Cecil B. DeMented (2000)* 1/2 (out of 4) John Waters has a very clear message here but it's the perfect example of a director having something to say but not a good way of saying it. In the film, the twisted, underground director Cecil B. DeMented (Stephen Dorff) and he teenage filmmakers kidnap A-list actress Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith) and force her to appear in their film. What's the subject of their film? That Hollywood is pure evil and the only good cinema is the independent movie. If Waters' wanted to give people a message that independent cinema is better than Hollywood then he really should have came up with a better screenplay because as it stands there really aren't too many Hollywood comedies that are worse than this low-budget movie. Again, I understand what Waters was going for but the film is a complete disaster that doesn't have a single laugh in it. There are a couple good things with one of them being Griffith who gives it her all even when the screenplay isn't giving her much to do. The second thing the film has going for it is the fact that it never really gets boring no matter how unfunny it is. With that said, for the most part the film is a complete misfire with one unfunny sequence after another. This "terrorist" group basically go out and film themselves mistreating those things they most object to. This includes malls that show movies, family friendly groups and of course the evil big-budget sequels. Again, the message is clear but the way it's presented is just so poorly done that you can't help but roll your eyes at everything being done. Even worse is the fact that I never could understand why these anti-Hollywood people would want an A-list actress in their film. Waters clearly has a talent but it's certainly not on display here.

John Waters continues his slow and steady seduction of the mainstream with the first half of the movie, only to reward its arousal by slamming a giant butt plug thru the finale. How many ways can one director demonstrate how much they hate the Hollywood machine, by mimicking it with all the jaded "devotion" of porn parody? The closing sequence at a particularly demented and violent drive-in theater screening rocks in a way not seen since Boris Karloff used his senior Citizen Cane to knock out a drive-in sniper in Targets. Yes, Mr. Waters, we know you love to hate us - you have since you made us sit thru a giant drag queen eating dog poo.But, jeez, won't you ever make a movie that doesn't glorify suicidal sociopaths to the point of murder junkie fetishism?

This is utterly hilarious - satire fun big time. I laughed my ass off so many times... Adequate actors, great acting within reason - it feels like the Comic Strip doing a Fassbinder parody. Well done. All of the fun poked at the film industry and its surroundings, circumstances, people, ways of doing things etc. is just so over the top you just got to love it. Of course, it's some kind of statement or else it wouldn't be John Waters (remember "Pink Flamingos"?). I leave it to you to figure out all the innuendos and discuss them from an intellectual point of view - have fun! As of me, I enjoyed the film (at least, we had a giggle) and recommend it as such to everyone with some sort of substantiated background, an appreciation for the bizarre, and a general sense of off-color humour.

John Waters has a wonderful way of poking fun at just about everyone with equal love and ferocity in his films. This hilarious movie is often labeled as a darkly comedic arrow through the cold heart of the Hollywood system, but that's only half of the story. With typical accuracy and aplomb, Baltimore's favorite son here deftly skewers underground and indie filmmakers as well. As always, though we are meant to root for Cecil and his Sprocket Holes, we are also meant to find them absurd, irrational, ridiculous, somewhat hypocritical, and just a bit scary - just like the tens of thousands of would-be cinematic revolutionaries out there shooting pointless nonsense and proclaiming Hollywood the Devil's backyard while secretly waiting for that call from their agent saying they've finally sold their Sci-Fi Channel original series spec script. Just as A DIRTY SHAME would later take on both the sexually repressed and the criminally uninhibited, CECIL B. DEMENTED delights in reminding us of just how crazy we all are.The cast here has an absolute ball with the razor-sharp material. Of particular note are Maggie Gyllenhaal as a Satan-worshiping make-up artist and Adrian Grenier as an actor who has solved all of his other problems by exchanging them for just one, a world-class drug addiction. Melanie Griffith and Stephen Dorff are fun in the lead roles, but it's Alicia Witt who steals the show as pornstar-turned-perpetually horny film terrorist Cherish. In a film full of show-stopping moments (from a projectile vomiting patron at a screening of the director's cut of PATCH ADAMS to a candy fight in front of a theater showing all "family" films), none is more hilarious or memorable than when our idealistic heroes duck into a porno theater having an all night Cherish anal marathon. The group struggles to blend into a crowd of increasingly aroused raincoaters as they watch the on-screen Cherish become intimately familiar with a very adventurous gerbil. Though nothing explicit is shown, this is about as close to classic Waters as a contemporary studio movie could ever hope to get. Not even the water bottle scene in A DIRTY SHAME can touch it for its sheer absurdity and faux-erotic silliness. To her credit, Miss Witt plays this over-the-top scene with the same relish she brings to the role throughout the entire feature.CECIL B. DEMENTED is a hoot. Snooty as this may sound, if you don't like it, it's because you don't get it. And if you don't get it, maybe John Waters is a name you should avoid when perusing Netflix.