Despite the warning given by the Video Store Guy, this was an okay movie. It would have a been a great movie, but there were two flaws:

1. any scene with Josie and/or the Pussycats
2. the premise

Actually, the premise was so-so, it was the execution that sucked.

You’d best stop reading if you plan to see this movie. I don’t give away the ending, but a few plot points are revealed that might ruin the movie for you. If you’re really stoned when you watch the movie and will be incapable of following the plot, that is.

Alrighty…so here’s the thing. It’s a pretty well-done movie. The parts with the boy band are hilarious. It was, I have to say, a little soon after September 11th to watch a movie with an intentional plane crash (in a field, no less) played for laughs. Nevertheless, we soldiered on. Toward the end, while we were being beaten over the head with the subliminal advertising plotline, the words “join the army” flashed on the screen. That was creepy, too. Minor, but creepy.

Here’s a plot synopsis: Everyone loves DuJour, the hip boyband. No one likes The Pussycats, in fact, no one’s even heard of them. DuJour discovers that Parker Posey (who’s annoying in this movie) is using their music to sell people things via subliminal messages. DuJour goes down. A new band, The Pussycats, is “discovered,” dolled up, and repackaged as “Josie and the Pussycats.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The music biz is evil. MTV is a hegemonic force for conformity. Marketing is evil. Is any of this news to you? Didn’t think so, so I’ll move on.

Here’s the thing that wrecks the whole damn movie. The whole “we’re lampooning consumer culture by plastering the world these characters inhabit with advertising” concept doesn’t work. Why? Because they use REAL ads. You aren’t lampooning anything. You’re product-placing us to death and if we complain it’s because we aren’t hip enough to get the satire! Did we have to see 1 million taget logos? Couldn’t you have invented a logo to use? What’s that you say? Fictional company’s don’t pay for product placement? Silly me, what was I thinking?

Additionally, Carson Daly is annoying as hell “spoofing” himself. TRL and Behind the Music are, in the movie, used to create hits and explain what happens to stars who discover that evil is afoot, respectively.
Okay, that’s fine.

But using the real people, real shows, real logos? Is the message that Viacom is so secure in their place in pop culture that they can spoof themselves? Or is it that Viacom is so secure in their place as manipulators of culture that they can portray their real selves and pass it off as a spoof? Or am I just totally paranoid? Either way, it doesn’t work.