Cecil B. Demented

It is easy to compare John Waters to Ed Wood. Waters, like Wood, is a sexual deviant, who delights and thrills in the horror he produces with this revelation. Waters, like Wood, makes films and movies that could be mainstream but aren't, because he delights in living on the fringe of society and the status quo. Waters, like Wood, is a certain genius. But he won't know this until he is long dead.

There is a problem with this comparison, however. It isn't true or, more importantly, accurate. If John Waters is to be compared to any film- or movie-maker, it is the late William Castle. (Whose autobiography, when it was rereleased, Waters wrote an introduction to.) Yes, John Waters is a sexual deviant. (He recently admitted to being "queer".) But that is incidential. What he is is the heir apparent to William Castle's mantle as showman. From "Pink Flamingos" to "Polyester", from "Hairspray" to "Cry-Baby" and "Serial Mom", Waters has done what Castle did.

Only better.

Usually. This time around, though, with "Cecil B. Demented", Water stumbles, and badly, bringing much shame to his mentor Castle.

As with all his previous efforts Waters dressed "Cecil B. Demented" up with tacky. Gawdy. Drag queen, wrong-end-of-the-Las-Vegas-strip, outrageousness. Which is fine. After all, this IS a John Waters film, and to expect anything else is to desire disappointment.

As with many of his previous efforts, Waters makes a film that is decidedly amateurish. (The only one that wasn't is "Serial Mom".) As with many of his previous efforts Waters has real stars in his film: Melanie Griffith as a Hollywood star and Stephen Dorff as a cult leader, who kidnaps her as part of an assault on mainstream cinema. (Is Dorff really Waters, living out a celluloid fantasy? Waters isn't telling.) As with many of his previous works Waters has a radical premise to play with.

All of which, given this is John Waters, should work.

But don't.

A reason for failure here is because Waters seems to be trying to be mainstream funny (think: "Mad TV" or "Saturday Night Live") instead of John Waters funny: Cinema crazy man Cecil B. Demented (Dorff) and members of his cult abduct movie star Honey Whitlock (Griffith), demanding that she appear in their film. Not funny, this. Had John Waters had done it up as only John Waters could, it would have been a howl and a half.

Melanie Griffith, who previously demonstrated her comedic skills, gets into the spirit of the movie, and tries hard to succeed: Making life for her quivering assistant (Rickie Lake) wretched, making impossible demands on those around her, making requests for this and that. When she is told she will eat Maryland seafood she balks as a Hollywood whore would: "I'm not eating something that you have to beat to death with a mallet while wearing a stupid bib, while mutants watch me."

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