town catches fire and goes up in a ball of flames with Becky on it.

At that point, the movie should have been over, but regrettably, it mercilessly plods on with Amber going to the nationals and rooming at the “Airport Howard Johnson.” There, all the contestants suffer food poisoning from a shellfish buffet and the audience is treated to a multilevel vomiting visual extravaganza. Now, isn’t that funny? Yet, the story continues, and, suffice it to say, Amber lives to compete another day.

DROP DEAD GORGEOUS has the seeds of a good movie comedy. The experiences of writer Lona Williams as a former teenage Junior Miss Pageant contestant could have given the audience an enlightening, funny insight into this slice of Americana. (Kirstie Alley, too, has said she has participated in beauty pageants.) Indeed, making mere girls prance around, dress up and jump through hoops deserves a little ribbing, but this politically correct movie is so bent on unfairly demonizing those groups, that fine performances by most of the cast are lost by the wayside. Of particular offensive note is a sacrilegious dance number that Becky performs in the contest using an effigy of Jesus Christ as a prop. Also offensive is the characterization of a former pageant winner as an anorexic hospital patient losing her hair. For this alone, families will want to run away from DROP DEAD GORGEOUS.

Like the recently released ELECTION, this movie endorses secretly removing one’s competition, but in this case it is actual murder! As for any social or moral redeeming values to DROP DEAD GORGEOUS, there seem to be zero!

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.