The movie starts off by showing the audience a poor little rich girl, Molly (Brittany Murphy), who is a club-goer on the level with Paris Hilton. The center of every party or social event, Molly lives off the royalty checks from her deceased father's song. Life is good and there's no reason for her to ever learn any life skills that don't pertain to her hedonistic lifestyle. When her accountant runs off with all her money, she ends up having to work as a nanny to a spoiled brat, Ray (Dakota Fanning), who is under the impression that she knows more than anyone else in the world. Molly is the Oscar Madison to Ray's Felix Unger in this tribute to The Odd Couple with a modern spin or two.

Okay, I've heard this was the worst movie of 2003 and certainly a case can be made for that ranking but aside from the host of continuity problems, technical issues, lack of proper direction and stereotypical characters, it was simply tedious. Ray is the least likeable kid since, and perhaps including, Eddie Haskell from Leave It To Beaver or Butch from the Our Gang shorts. She's mean-spirited, obnoxious, and has the emotional depth of a tax attorney. Molly, on the other hand, is a carefree hippy who is oblivious to others and life in general. Each being equally shallow in her own way, there is a lot of potential to work with that is tossed to the wind by Director Boaz Yakin.

The best thing about the movie was getting to watch Brittany Murphy prance around a bit. I hated her make up as it looked applied by a roller but she has always been a cutie. Sadly, that's not enough for even a voyeur like myself to enjoy. The soundtrack was pretty good for this type of release too although I'd suggest getting the CD rather than the movie itself. I'm rating this one as a Skip It for it's lack of any entertainment value. I hope Brittany takes the advice of W.C. Fields in the future and passes up working with children and animals in the future. As Ray's character says in the movie, "Life is harsh" and that sums up my opinion of this rather lame release.

Picture: The picture was presented in anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1 ratio color, as originally shot. The picture had a fair amount of grain much of the time and the lighting caused some video noise too. There was a significant amount of edge enhancement (those who read my reviews know I only mention this aspect when it's really bad) and mosquito noise, certainly more than a new release should have. I saw some compression artifacts but they weren't the worse aspect of the picture quality.

Sound: The audio was presented with a choice of either a 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround English track or a Dolby Digital 2.0 Spanish or French tracks, all with options for English, Spanish or French subtitles. I think the English track was crisp and fairly clear although there were a couple moments when it didn't quite match up with the actions on screen. The music track was well done and mixed properly with the vocals.

Extras: The first extra on the DVD is a featurette called "The Lowdown on Uptown Girls". It was a series of clips and interviews about the movie with some behind the scenes footage. It was better than the movie itself but that doesn't say much and it lasted a bit over 13 minutes. The next extra was an 8 minute short titled, "Rockin' Style" that looked at the fashion designs of the movie with Brittany Murphy and the costume designer (mostly). It was better than the selection of still photographs that came next but not by a whole lot. There were about a dozen deleted scenes, lasting a total of 18 minutes. A few of these were pretty funny but I think most people think the feature should've had a lot more of them. My personal favorite was the music video Time by Chantal Kreviazuk. It was a cute song with all the usual footage from the movie and ended up far more interesting than the feature itself. There were some trailers and a soundtrack commercial along with a paper insert to round out the batch. There were some decent extras but nothing that would cause me to increase my rating of the disc. There are reported Easter eggs on the DVD but I wasn't able to find them at the time of this writing.

Final Thoughts: With all the choices on the market today, there's no reason to waste your time with substandard movies like this one. The sexual innuendoes pushed the envelope for rating of PG-13, making it less fit for the younger kids, and the older ones will throw food at the TV if forced to watch it. The jokes were usually poorly timed and not particularly funny but the writing was the biggest culprit for making this one stink, followed closely by the lack of direction.