| | |  | Other | Home » » » D.E.B.S. (Special Edition) | | | | | | | Description: | | Sultry crime boss Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster, The Fast and the Furious) is back in the states and the D.E.B.S.- an elite team of paramilitary college co-ed superspies- are hot on her trail. But when their top agent, gorgeous Amy Bradshaw (Sara Foster, The Big Bounce), mysteriously disappears after coming face to face with the attractive young villainess, the D.E.B.S. begin a full-scale search for Lucy's secret lair, never suspecting that Amy may not want to be rescued after all, in this smart and sexy spy spoof about love at first gun sight. | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Sara Foster, Jordana Brewster, Devon Aoki, Jill Ritchie, Meagan Good | | Director:
| Angela Robinson | | Format:
| Color, Dolby, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen | | Language:
| English | | Subtitle:
| English, French | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | | Run Time:
| 91 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| June 07, 2005 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 126 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 126 customer reviews )
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181 of 193 found the following review helpful:
 Delightful lesbian funApr 03, 2005
By Victor Chen
"Messerschmitts"
Lots of people, including the venerable Ebert and Roeper, bash this movie for having no plot, bad acting, and unbearable cheesiness. I cannot defend this movie against people who made those claims. I can only say that I, as an audience, was truly entertained by this charming and witty little film. What can I say? The movie worked for me, and I was guiltily won by its unique charms.
Ebert's main criticism was that had this movie been about a heterosexual relationship, the plot would have been so absurdly mundane as to be unfilmable. "The only thing going for this film is the lesbian relationship". I agree. However, he misses the point that we are precisely here to watch a lesbian relationship, not to see some top-notch spy action thriller. We are not even here for the comedy, primarily. We are here to see a film in which a lesbian relationship is portrayed in a positive, light-hearted way that ends with a happy ending which, if you are a connoisseur of lesbian films, you will know is surprisingly rare.
Lesbians, and friends of lesbians (like me) are starving for good positive portrayals of women loving women; not as a guilty side story, not for shock-purposes, but as the main centrepiece of movie. D.E.B.S. succeeds because it portrays the central relationship in a refreshing, matter-of-fact way, while at the same time acknowledging that this is not the norm in our society. This is a very delicate balance that the film succeeds in perfectly. D.E.B.S. also succeeds because of its witty lines, sweet easy charm, and the fact that it's a good-natured film. To anthropomorphise the movie, D.E.B.S. is like a kind-hearted, adorable girl whom you can't help but like. Its heart is certainly in the right place. I'm so please, by the way, that this film received a PG-13 movie. Finally our country is realising that homosexuality by itself does not award an R-rating.
I thought the acting was in general very well done. Jordana Brewster in particular is irresistible and just believable enough to play the delicious lesbian "supervillain" Lucy Diamond, whose combination of hotness and insecurity are enough to cause formerly-straight government spies to question their orientation. Does she really look tough and/or mean enough to be the head of an international criminal syndicate? No, not really, but it works in this movie's slight off-kilter, over-the-top world. The love story between Brewster's character Lucy and the other main character, Amy, is adorable, sweet, funny, and ultimately heart-warming. You really do believe that they work as a couple, and want them to drive off into the sunset living to live happily ever after in Barcelona.
One quick word about the absolutely stunning Devon Aoki (Dominique), who plays the chain-smoking, hapa D.E.B.S. agent who's a sex addict and speaks with a French accent. Obviously her character was designed (and in the movie chosen) for the precise purpose of enticing and seducing men sexually, almost in a comically stereotypic way. (French accents typically being very appealing to American men). The grand irony perhaps then is how well it worked on me. Aoki smoulders on the screen in her few scenes with a kind of almost intolerable sexiness that destroys both reason and resistance with seemingly little conscious effort.
There are many different ways to enjoy D.E.B.S. However, it certainly does targets a certain type of audience, and perhaps it takes one with a certain mindset to be able to enjoy the movie. But if you're one of them, prepare for a rare treat.
68 of 72 found the following review helpful:
It's the small things.Jul 18, 2006
By Michael Joseph
"mikkj1"
First, as a straight male, I agree that this was a great characterization of a lesbian relationship. I found myself forgetting that it was two women, and merely hoping that they could make it work. Also as a straight male, the great looks of all the actresses didn't hurt, but that soon became background, sort of like after a while at a nude beach, it all seems normal. Or not.
Speaking of backgrounds, one of the reasons I enjoyed this movie so much was the obvious joy with which the cast performed in, and the crew participated in, the making of this movie. I'm going to point out some VERY funny jokes that were in the background that no one has mentioned, but not all of them - go watch it again, and find some on your own.
1. The "punk bar" itself. Those punks were obviously cast and crew members moms, dads, grandma, etc., who they called up and said "Hey! Wanna be in our movie?" Either that or, they were the oldest group of punks I've ever seen.
2. The "punks" were drinking out of glasses with "bendy straws", highly un-punklike behavior.
3. In this dangerous, underground punk bar, there was an undamaged foosball table. Doesn't this strike you as funny?
4. The pink fire hydrant.
5. Lucy's license plate - "NDASKY" - from the Beatles song "Lucy in the sky with Diamonds".
6. Perhaps the funniest, to me, joke was when Lucy and Amy sat down at the booth. Lucy set two beers down, one in front of each. The beers were Dos Equis, the logo of which is XX. What is the chromosomal difference between men and women? Men are XY, women are XX. This was a deliberatly placed joke. Two beers, deliberatly faced forward, one in front of each "girl", marked with the genetic symbol for "girl", in a "girl/girl" romantic scene. It was a deliberately concoted case of humorous overkill. That joke was one that someone thought up, everyone agreed that probably no one would get it, but said "What the heck WE'LL know it's there, and it's funny!".
