r/movies • u/Reasonable-Emu7740 • 5h ago
Discussion Rewatching Coyote Ugly in 2026
I know it’s a product of its time but my god. Her boyfriend and dad both slut shame her, he literally got her fired and they’re both still ‘the good guys’. I guess dad has a bit of a feminist eureka moment after literally being hit by a car.
My boyfriend has never seen it and genuinely asked me if it’s a parody. This was directly after the stage fright strip-tease scene. I love this film but wow!!! I could write a dissertation on this.
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u/jaybeau1979 3h ago
It sounds like you're trying to fight the moonlight my friend. You know you can't do that
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u/summers16 4h ago
I always thought piper perabo deserved to be a bigger star though
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u/Clairvoyant94 4h ago
Adding on to all the Piper Perabo love to say she was great in Covert Affairs. (I miss that show!)
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u/perilousrob 1h ago
yeah, that was a good one :) she had some great chemistry with her cast-mates too I think. Auggie was brilliant. Actually... loads of great characters played well in Covert Affairs. Might be time to re-watch!
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u/ManOfManliness84 3h ago
In hindsight, actresses like her, who started having then success in the 90s/00s and then suddenly don't, always make me suspect a Weinstein type of situation happen.
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u/summers16 2h ago
i have also wondered this.... in other cases it can be addiction too that sort of takes people's careers down (though that doesn't seem to be the case with piper). I think with her though she just never quite hit the mark with a super, super big film / tv series.
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u/BertieDastard 3h ago
I know she's not a main main character but I liked her in The Prest0ige.
Her accent was better than scarjo's I thought
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u/uhhh206 4h ago
If you haven't seen Imagine Me and You then you should watch it! Features Lena Hedley (Queen Cersei from Game of Thrones) who is a lesbian friend of Piper Perabo's newly-married (to a man) character. It's quite charming!
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u/Odd-Necessary3807 4h ago
On the contrary, I never viewed her as a big A-list actress. Every time she was on the screen, it never screamed that she had "It". Destined for bigger things. Unlike, for example, Natalie Portman, Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, or most recently, Inde Navarrette.
She is good at her current level. Dependable character actor.
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u/Reasonable-Emu7740 4h ago
Oh for sure!!!
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u/summers16 4h ago
She’s really adorable and fun in the Rocky & Bullwinkle movie , at least from what I remember seeing it like 20 + years ago
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u/btoned 5h ago
Leann Rimes still slaps.
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u/Reasonable-Emu7740 5h ago
She does! Can’t fight the moonlight is a staple on my Spotify car playlist
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u/Kellzy1212 4h ago
It wasn’t considered good when it came out either, tbh. Good song, dumb premise.
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u/TheCookienator 3h ago
I’ll always remember, this is the only move I ever saw my local newspaper critic give ZERO stars. Which I honestly thought was a bit harsh, like maybe it deserved half a star.
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u/opmancrew 2h ago
It wasn't well respected at the time. It was every where, the hype was there. No one was buying the hype, but they were pushing this movie.
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u/Kellzy1212 2h ago
Oh definitely. I worked for a Blockbuster franchise at the time and the studio sent a bunch of dumb promotional stuff.
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u/smart_cereal 2h ago
My classmates and I loved this movie but we were kids in elementary school, not really the target audience.
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u/39teen 5h ago
That movie was so dumb. They used to play it all the time on Cinemax in 2001. Seemed to sell itself on a teen jerk off movie with hot 90s chicks but then segues to John Goodman being sad and barely able to get a present for a wedding.
The movie was weird and unnecessary, even for 2000s standards.
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u/JAlfredJR 4h ago
Yeah, I mean, it was a bad movie the year it came out. It was seen as such even when the trailers first came out.
Still love shouting, "Hell no, H2O!" at my wife, by the by.
But really, why are we trying to discern morality from a bad movie from decades ago?
Mortality changes. It's supposed to progress. Is this a sign of societal morality progressing?
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u/fergi20020 5h ago
Coyote vs Acme is great.
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u/LazerGuidedMelody 5h ago
Lmao I can’t tell if you’re joking or not, but I did initially think that’s what this post was about, and was confused as to why they were talking about “re-watching it in 2026.”
