Cecil B. DeMented 2000, Rated R Artisan Home Entertainment

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Starring Melanie Griffith, Stephen Dorff, et al. Released to DVD on January 23, 2001.

As writer/director John Waters has grown older, his films have become more mainstream--or, at least, as mainstream as possible for a filmmaker who once featured a drag queen/actor eating straight-from-the-source dog crap. Stephen Dorff stars here as the titular Cecil B. Demented, a self proclaimed guerilla filmmaker in the process of making a truly life-like movie. Shooting with reality as a background, Demented and his band of crazed actors and crew members use real bullets instead of blanks, wanting to capture the real sense of fear that people displa.html>spla.html>spla.html>spla.html>splay when real guns, and bullets, are used. Needing a leading lady for his film, Demented and his cronies kidnap Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith), the world's most popular actress and force her to star in their production. The result of this premise is a wildly unusual and entertaining look at the foibles and increasing number of problems in real life Hollywood. Cinephiles will enjoy the many subtle and not-so-subtle references as to what is wrong with the film industry in this film (the creation of Lake Placid 2, for example). Therein lies the entertainment value of this film. Funny and distinctly a Waters' film, Cecil B. Demented is surprisingly on target.