BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Sony
MSRP: $24.96
RATED: R
RUNNING TIME: 93 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Deleted Scenes
• Interview with Roselyn Sanchez
The Pitch
“A Go-Go Dancer go-goes herself all the way to the top of the professional dancing circuit! I tell ya, no one’s ever seen anything like it!”
The Humans
Roselyn Sanchez, D.B. Sweeney, Bill Duke, Jaime Tirelli, Manny Perez
The Nutshell
As talented a dancer as Amaryllis Campos is, her life is on hold. She delivers pizza in Puerto Rico and lives in the shadow of her famous dancing father (not unlike how the children of Denny Terrio must’ve felt). However, his death gives Amaryllis the impetus to kick-start her life—she heads to New York to chase her dream…and is led straight into a titty bar. Will Amaryllis find success and love in the Big Apple? Will she realize her dreams or just become another sob story in the Naked City?
It’s your trip, man. Find out for yourself.
When you’ve moved from "dick in a box" to "dick in a pizza box," it’s time to let that fad go the way of the Macarena.
The Lowdown
Yellow is good if you only need two things from your movies: boobies and clichés. Other than that, there’s really not a whole lot to this flick. It’s really just Flashdance except with more…hot Latin flavor? It’s not that bad a movie. It’s competently made by Alfredo De Villa. Even though the flick’s set in NYC, De Villa doesn’t romanticize the city much (unlike, say, the fantasy land seen in flicks like Center Stage), giving the whole affair a grittier feel than it might otherwise have. I was especially impressed by his use of the 2.35:1 widescreen frame—most indie flicks shy away from using it even though it automatically makes your flick look classier. Roselyn Sanchez is an appealing lead. Plus, she’s really hot. And naked. The scenes of her dancing are very well-done and very pausible (not a typo, people. No "L" missing).
The whole thing’s just extremely predictable. The stripper who wants to be a classically trained dancer in the big city and lives in the shadow of her famous father? Never seen that routine before! Don’t suppose she’s from out-of-town, too, do ya? You name the cliché, it’s here. Amaryllis is scared by the city, but immediately she falls in with a bunch of lovable eccentrics. She hates putting up with her seedy club life, but needs it to survive (and to hone her dancing). She falls for a guy 180 degrees removed from the sleazes at the club, leading to the inevitable moment where she has to choose between her heart and her dancing dreams.
"Hmm, let’s see…nope, chaining Moby to my person really doesn’t enhance my focus."
Again, it’s not poorly done, it’s just already done, and that’s the problem. You’re better off watching Flashdance or Showgirls again. In fact, when the flick does distinguish itself, it’s a bit embarrassing (other than the nudity, which is not). Bill Duke’s next-door poet is absurd—I kept waiting for him to go all Predator and start stabbing scorpions. He’s too naturally nutty seeming to be a convincing mentor. The relationship between Amaryllis and her good doctor Christian also falls flat, courtesy of D.B. Sweeney. It’s a long way from The Cutting Edge, man, and he seems far too old and far too doughy to be believably involved with such a young hottie. On the plus side, I read a rumor somewhere that he can’t read and puts phonetic cue-cards around him at all times. Regardless of if that’s true or not, it made his scenes funnier for me.
This is an uninspired review, I know. But the same goes for the movie. I’ll recommend it, but only if you’ve never seen a movie before. Ever.
And if you want to see Roselyn Sanchez’s boobs.
Sorry, not a boob shot. "Safe For Work," that’s my motto!
The Package
For a modestly budgeted flick, the disc looks fine. Again, color me impressed with the widescreen image. Stick to the original theatrical audio track than the DVD dub version—not only do you get the original Spanish dialog preserved in it, but everything is generally a lot sharper and more crisp. As for the box art, it’s the movie in miniature: Sanchez looking at the stripper version of herself. It works, other than the fact that she’s wearing too much in her stripper pose.
Where the disc doesn’t impress is in the features department, but as it didn’t set the world on fire, I guess that’s forgivable. You got some pretty uninteresting deleted scenes and an interview with Sanchez. The interview is nice—she’s definitely passionate about the flick (she helped come up with the story, for Chrissakes!)—but the film ultimately seems too lightweight to warrant any real passion.
Yellow is a perfectly serviceable “stripper makes good” drama. It’s well made and well acted (minus the Duke and the Sween), but there’s an air of intense familiarity about the flick that keep it from being truly memorable. Worth a look, I guess, but there are better/more-entertaining flicks like this one out there (read: Showgirls). The disc looks and sounds good and while the features are scant, that doesn’t really surprise me.
Who knew that the man who once coached the Great Goldblum could stoop so low?