Film Review: D.E.B.S.

About the film

D.E.B.S. is an action/ comedy film that was released in 2004. The film has a run time of 91 minutes and a rating of 12A.

Plot

After taking an aptitude test with hidden meanings, Amy, Max, Janet and Dominique are recruited by the U.S. government. They are a part of a secret agency known as D.E.B.S. These girls can lie, cheat and fight and are out to save the world. However, the deadliest criminal the world has ever known as resurfaced from hiding. No one has ever faced Lucy Diamond and lived to tell the tale… until now. Hot shot Amy is fascinated by Lucy and is writing a paper on her so when she finally comes face to face with the enemy, she cannot turn her in. Amy ends up falling for Lucy and risks her whole career with the D.E.B.S. to be with her.

What I thought

One afternoon while I was at home from uni for a week, I was sick and spent a whole day on the sofa watching film. Although most of the DVDs in our house are mine, there are a few of John’s that I haven’t seen. I decided to try to work my way through them and the first one I noticed was this one. After only the first couple of minutes, I quickly regretted putting this on.

D.E.B.S. is pretty much an excuse to film girls running around in tiny school girl outfits trying to fight some bad guys. Sara Foster, Meagan Good, Devon Aoki and Jill Ritchie star as the main D.E.B.S. unit. Amy, Max, Janet and Dominique all work together as a team and are the ones wanted to bring down the infamous Lucy Diamond played by Jordana Brewster. The dialogue between the four girls is mostly really cheesy and while the film has a Charlie’s Angels feel to it, it is not nearly as good. I guess D.E.B.S. is a slight parody of Charlie’s Angels anyway though and it wasn’t supposed to be a serious attempt at being like it.

As this is a really cheap and cheesy film, the action scenes are nothing to be impressed with. The girls run around a lot with impressive looking guns and technology although they don’t really get to use them much. However, there is plenty of posing with said guns and trying to look as badass as possible. This didn’t work at all for me though and instead of looking dangerous, it made me laugh more than anything. I do see how this film would attract a male audience. What guy wouldn’t want to see girls running around in tiny skirts shooting people?

As for the plot, that was also extremely weak. Lucy Diamond is supposed to big this big, badass criminal but the first time we meet her, she’s getting all freaked out about going on a blind date. She seemed like a bit of a wuss to me. Although, her blind date was with a Russian assassin so maybe I would be freaked out at the same time. Really though, while Jordana Brewster is a good actress, her character in this film was terrible. Not once did I feel like she could be a criminal. Instead, I just got the impression that she was lonely and she actually came across as quite nice to me. The D.E.B.S. don’t even seem too terrified of her and Lucy is supposed to be the world’s biggest criminal.

Then there is the lesbian aspect of the plot. Again, a way to attract the male audience. Strangely though, I thought that this was something really different for this kind of film and I quite liked it. Although some bits were very out of place and a bit weird, I think the main message was that love can be found in unexpected places and people. The story between Amy and Lucy was quite heart-warming and it was something which made this film stand out. Sara Foster and Jordana Brewster do really well acting together and while their chemistry wasn’t sizzling, it was still a nice thing to watch.

Overall, D.E.B.S. is a very strange and silly film but one which is quite funny in place. However, I do think it is more suited towards a male audience.