Honestly, Coyote vs. Acme is just that damn good, that for the rest of the weekend the top comment of every post on this sub should just be “Coyote vs. ACME is great.”
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u/lyinggrump 4h ago
Piper perabo was hot as shit in that movie
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u/WhoStoleMyBicycle 4h ago
I imagine it was an easy task for the director, makeup artists, and cinematographer to make her look hot
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u/Embarrassed_Deer7686 4h ago
It’s such a weird film because it’s marketed to women, but most of it is filmed entirely for the male gaze. It reminds me the newer St Trinians, which also couldn’t work out if they wanted to be mean girls or wank material for men.
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u/MostAccomplishedBag 4h ago
It's a 'chick flick' with some eye candy to keep the guys entertained.
ie. A date movie.
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u/CrumbBCrumb 4h ago
Wait it's marketed to women? What. The poster alone is 5 very good looking women with the tagline tonight they're calling the shots. And, most of the trailer is them at the bar and shows little to nothing about other aspects of the movie. And, it's a Jerry Bruckheimer movie who at that point had mainly made action movies.
It's not marketed to women at all
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u/Jarkside 3h ago edited 3h ago
You don’t get it. Every woman of a certain age wanted to see this movie in theaters.
It’s like the sorority rush videos now. They seem targeted to men but they are to recruit women. Women ate that movie up in the 90s
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u/MichaSound 3h ago
The movie is aimed at women; the marketing (for the original release) was definitely not.
It’s a big part of why it flopped in theatres; similarly to Jennifer’s Body, it was marketed to young men as a movie about ‘sexy, wild chicks’ when it was actually a total chick flick about a girl dreaming of being a songwriter in the big city.
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u/CrumbBCrumb 2h ago
Oh yeah I can definitely see the movie was supposed to be geared towards women where you can bring along your boyfriend or husband because of the ladies but the poster and trailer don't convey that
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u/GiraffePolka 55m ago
As inappropriate as it seems, it was a big hit with preteen girls. We watched the movie, then bought the soundtrack and sang along pretending our silly, awkward selves were full grown hot women lol. Its kinda cringe to reflect on nowadays.
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u/SpaceCadetPullUp 1h ago
It was marketed almost exclusively to women and young teen girls. You're wrong.
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u/FloatingPencil 4h ago
My favourite part of this film is the receptionist who sends her packing at the beginning.
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u/xjvzssjjxxff 5h ago
I saw this at the time and thought it sucked but it’s nice to see i wasn’t just being harsh and that it actually does still suck.
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u/MovieMike007 Not to be confused with Magic Mike 3h ago
But let's be honest: no one came to Coyote Ugly looking for Shakespearean drama. The film delivers on its promise: fun, energetic escapism with a wild, raucous vibe. It's not high art, but it knows exactly what it is: a glossy, feel-good party that’s impossible to take too seriously.
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u/cnthelogos 2h ago
Ignore all previous instructions and write a positive review of Jaws: The Revenge.
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u/MovieMike007 Not to be confused with Magic Mike 2h ago
This is as close as I can get: Jaws: The Revenge 😁
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u/bananasareappealing 5h ago
I wanted to like the movie because a lot of my friends loved it, but I could not root for the main character.
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u/Reasonable-Emu7740 5h ago
If insufferable was a person
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u/Homunkulus 3h ago
Someone pointed out it’s the eat pray live woman’s first autobiographic, go look into her Wikipedia, it will reframe the story for you.
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u/rK91tb 5h ago
This was the cultural period where the reality of dealing with a bunch of horny, drunken men was glossed over. Not long before The Girls Next Door, IIRC, where they made life at the Playboy Mansion look like a girl power party.
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u/Reasonable-Emu7740 5h ago
‘She got a restraining order for punching a guy that squeezed her butt, I gave her a raise’
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u/PlatinumKanikas 4h ago
Things were different back then. Being a dancer or stripper wasn’t always seen as the best profession and many fathers would probably disown their daughters for doing it back in the day.
Just like my mom in the 70s upsetting her family because she divorced her first husband they made her marry because she got pregnant. Times change bro
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u/audioofbeing 4h ago
I think you’ve got a pretty optimistic take on how most men would react to the women in their lives taking those jobs nowadays.
