Starring:
Piper Perabo as Violet Sanford
Adam Garcia as Kevin O’Donnell
John Goodman as Bill Sanford
Maria Bello as Lil
Izabella Miko as Cammie
Tyra Banks as Zoe
Bridget Moynahan as Rachel
Melanie Lynskey as Gloria
Del Pentecost as Lou the Bouncer
Michael Weston as Danny
LeAnn Rimes as Herself
Jeremy Rowley as William Morris Receptionist
Ellen Cleghorne as Wendy, Music Publishing Receptionist
John Fugelsang as Richie the Booker
Bud Cort as Romero
Special Features:
Additional Scenes Not Seen In Theaters
Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes — “Coyote 101: How To Be A Coyote; Inside The Songs”; Search For The Stars
LeAnn Rimes Music Video
Audio Commentary With Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Director David McNally, And The Coyotes
“Action Overload” Reel Featuring The Hottest Moments From The Movie — Music-Video Style
Theatrical Trailer
Other Info:
Widescreen (2.40:1)
DTS 5.1 Digital Surround
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
French Language Track
French and Spanish Subtitles
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Synopsis:
The following is the official description of the DVD:
“From hit-making producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Gone in 60 Seconds, Armageddon) comes the special unrated extended cut of Coyote Ugly. It’s the intoxicating sexy comedy starring an unbeatable cast of hot new stars including Piper Perabo (Cheaper by the Dozen) and Maria Bello (Payback). Moving to New York to pursue her dream of becoming a famous songwriter, Violet Sanford (Perabo) finds herself desperate and broke. Through a twist of fate, the shy, innocent Violet lands a job as a barmaid at the hottest nightclub in town — the down and dirty, wild and fun Coyote Ugly. Overflowing with attitude, the “Coyotes” spend more time on top of the bar than behind it, tantalizing the standing-room-only crowd with their outrageous antics! It’s one wild adventure for a small-town girl with big city dreams.”
This “Unrated Extended Cut” of Coyote Ugly is unrated (obviously), but it was originally rated PG-13 for sensuality. The new material with nudity definitely qualifies for an R rating.
The Movie:
I missed Coyote Ugly when it was first released in 2000, and I have to admit that I never had a desire to see it despite the obvious appeal to a heterosexual male. It looked like nothing more than an issue of FHM or Maxim up on the big screen. It seemed to be all style and little substance. But upon viewing it on DVD, I found it was a bit more than that. It was a tale of the naïve young girl in the big city. The whole bit about the bar is almost a side issue to the story despite what the advertising would lead you to believe.
Coyote Ugly has a number of things going for it. Piper Perabo is great as the small town girl coming to live in the big city. She’s cute, a good actress, and a character that guys can fall for and girls aren’t threatened by. Her story as she tries to develop her music is an entertaining one. Perabo’s romance with Adam Garcia as Kevin O’Donnell is also entertaining and, really, the core of the story. John Goodman also adds a lot of life to the story as Bill Sanford, the father of Perabo’s Violet. Put together, all these little factors make Coyote Ugly a movie worth giving a chance.
Unfortunately, the movie still suffers from a number of problems. The story is incredibly predictable. You can figure out how it is going to end within the first 10 minutes of the picture. The other problem is that it can’t seem to figure out which genre it belongs to. Part of it is a sweet story of a young girl trying to make it in the big city. Part of it is almost a teen romance. Then the part of it in the bar seems to be nothing more than titillation for teen boys that can’t get into R rated films. The girls basically act as strippers / bartenders that never take their clothes off. (It seems like an awfully tiring way to make a living.) A cameo by LeAnn Rimes in the bar at the end is especially out of place. When all these parts are put together it doesn’t seem like it all belongs in the same film.
I never saw the PG-13 version of the movie, so I can’t comment on what was added to this “Unrated Extended Cut”. If I had to guess anything, it would be that the love scene between Perabo and Garcia has some stuff added to it. Now included are shots of Piper Perabo’s stunt boobies in Garcia’s face. (It really doesn’t seem like Perabo filmed the scenes because her face isn’t shown any time breasts are.) These scenes were obviously cut in order to bring the movie down from an R rating to a PG-13 one. It was probably a wise business decision on the part of Disney and Bruckheimer because they could get more people in the theaters with the PG-13.
Coyote Ugly also featured a good performance by Maria Bello as Lil, the owner of the bar. She’s tough, sassy, and a good contrast to Perabo. I also have to add that Bridget Moynahan was almost unrecognizable to me as Rachel, the tough chick of the bar. Her rowdy performance is quite different from most of her more recent roles. The soundtrack is also a mix of tunes from the 70’s and 80’s. It includes The Charlie Daniels Band, INXS, Don Henley, EMF, Billy Idol, Stray Cats, and, of course, LeAnn Rimes. The final product has a little something for everyone.
If you’re a fan of any of the main actors or if you’re into “girl in the big city” movies, then you should enjoy Coyote Ugly. I don’t think this Unrated Extended Edition adds anything to the movie, so you’re probably just as well off if you watch the PG-13 version.
The Extras:
There are a few bonus features on this DVD. Here are the highlights:
Additional Scenes Not Seen In Theaters There’s actually some pretty good material in these deleted scenes. One details more of Lil’s background and how she started the bar. Another scene shows Violet’s ex-boyfriend taunting her that she’ll never make it in New York. Another scene shows more bonding between Violet and her friend. They all end up giving more background on the characters.
Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes — “Coyote 101: How To Be A Coyote; Inside The Songs”; Search For The Stars In “How to be a Coyote”, they explain all the training that went into preparing for the roles as Coyotes in the movie. This included dancing, bartending, etc. Perabo had additional musical training. “Inside The Songs” talks about how LeAnn Rimes did the singing for Perabo in the film. They also discuss the songwriting by Dianne Warren. Finally, “Search for the Stars” discussed the casting for the movie. Each of the actors is highlighted in this video.
LeAnn Rimes Music Video This is the main theme from the film sung by Rimes in the Coyote Ugly bar. Clips from the movie itself play here and there.
Audio Commentary With Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Director David McNally, And The Coyotes This is a pretty good commentary mainly because the girls have so much to say. I think it helped a lot having almost all of them there because they were able to relate all sorts of stories about the shoot. As you might expect, the bar scenes have a majority of the interesting stories.
“Action Overload” Reel Featuring The Hottest Moments From The Movie — Music-Video Style This really weak bonus feature is nothing more than clips from the film cut together to music. If you’ve already seen the movie, what’s the point of this?
The Bottom Line:
While Coyote Ugly is a very predictable tale that is an odd mix of good girl story and T&A, entertaining performances by Piper Perabo and John Goodman make it a bit better than average.
