D.E.B.S

On the plus side, D.E.B.S. is a rarity within the WLW film genre in two ways. The first is that it’s an action movie, the second is that is has a happy ending. I champion both of these genres. On the downside, when I watch a WLW film, I don’t like it to stylistically remind me of the live action Scooby-Doo films.

D.E.B.S is about an all-female spy university where they make all their students dress like schoolgirls. The main character is Amy. Amy’s test scores show an extreme aptitude for spying but secretly she wants to be an artist. During a mission, she meets and subsequently falls for the super villain of the piece, Lucy Diamond.

The main positive about D.E.B.S. is that it’s light and a lot of fun. I also enjoy its subversion of expectations. The film’s poster and aesthetic is very similar to something like Charlie’s Angels, in general, it resembles a male fantasy. While I’m sure men can enjoy this movie, I find the fact that it is a queer film that looks like a mainstream heterosexual film delightful.

However, I think D.E.B.S. went too far in mimicking the heterosexual action comedies of the day. Because D.E.B.S. falls down in a lot of similar areas to such movies. If nothing else, stylistically D.E.B.S. has not aged well. The mid-2000s were a dark time for anything style related and D.E.B.S. fell victim to pretty much everything that made them such. The fashion, the spy tech, makeup and just everything about this movie dates it spectacularly. D.E.B.S. is one of those movies that tried to hard to be current and hip at the time it was released that it dates itself already immediately. There’s nothing timeless about D.E.B.S. It is aggressively mid-2000s.

The characters that inhabit D.E.B.S.’s overly stylized universe are pretty dull. I was so disappointed by how shallow pretty much everything in this movie was but especially the characters. The lead character, Amy in particular was like the human equivalent of watching paint dry. Each of the characters had a handful of personality traits but lacked full characterization. The Charlie’s Angels girls have more personality and that’s saying something.

A lot of people I know really like D.E.B.S. and I support that. While this movie was never going to win any Oscars, it is fun. And finding queer movies that above everything else are genuinely fun is a challenge. However, for me, it wasn’t enough fun to overlook its flaws. I found D.E.B.S. to be dated, have bland characters and be somewhat juvenile. Saying that, I would absolutely be thrilled to see a sequel, remake or televised spinoff of D.E.B.S. so take that as you will.

Overall rating: 6.1/10

Other WLW films in similar genres