Josie and the Pussycats isn’t great but certainly a fun and entertaining timewaster thanks to a good cast led by Rachel Leigh Cook and some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments.
Josie and the Pussycats
— 20th Anniversary Edition —
(2001)
Genre(s): Comedy, Music
Mill Creek Entertainment| PG13 – 98 min. – $19.99 | November 16, 2021
Date Published: 11/20/2021 | Author: The Movieman
|
|
|||||||||||
Mill Creek Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 3/5 |
|
Plot Synopsis: Hot newcomers Josie (RACHEL LEIGH COOK), Melody (TARA REID), and Val (ROSARIO DAWSON) are three small-town musicians with big dreams but little future. Then fate gives the Pussycats the chance of a lifetime when band manager (ALAN CUMMING) of MegaRecords signs them overnight to an awesome recording contract. Suddenly, Josie and the Pussycats are living life in the fast lane with sold-out concerts, a number one single and global stardom. But it’s not all limousines and private jets. The Pussycats soon discover they’re being played like pawns in an evil plot by the record label’s maniacal CEO Fiona (PARKER POSEY) to control the youth of America.
Quick Hit Review: Josie and the Pussycats is a movie I actually paid to see back in April of 2001 and felt it was ‘okay’ then and was ‘okay’ 20 years later. The satire was a lot of fun as was the cast with Rachel Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson, Tara Reid and Parker Posey filling their parts with the right tongue-in-cheek that material needs. Was also a lot of fun seeing the product placement (not paid for by the companies) in practically every scene, hell there was even a band of McDonalds logos in a shower. The film was aptly directed by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, the filmmakers behind 1998’s Can’t Hardly Wait, one of the better high school films that came out of the 90s and has some great replay value. Oddly Josie would be the pair’s last film credited with directing and only a few feature film writing credits to their name (the last was Leap Year in 2010) and mainly work on television. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3/5 |
|
All of the features were ported over from the DVD. Includes an Audio Commentary with Writers/Directors Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont & Producer Marc Platt; Backstage Pass (23:51) and Behind-the-Scenes (22:45) featurettes; 3 Deleted Scenes (4:04), 3 Music Videos and the Theatrical Trailer (2:28). |
VIDEO – 3¾/5 |
| Mill Creek releases Josie and the Pussycats onto Blu-ray I believe for the first time (at least in North America) where it’s presented in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and has been given a 1080p high-definition transfer. For the most part it’s an okay looking picture and when compared with the DVD version, it is a notable upgrade. Colors are fairly well balanced as well in keeping with the light-hearted nature of the story and cartoonish characters. |
AUDIO – 3¾/5 |
| The movie comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The lossless audio here produces clear dialogue and some decent depth for the music sequences. I did also do a quick comparison with the DVD’s Dolby Digital 5.1 and did find this one to be more even keel while the former was a bit heavy. |
OVERALL – 3¼/5 |
|
Josie and the Pussycats isn’t great but certainly a fun and entertaining timewaster thanks to a good cast led by Rachel Leigh Cook and some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments. This 20th anniversary edition Blu-ray, the video and audio are adequate and thankfully all of the bonus material was ported over. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.