7. The fact that she had a "beef" with Australia, of all countries, and that the large globe in her apartment had a big red "X" through the continent.
8. There's the "handle with care" signs in the final scene, but that's all I'm giving you, go look.
The point of this review is that some of these movies are a joyful labor for those involved. They know they're not going to get an Oscar, but they like the script, they like each other, and they go the extra "Green Mile" to put everything they've got, and everything they can think of into it. I often enjoy these small-budget movies more than their big-budget relatives, because they ARE labors of love, and that comes through the screen, as does the cast and crews affection for each other.
Too many were locked into watching beautiful girls in short skirts to look beyond them to the REAL humour and art contained in this movie. It's there, and it's worth the effort. Give it a shot.
Love is love, and funny is funny. I'm just sayin'
22 of 24 found the following review helpful:
D.iscipline, E.nergy, B.eauty.... Great movie !Jun 18, 2005
By Cedar Waxwing
Glad to have seen the more positive reviews on this movie, I almost passed it up. A PG13 rating helped, too.
How could anyone not like this movie.
The premise of the movie is a secret espionage agency that recruits high schoolers who score high on an SAT test that is secretly manipulated to show innate traits (or high probabililty) to lie, cheat, fight, or kill.
Four recruits have spent the last 4 years at James Morrison University, a rouse for espionage school. Amy (Sara Foster), Max (Meagan Good), Janet (Jill Ritchie), and Dominique (Devon Aoki) are a squad and are assigned to spy on the master criminal Lucy Diamond (Jordana Brewster).
Lots of perspective in this gem of a movie. Amy is writing a thesis on the elusive Lucy Diamond. When Amy finally comes face to face with her, all her assumptions are "torpedoed." Sensing an attraction, Lucy Diamond pursues Amy, when the conventional doesn't work, she resorts to creating events that bring Amy to her. The name Lucy Diamond may invoke "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds": LSD (cultural drug used heavily in the 60's and 70's, during the civil rights struggle and the Vietnam war). Amy says "...love should be irresistible like a drug. When it happens, you're not able to help yourself..." you want more. Amy broke up with her boyfriend of 8 months and she reflected this thought when Lucy asked her why.
Many clever themes are barely under the surface in this movie. Angela Robinson used not so obvious to point to the obvious, very clever indeed. One more example, Amy is the best spy ever recruited and is nicknamed the "perfect score." This information leads Amy to the truth when she discovers that she holds the perfect score for lying. The espionage agency took the information to mean she is the perfect spy.
A bow to Angela Robinson for creating a unique story, sprinkling it with memories of Charlie's Angels, Mission Impossible, and I can't think of the other show there was a tinge of. The cast is delightful, all-star. It is wonderful to see Holland Taylor (Ms. Petrie), Michael Clarde Duncan (Mr. Phipps), and Jordana Brewster (Lucy Diamond) who played the first "Nicki Munson" on the daytime soap "As the World Turns."
This story could go on forever. It is young love at it's best as the song in the movie suggests: "It was young love at it's best and it is You that I'll remember." (song, Into the Morning, sung by The Weekend, the D.E.B.S soundtrack).
Thanks Angela Robinson, it was great fun. This is a one of a kind movie.
14 of 15 found the following review helpful:
 Should have been a bigger cult hitApr 28, 2006
By Christopher Murphy
"The Nice Atheist"
I've seen the words stupid and cheezey to describe this alot. I would add Kitchy and Hammy to those adjectives and then wonder why it is so many people (critics especially) watched this literally rather than as a farce, where the cheese, the ham, the kitch and the stupidity are there for a purpose. Where have I seen a nymph in a school girl outfit wielding a weapon she couldn't possibly deal with to massive plaudits? Oh yeah, Kill Bill. Now that was stupid. This was making fun of it in a hokey way. This was written in the same vain as say an Austin Powers.
The only thing that is serious in the film is the relationship and as generic as romantic-comedies have become, this should be given high praise for the cute, somewhat silly, believable romance. The fact that it is two women is better still because typically lesbians in film are a) background noise in a straight movie or b) the focus of a lesbian themed movie that ends up depressing the hell out of you (if these walls2, monster, lost & delirious). And I just loved the matter-of-factness about their sexuality. Sure their relationship is questionable but not because Amy is questioning her sexuality, but because she has issues with Lucy's career:)
And on top of that, as a guy myself, I liked that the men were not utter douches. The ex is needy, but not unlike a lot of guys I have seen after a breakup. But he's not bad. And Scud was a great character, although he definitely was channeling some Ryan Reynolds.
So give it a shot. Just don't take it seriously.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Beautiful!Aug 10, 2005
By Anne D.
"Show ur pride"
This movie is really sweet...as well as funny, and grately written and directed by the wonderful Angela Robinson. The girls (and guys!) in it are not only excellent in their roles, but also amazingly beautiful. Lucy and Amy (Jordana and Sara) make a beautiful and believable couple, the interaction between them is wonderful (as well as with the rest of the cast) both on and off camera and, even though some people could find it a bit corny, there HAS to be something seriously wrong with whoever sees this movie and doesn't end up smiling.
Overall, this is an extraordinary little piece of work, Angela rules, the casting was spot on and if your looking to have a very good time watching a heartwarming love story with a happy ending -that just happens to be a queer film that ACTUALLY portraits being a lesbian as NOT such an end-of-the-wold big deal- well then do yourself a favor and WATCH THIS MOVIE...do not let the critics form a preconceived idea in your head about this film, just walk in with an open mind and willing to have a good time and make your own desicion about it, just think for yourself!....^_^
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