Coming in for much of the "film makers" time is the growing rivalry between the firm favourite for the title, Becky Leeman who's mother (Kirstie Alley) is not only a former winner of the title but also the show's main organiser and poor but cute Kirsten Dunst, who lives in a trailer park with her alcoholic mother and works part-time in the local funeral home doing make-up on the corpses.

The film is absolutely full of superb character parts, which the actors play to the full, taking the complete opportunity to ham it up to the heavens.
Kirstie Alley is nastily bitchy as Gladys Leeman, the mother of the pageant favourite played by Denise Richards. Kirsten Dunst is innocently appealing as the pretty poor girl who should win the prize, backed up by her mother Annette played by Ellen Barkin and best friend Loretta, played by Allison Janney it is these two for me provided some of the funniest moments. But even leaving these aside there still plenty of room for Matt Malloy and Michael McShane to shine as the judges and Collen Douglas and Terry Macy as the representatives of Sarah Rose beauty products.

Where I would question some of the scenes in the film is whether they were shot to be funny or whether they were shot be sad and pathetic. Seeing the last years winner of the pageant, now suffering from anorexia but still performing her "special talent", lip-synching to pop music from a wheel chair isn't the wheeze it perhaps seems to be on paper. I would like to think that these scenes are supposed to be the damning criticism of the beauty contest scene and not just a method to get laughs.

As I say, as a quirky and character driven film it works very well and provided lots of funny moments even though there isn't such a high profile pageant scene in Britain as there is in the United States.

excellent DVD - I'd recommend it to anyone
Review date: 2004-02-28 Rating: 10 out of 10

From the title, and the theme of the film being about a beaty pagent it may sound like a typical girly film, but with a twist of death, fights and explosions it's not as dull as you think. A lot different to most films, as this one is set like it is a documentry, with the acters talking to the cameras and also being aware of them throughout the film, Looking into the lives of each character. The story mostly centerises around the two very different main characters, one being a rich, spoiled brat who by the way no-one likes. And the other being a poor hopeful young woman looking to leave her town and become a big time reporter with diane soyer as her inspiration. As the beaty pagent begins, so does death, explosions and fights along with lots of fun and laughter. This fun and exciting film, however wouldn't be as good without it's brilliant cast including:Kirsten Dunst, Denise Richards, Kirstie Alley, Britney Murphy Ellen barkin and loads more. with the acters talents and the great storyline this film is one definatly of my favourites. The DVD too has a good interactive menu including; scene selection and a cast and crew section in which you can select any of the featured acters and review their film history. You can also change speech/subtitle language as like on most DVD's. Great Film, Definatly worth buying

The infamous Mount Rose American Teen Princess Pageant
Review date: 2004-02-08 Rating: 8 out of 10

I am perfectly willing to argue that "Drop Dead Gorgeous" is the final part of the 1990s "Drop Dead" trilogy that began with 1991's "Drop Dead Fred" and included "1996's "Drop Dead Rock." Unlike most trilogies these films are done by different directors with entirely different characters. "Drop Dead Fred" was directed by Ate de Jong and had Phoebe Cates as a young woman who has to deal with a problematic imaginary childhood friend. "Drop Dead Rock" from director Adam Dubin was about a garage rock band that kidnaps a famous rock star. Then we have director Michael Patrick Jann's "Drop Dead Gorgeous," which is about the 50th anniversary of the nation's oldest beauty pageant, The Sarah Rose Cosemetics American Teen Princess Pageant. A documentary film crew was sent to the small Minnesota town of Mount Rose to commemorate this occasion, and "Drop Dead Gorgeous" tells of the path of death and destruction that the pageant left in its wake.

Written by Lona Williams, who apparently endured such pageants in her own past, "Drop Dead Gorgeous" takes great dead panned joy in skewering the contestants, their mothers, and the whole pageant process. Gladys Leeman (Kirstie Alley) is not only the chair of the local pageant, she is a former winner, and the mother of Becky Ann Leeman (Denise Richards), who is the favorite (they are the rich family in town, because of Leeman's Furniture). On the other end of the spectrum is Amber Atkins (Kirsten Dunst), who lives with her mother Annette (Ellen Barkin) in the trailer park, and has an afterschool job where she can practice her tapdancing talent, doing cosmetics at the local funeral home. There are other girls in the contest, including a dark haired, giggling, Brittany Murphy as Lisa Swenson, but the cursing choreographer (Mary Gillis) for the pageant says she would bet money it comes down to Becky Ann and Amber, and given the ferocity their mothers bring to the contest, we have no doubt she is right. Dunst and Richards are recognizable stars, which is another hint, but given that one of the three judges works at the furniture store (screenwriter Williams) and another has been hired to paint the furniture store (Michael McShane), the competition could be over before it starts. The third judge? Well, he (Matt Malloy) likes to look at young girls.

As the film proceeds you come to understand there is an implicit coma in the title as some of the girls start dropping dead. Tammy Curtis beat out Becky Leeman for president of the Lutheran Girls Gun Club and when you see what happened to her you begin to think that maybe the fix is in. So as we watch the girls prepare for their big day and Amber starts figuring out that she might be next. Amber wants to get out of Mount Royal and be a big reporter like Diane Sawyer, but being dead would not help. We also continue to learn about the local history of the pageant, such as Mary Johanson (Alexandra Holden), reigning local pageant winner, now staying at the Eating Disorders wing of the local hospital.

This 1999 film will remind a lot of viewers about about "Fargo," what with the Minnesota accents and the quirky characters, not to mention the Lutherans and the lutefisk. Kirstie Alley pours in on the most, but her character and performance are cleary the most over the top in the film. Allison Janney plays Loretta, Annette Atkins' best friend, and has lots of fun letting her character go. In the end "Drop Dead Gorgeous" is not a classic mockumentary, on a level with "Zelig" or "A Mighty Wind," but it does has its moments. However, it plays close to the end a lot of the time (e.g., Annette's beer can after the fire), and you may well find that bits of it go too far. If you feel obligated to change the word "mental retard" to "moron" in your trailer, then you should probably have made a point of taking it out of the movie as well. Fortunately, Dunst manages to play it straight at the heart of this film and keep it from getting too far out of hand. This is one of her finest performances.

Drop Dead Gorgeous
Review date: 2003-09-09 Rating: 6 out of 10

I'm not going to bother to review the film as there are already ten reviews of it on this page - But it's very, very funny. I feel you should know if considering buying that if you view this on a Playstation 2 or similar console you won't be able to access the extras on this disc. Even if you have a regular DVD player it is difficult to access them as this is not done from the main menu. Once you manage it there aren't many but what is there is entertaining, consisiting of mini featurettes. There isn't a commentary on the movie, but it's not really that kind of film. As a film, 4 stars, as a DVD, a frustrating and dissappointing 2.