DVD Movie Rating for: Coyote Ugly

3 out of 5

Movie Plot of: Coyote Ugly

A sexy romantic comedy featuring a spectacular soundtrack, "Coyote Ugly" is the story of one girl's wild adventure in the big city. Graced with a velvet voice, 21-year-old Violet Sanford heads to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a songwriter, only to find her aspirations sidelined by the accolades and notoriety she receives at her "day" job as a bar maid at Coyote Ugly. A new nightclub with a twist, Coyote Ugly is the hottest spot in town, featuring a team of sexy, enterprising young women who tantalize customers and the media alike with their outrageous antics.

DVD Production Details of: Coyote Ugly

Starring: Piper Perabo, Adam Garcia

Director: David McNally

Format: Color, DTS Surround Sound, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby

Studio: Touchstone Video

DVD Release Date: August 13, 2002
DVD Features:
"In Search of Violet: Casting the Lead Role, Piper Perabo"

"Coyote 101: Actor Prep., What it means to be a Coyote"

"Howling Good Time: Filming Bar Scenes"

Deleted Scenes

LeAnn Rimes Music Video

Audio Commentary

Widescreen anamorphic format

Cast of the movie: Coyote Ugly

• Piper Perabo .... Violet Sanford
• Adam Garcia .... Kevin O'Donnell
• John Goodman .... Bill
• Maria Bello .... Lil
• Izabella Miko .... Cammie
• Tyra Banks .... Zoe
• Bridget Moynahan .... Rachel
• Melanie Lynskey .... Gloria
• Del Pentecost .... Lou
• Michael Weston .... Danny
• LeAnn Rimes .... Herself
• Jeremy Rowley .... William Morris Receptionist
• Ellen Cleghorne .... Music Publishing Receptionist
• John Fugelsang .... Richie the Booker
• Bud Cort .... Romero

Photo Gallery of the movie: Coyote Ugly

Wallpaper Tyra Banks, Piper Perabo in Coyote Ugly

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size, high resolution photographs

Reviews of the movie: Coyote Ugly

As a producer, Jerry Bruckheimer makes movies for guys, mostly action films like Top Gun and Gone in 60 Seconds. The ones he makes that feature women, such as Flashdance and now Coyote Ugly, broaden their appeal with a fondness for "strong women." For Bruckheimer, that means self-determined, attractive women who don't need men to get what they want. Is there anything sexier than that? In Coyote Ugly, the charming young waif Piper Perabo stars as Violet, a New Jersey waitress who moves to New York to make it big as a songwriter. She has absolutely no idea how the music business works, relying instead on her faith in her own abilities. In order to make ends meet, she gets a job in a bar called Coyote Ugly, where the bartenders are scantily clad women who dance on the bar and order around their mostly male clientele. Really, they are strippers who don't have to take off their clothes. In fact, the owner (Maria Bello) orders them to enact the first rule of strip clubs: "Appear available but never be available." Bruckheimer is smart enough to focus on the naive girl instead of the seamier side of the story, following her as she realizes her dream and picks up a disposable but nice man along the way. Further "empowering" the female figures in the film, Zoe (Tyra Banks), the bartender whom Violet is replacing, leaves in order to go to law school. See? They're as smart as they are sexy! Then there's John Goodman, who turns in an absolutely charming performance as Violet's concerned father. This is a sweet and inoffensive film as long as you don't think too much about it.

Total fun movie, nice DVD "extras", I give it a solid "7".
This film "Coyote Ugly" gets it name from the bar where the girls work, apparently a real bar of the same name in NYC, but this film was shot on a set. The lead actress Piper Perabo was chosen from about 4000 girls, and she does a fine job, very believable as "Violet". In fact, her life leading up to this film paralleled the character very closely. She looks a little like both Jennifer Lopez and Sarah Jessica Parker, and delivers her lines much like Parker would have.

Storyline - young Violet, mother dead, father (John Goodman) works as toll booth operator on the NJ Turnpike, she decides to move to NYC to realize her dream of being a successful songwriter, against dad's wishes. Meets all usual obstacles, rejection, apartment is robbed, broke, she quite accidentally finds about Coyote Ugly as one worker/dancer is leaving. Not "her cup of tea", she perseveres anyway. Also meets a nice young man who also helps her get over her fear of performing on stage.

Although it looks like Perabo does her own singing, as we learn on the DVD extras, Leann Rimes does all her singing, dubbing her voice to match Perabo's vocal style. Rimes also does an appearance near the end. Goodman is his usual good self as dad.

The DVD has selectable sound in either DTS or Digital Dolby 5.1. I selected DTS and the surround track was fine. There were a couple of "glitches" in the video, but overall was just fine. "Extras" included a commentary track by the "girls", which is fun to listen to, but not particularly helpful in understanding subtlties of the film. There are deleted scenes and short features on how some of the stars were selected.

Anyway, the film is a nice story, has some fun barroom action and dancing, no violence nor bad language, and only subtle sex suggestions. A good, fun movie for young and old alike.