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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 2.35:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • English: Dolby Digital Surround
  Subtitles
    English - Hearing Impaired
  Extras
  • 4 Deleted scenes
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Cast/crew biographies
  • Animated menus
  • Interviews
  • Filmographies

Sugar & Spice

New Line/Roadshow Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 78 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Meet Diane - the Mastermind, Hannah - the Virgin, Lucy - the Brain, Cleo - the Stalker, Kansas - the Rebel and Fern - the Terminator. They're all cheerleaders in the Lincoln high School 'A' squad, and Lisa, head of the 'B' squad, stickler for the NCAA rules and our narrator for this tale, wants in.

To say that the 'A' squad girls are close would be an understatement akin to calling Titanic a little film - heck, they even share a certain girlie event every month at the exact same time. It's when Diane suddenly falls out of kilter with their phenomenally regular routine that they realise something's up, or… no - we won’t go there - Diane is in fact pregnant to her rather sweet, but dumb as a goal post quarterback and wannabe senator boyfriend, Jack. Jack and Diane, get it?

With the couple's news not going down particularly well with their parents, and Diane deciding to the Madonna thing - she's keepin' her baby - the couple end up in a flat, struggling to survive with the pressures of cheerleading, football, school and, like, stuff, you know? They both find jobs - Jack as a demigod to the geeks at the Video Update store, she at a bank at the local supermarket, and continue struggling to make ends meet.

Tired of all the stress, and having difficulty managing to turn her frown upside down, Diane gets her sistahs together for a spot of Keanuing with Point Break, and a plan to alleviate their financial pressures pops into her little bonce - why not rob the bank she works at? With them all eventually opting in on the idea, study is undertaken - viewings of Reservoir Dogs, Heat, Dog Day Afternoon and, erm, The Apple Dumpling Gang (goodie-goodie Hannah is, after all, only allowed to watch 'G' rated flicks) and some befriending of Kansas' jailbird Mom's friends - and the plot is hatched.

Cue Boxing Day, five girls dressed as pregnant Betty dolls, one Richard Nixon and the big job. Ah, but remember 'A' squad wannabe Lisa? Just what does she have up her sleeve?

"Real cops aren’t as smart as Keanu!"

Let's look at the pedigree of this film, shall we? A cast featuring actors who have appeared in American Pie, Dude, Where's My Car?, Road Trip, Loser, Clueless, Pleasantville, Never Been Kissed, Drop Dead Gorgeous and Gossip. This is a pretty impressive list, and surely enough to make this film an utter delight, right? BZZT! Wrong! Even at an alarmingly brief length of 78 minutes including credits, Sugar & Spice tends to drag. Other than one genuinely clever (and hopefully intentional) gag, that of accompanying the Reservoir Dogs pastiche of the five pregnant Bettys in single file heading to do their job with the wonderful song Cannonball by The Breeders, the rather hackneyed script tends to get laboured by the actors as they struggle to extract, and seemingly elongate at times, the few actually funny moments on offer in Mandy Nelson's script.

Francine McDougall's often snappy direction is fine, and a couple of the actors can hold their heads high, most notably Marla Sokoloff whose experience in TV series The Practice has obviously paid off. However, when you're given something this average to work with - which they all seem so enamoured of in the interview extras (perhaps the guns at their backs were carefully kept out of frame?) - there's only so much that can be accomplished. When even fart jokes fall flat, you know you're in trouble...

  Video
Contract

One thing that certainly isn’t problematic is Sugar & Spice's visual appearance. The anamorphic 2.35:1 presentation boasts a superb picture, that copes admirably with the almost over the top colours used throughout. Vivid reds, vivid blues - they all almost bounce out of the screen to assault your retinas, without heading anywhere near over-saturation. The flesh tones remain realistic, and shadow detail - in fact detail in general - are pretty much spot on. There are a few very minor instances of shimmering and the odd case of slight aliasing, however these shouldn’t be enough to bother anybody other than the most finicky. As this is a single layered disc, there was no opportunity for a clunky layer change.

  Audio
Contract

There are two mixes included here, Dolby Digital 5.1 and a standard 2.0 mix. And oh boy, are they quiet! Ramp the volume and it doesn’t help that much - although at least you can hear what's going on - as the surrounds remain pretty much under-utilised throughout, and as for the subwoofwoof, well it gets some time to kick back and chill for a while. At least it is all clear and easy to understand, synching is perfectly fine and - well, what more can be said? Pretty lack lustre, but serviceable nonetheless.

The incidental score stuff comes from DEVO alumni Mark Mothersbaugh, a very busy man indeed of late. His creations share the stage with an intriguing collection of tracks ranging from brilliant, such as the aforementioned Cannonball, the Dandy Warhols' Bohemian Like You, and the gorgeously cutesy Glokenpop and glam stomp beauty Shazam! from locals Spiderbait, to such bands as Brassy and Republica, to the decidedly dodgy such as those big-in-Japan Brit gals Shampoo, and one Gary Glitter. One of the highlights is a brass band version of The Ramones' Blitzkrieg Bop - well worth keeping an ear out for - and mercifully there's no Johnny Cougar Mellencamp to be heard anywhere...

  Extras
Contract

Some appropriately sweet animated menus, complete with a lipstick kiss as a cursor and little scrawled explanations of the options for the less-than-bright popping up, lead us to…

Cast and Crew: This is actually quite the thorough little extra, featuring bios and filmographies of most of the characters and the director, brief character profiles, and sections rather misleadingly labelled 'sound bites'. Why misleading? Well, actually the four included, with Marley, Mena, Marla and James, are actually interview clips totalling around seven and a half minutes complete with very bright and colourful, full frame vision, although they are rather savagely edited together. Marley Shelton actually uses the word "funnest", too - I shall not comment further.

Trailer: Just over two minutes of pretty uninspiring stuff, and supposedly sporting DD 5.1 and 2.0 soundtracks, however the latter is completely silent.

Deleted scenes: An entire three minutes or so, featuring four chops - kind of. Really one is an alternate take, two are deletions that aren’t really missed from the final product, and one was actually in the film in its entirety. The vision is decent enough, and the same sound problem that plagues the trailer occurs once more.

Dolby trailer: Don’t step in the puddle, 'cos you may break your screen!

  Overall  
Contract

DVD-wise the vision is fantastic, the sound serviceable and the extras brief, not exactly giving much inspiration to make this a must-buy.

Unfortunately, even the most teen-flick addicted will most likely emerge from a viewing of this extremely unfulfilled. Still, at least it does end with that always welcome staple of the genre, the Animal House-styled 'where are they now' updates.

Here's a bonus one for you all... Amy watched a film called Sugar & Spice and remained in a deep, almost comatose sleep for the rest of her natural life...


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      And I quote...
    "Gimme a 'D'! (flounce, flounce)
    Gimme a 'U'! (star jump)
    Gimme a 'D'! (flounce, flounce)
    Whaddya get?"
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-535
    • TV:
          Sony 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Onkyo TX-DS494
    • Speakers:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse RBS662
    • Centre Speaker:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECC442
    • Surrounds:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECR042
    • Subwoofer:
          DTX Digital 4.8
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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