A Peek Behind the ‘Ugly’ Truth
“Coyote Ugly,” a modest hit from last summer, is silly, predictable and corny, but it is also old-fashioned fun. And the DVD (Touchstone, $30) has a lot of extra goodies to keep the film’s fans happy.
Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by David McNally, “Coyote Ugly” stars Piper Perabo as an aspiring songwriter from New Jersey who comes to New York to seek her fame and fortune. To make ends meet, she gets a job in a female-run bar, called Coyote Ugly. Slowly but surely, she comes out of her shell and finds love with a sweet Australian (a very charming Adam Garcia).
The digital edition includes the wide-screen version of the film and several short documentaries on its making: “In Search of Violet: Casting the Lead Role, Piper Perabo”; “Coyote 101: Actor Prep, What It Means to be a Coyote,” which looks at how the dance sequences were staged; “Howling Good Time: Filming Bar Scenes” and another mini-doc on the film’s songs, which were penned by Diane Warren and sung by LeAnn Rimes, who makes a cameo in the film.
The special edition also includes two audio commentaries--one involving director McNally, the other with the Coyotes: Perabo, Maria Bello, Tyra Banks, Izabella Miko and Bridget Moynahan. They sound like a group of girls having a slumber party.
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Christopher McQuarrie is joined by composer Joe Kraemer for the commentary tract of “The Way of the Gun” (Artisan, $25), a violent film noir about a kidnapping that goes terribly awry. McQuarrie, who won an Oscar for his screenplay for 1995’s “The Usual Suspects,” made his directorial debut with “The Way of the Gun,” which didn’t make much of a splash with critics or audiences.
The DVD features the wide-screen edition of the film, trailers, production notes, storyboards and scripts for a deleted scene, lightweight cast and crew interviews and bios and an isolated musical score with commentary from Kraemer.
McQuarrie discloses that the film’s opening sequence, in which actors Ryan Phillippe and Benicio Del Toro get into a fistfight outside a bar, was inspired by, of all things, an incident involving the director at an L.A. dog park.
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Director Norman Jewison has been very busy these days doing commentary for the DVDs of his films. Last week, MGM released his Oscar-winner “In the Heat of the Night,” and this week Columbia TriStar has brought out the digital edition of the 1979 legal satire “ . . . And Justice for All” ($25), which stars Al Pacino in his Oscar-nominated turn as a Maryland attorney who takes on the injustices in the justice system.
The disc includes the full- and wide-screen editions of the films, the trailer, and cast and crew bios.
” . . . And Justice for All,” Jewison points out, marked the film debuts of Christine Lahti, whom he had seen in an off-Broadway play, and Jeffrey Tambor. It also marked the final film of the legendary acting teacher, Lee Strasberg, who was a mentor to Pacino and plays his grandfather here.