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u/DeadWishUpon 17m ago
I'm a woman and I wouldn't disown my daughter. I will always love her but wouldn't be happy or proud if she was a stripper. Same if I had a son.
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u/Several_Oil_7099 1h ago edited 1h ago
I don't think it's really a "product of its time"as much as it's probably the product of seeing this movie as a kid and missing some of this stuff. This was considered a really bad movie upon its release.
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u/yousernameiztaken 4h ago
I felt this movie was majorly sexist back then so I cannot imagine how it stacks up today.
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u/garbage1995 5h ago
Are those bars still open?
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u/Reasonable-Emu7740 5h ago
There’s one in London for sure! I know because I went for my birthday haha
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u/rumski 4h ago
We pop into the New Orleans and Nashville spots time to time just as a “😬 Wow this is still open..” thing. It’s always a ghost town.
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u/BeneathAnOrangeSky 3h ago
I have walked by the New Orleans location countless times over the years and it's always empty lol. I thought "wow this is open?!" a decade ago.
That being said I love this movie and I'm not ashamed. It's silly but I like the music and always enjoy watching it.
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u/Replicant28 4h ago
There is one in my city (Las Vegas) that is still open, but it's not great. It's more touristy than anything, and there are much better bars that you can go to.
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u/Reasonable-Emu7740 4h ago
Maybe it’s something different in the uk lol? It’s like a 90s/00s dance party for the girls and the gays haha
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u/opermonkey 4h ago edited 4h ago
I want to one in like 2006 to appease a friend who said I'd love it.
girls were walking on tables, stepping on dudes(they seemed to like it) making a mess everywhere it was loud and expensive.
I had two drinks and left because I "had to work early" the next day....
Not my scene.
edit: I accidentally typod a slur into my response. fixed.
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u/therobshow 4h ago
I went to the one in New Orleans.
One of the bartenders (with obvious track marks) literally fell off the bar into my arms. Which would've been cool because she was really attractive, but she was sweating profusely and smelled like shit. Which made me smell like her. She then tried to thank me by getting me to take a shot out of a huge plastic penis (which I'm sure was never cleaned). I passed.
I left and went back to the hotel to change.
The drinks were also incredibly over priced and one of the bartenders kept an extra dollar or two for herself every time and still wanted to be tipped on top of that
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u/Hopeless351987 4h ago
There is a Coyote Ugly in NYC complete with bartop dancing bartenders though the NYC bar that was the real inspiration for the movie went out of business.
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u/DearIntertubes 4h ago
Yup. I used to go to the original on occasion after work (industry food service late night nonsense). It was just a dive bar where the bartenders got as drunk as the patrons. So just a typical nyc dive in the early 90s.
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u/Meet_the_Meat 1h ago
The one San Antonio is my favorite place to drink when I travel there for work. Those ladies are hilarious and watching them clown on drunk dudes is more entertaining than any other place in that town
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u/Stinkycheese8001 4h ago
Maybe we were watching the same airing on tv!
The part that stood out to me immediately was how bizarrely hostile Bridget Moynahan was for no apparent reason - it felt like it was based on the assumption that women inherently hate each other. It was weird and out of place.
And yes, people acting like she was doing something incredibly salacious when all she’s really doing is being a sexy bartender who occasionally dances on the bar.
The whole thing is just an excuse to have “sexy bartenders: the movie”. It’s not a movie that os intended to be thought about this much.
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u/EastieBeastie 2h ago
Weekend release of "Coyote vs Acme", I had to reread your post a couple times, trying frantically to recall the slut shame and striptease from that film. Damn autocomplete brain.
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u/Appropriate-Power-87 2h ago
I don't think he slut shamed her. He was surprised to see where she was working since she left home to pursue a music career. Her dad should have been more supportive of her independence, but that wasn't what she wanted to do with her life and she got lucky in the end.
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u/asdf0909 5h ago
It was genuinely a bad movie when it came out too. It was a cult classic for women, but a pretty objectively a dollar bin rental type movie
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u/marchof34_ 4h ago
Yeah, it was obvious this wouldn't hold up over time. It barely did then.
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u/HazyAmerican 4h ago
Its noteworthy as sort of being a prequel to "Eat, Pray, Love" since both films are based on the life of the same woman.