By Melissa Antoinette Garza
I typically love films that follow musical bands around. The Monkees HEAD (1968) and Sonny and Cher’s GOOD TIMES (1967) are among my favorites. SPICE WORLD (1997) is a fun addition to this small genre of great flicks.
Some would tell you that the film SPICE WORLD is about the wacky adventures of Emma (Emma Bunton), Victoria (Victoria Adams), Mel B (Melanie Brown), Mel C (Melanie Chisolm) and my favorite Geri (Geri Horner). That’s nonsense! The real story is about a delectably sexy photographer named Damien (Richard O’Brien). You may be asking, does Damien have some fun 6 way orgy action with the band? Well, he does end up under their bed while all 5 girls sit atop it, so that’s enough to get my imagination going. Then again, anything with Richard O’Brien is enough to give me vivid fantasies. He’s just spectacular!
The film itself is a series of crazy skits with a wraparound story. The surface story surrounds The Spice Girls being pushed too far into their careers by their ambitious, but secretly soft manager Clifford (Richard E. Grant). Clifford repeatedly gets bad advice from his hilariously villainous boss Chief (Roger Moore) on how to handle every situation. The band doesn’t want to let down Clifford or their fans, but they all feel badly about their work-life balance. Their long time friend Nicola (Naoko Mori) is 9 months pregnant and they don’t have time to spend with her, despite being all named godmother of her baby.
Side stories surround different people using and trying to ride on the coattails of the Spice Girls success. Some do it pretty innocuously like documentary filmmaker Piers (Alan Cummings) and wanna be filmmaker (George Wendt) and his partner Grayden (Mark McKinney). Others are tabloid journalists who are willing to destroy the Spice Girls to turn a paper. To get headlines on the girls, Kevin McMaxford (Barry Humprhies) and his employee Brad (Jason Flemyng) hire a photographer – and then, there he is! Yummy, Yummy, Yummy Damien enters.
Damien is excellent. Everyone says so. His photographic work is phenomenal. Generally, I hate tabloid journalism. I think Kevin and Brad are despicable, but Damien is quite a glorious exception. Not to mention, he does have a change of heart upon getting a bump on his head. That’s much later on though.
In the meantime, Damien follows the gals around and captures some absolutely marvelous moments. At one point, a journalist asks Geri if she likes men to which she responds sarcastically, “Is the Pope Catholic?” Well, Damien being a diligent devious devil, sort of turns that and gets the Catholic church on Geri’s case. I loved it. I would have preferred to see Damien on Geri, but that’s just my own fantasy fodder running wild.
While wearing scuba gear, he also catches the band in a boat accident where the lives of children were endangered. I think Damien lived up to his social responsibility by bringing this to the attention of everyone. The girls need to be safer and Damien is using his artistic integrity to express that. You can try to change my mind on that analysis, but it won’t work. Damien could purposely mow down a van filled with nuns to get a picture and my response would be, “OH MY GOD! Is HE okay? Does he need an attorney?” Sorry, my libido handles all reactions when characters are portrayed by Richard O’Brien.
Damien isn’t done though. Let him never be done. Just let him play forever!
This majestic, masterful menace gets in the ladies’ bedroom (YAY!). He emerges GHOULIES style (1984). Hey, if coming out of a toilet is the only way to get Damien into your bedroom, it’s worth the cleaning. I mean there’s a shower right there! Just get the gals in there to help Damien wash off after that unfortunate journey. Please! Please do that!
Well, that doesn’t happen. Instead, that brilliant and bad beauty sneaks under the band’s bed and hears them question whether or not to perform their concert. Well, he can’t ignore that news! He has a duty to report it and I am 100% on board with his decision to convey it via a tabloid. Oh you think it’s hypocritical for me to trash TMZ and defend Damien. Well, the moment that Harvey Levin is replaced with Richard O’Brien, I’ll show you how hypocritical I can be! (Wait, did I just prove your point or mine – No matter, O’Brien is too delectable for me to care about inconsequential nonsense like that).
The foxy and fun fellow follows the girls into the hospital where they are staying with Nicola who goes into labor and delivers the largest baby in history. The band sees Damien and runs him straight into a wall. CAREFUL LADIES! That’s not the way to play with Damien! There are plenty of proper (and improper) ways to play with him, but hurting him like that is NOT acceptable.
When Damien gets hurt, the women surround him and he realizes that McMaxford is a horrible dude. How dare McMaxford take advantage of Damien like that!! He is the truly evil one. Damien was just doing his job and a damn good one at that! You can’t fault him for being the world’s sexiest photographer…..I meant best photographer. He’s the best.
He is so good that he actually helps the band. Damien is a hero and if you try to tell me he’s not, I won’t be your friend (and I’m an awesome friend to have).
Admittedly, Damien wasn’t in the production as much as I’d like to see him, though we do get a few moments between Richard O’Brien and Mark McKinney during the credits which contains some hilarious banter. That said, I would have loved to see O’Brien in a few scenes with Meatloaf, who portrayed the band’s bus-driver. It just seems like a missed opportunity for obvious reasons. If it isn’t obvious to you, stop reading and go watch ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) now!
I highly suggest this. The entire production is filled with crazy weird fun and recognizable music numbers. Some highlights include Grayden’s pitch for the women to be in a strange film where they’re spies in cute silver throwback sci-fi costumes. Geri ends up going into a phone booth and coming out as Bob Hoskins. It’s awesome.
I also love the self-awareness of the whole film. They both admit to knowing why they are viewed as stereotypes, but then completely make fun of the perception. There are awesome throwbacks and one great scene where the girls actually dressed like other entertainers. They wore ensembles that paid tribute to David Bowie, Elvis, Grease, Wonder Woman, etc. They then exchange clothes once again making self-deprecating jabs at their personas.
There’s another great sequence where the women meet aliens who are fans and yet another with a militant dance teacher. Mr. Step (Michael Barrymore) is ridiculously flamboyant in his directives. It’s all kinds of wonderful.
The only place I can currently find this is VUDU for purchase so go there and get it. It has Richard O’Brien in it. That’s reason enough.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7.5/10
