Violet Sanford (Piper Perabo) is a shy, hometown girl with dreams of moving to New York and becoming a successful songwriter, just as her mother dreamed. Her dad (John Goodman) is less than thrilled with the prospect, but still, he supports his little girl's dreams as best he can. Violet arrives in New York, brimming with excitement and ready to market her music, when she finds that without an agent, it's damn near impossible to get heard. But without established music, she can't get an agent. It's a vicious cycle of gloom for poor little Violet. When her tiny and squalid apartment is burglarized and her keyboard and savings are stolen, she spirals even further, realizing she is indeed in desperate times. While eating a piece of charity pie at a diner, she spots a gaggle of wild and crazy girls talking about how much money they made the night before and dancing riotously in the diner. The diner owner tells Violet they are "Coyotes" and in overhearing their conversation, she learns one is leaving the bar. Hoping to land the job, she goes to the bar and meets the owner, Lil (Maria Bello), impressing her with a little bit of attitude. When she shows up for work, she learns just what a wild place Coyote Ugly is. The girls dance on the bar suggestively and put on quite the show for the patrons. Violet chickens out and is fired, but on her way out, she talks a group of drunken patrons out of a potentially dangerous barfight and Lil decides to give her another chance.
In the meantime, while at a club trying to get her music into the right hands, a smart-aleck bartender lies to her about a certain young man and she is led to believe that Kevin O'Donnell (Adam Garcia) is in charge of new talent, when he is really nothing more than a grill cook. After making a fool of herself, Violet is humiliated, but Kevin is intrigued. Eventually, he finds her at Coyote Ugly and the two embark on a sweet romance. It seems that the only way to get her music heard will be to sing it herself, but Violet can't seem to bring herself to do this. Kevin tries to help her become more confident, until one day fate steps in. Violet has to grab the mic and sing on the bar to stop a wild fight that started when Kevin sees a patron grab at her suggestively. On the upside, her singing is wildly popular. On the downside, dad sees her picture in a paper and is less than pleased that she is a Coyote.
The rest of the movie is basically the weaving of the relationships of the girls at the bar, which include wild Zoe (Tyra Banks), sweet Cammie (Izabella Miko) and rough and tough Rachel (Bridget Moynahan), and Violet's struggle between her desire for a song writing career and her pull to stay and please the patrons at the bar. The craziest thing of all is that this is a total chick flick. That's not to dis Coyote Ugly in any way, because it's a cute, sweet comedy and there's lots of fun to be had watching these girls kick up their heels on the bar. I never had the chance to see the film when it first aired and I was pleasantly surprised by it while watching the Blu-ray.
Parents do need to keep in mind the Coyote Ugly: The Double Shot Edition not only contains the suggestive dancing of the original, which is fairly tame by today's standards, but the unrated cut contains a sex scene and nudity. Hell, this may be the reason some of you go out and pick this Blu-ray up! In addition to deleted scenes and commentary, there's also a primer on all things Coyote Ugly and some featurettes on finding the perfect cast and the songs found in the movie, plus a LeAnn Rimes music video (the same song she performs in the movie).
Overall, Coyote Ugly: The Double Shot Edition is the definitive edition of the film to pick up if you have been jonesin' for a copy and you have a high def setup. The ladies couldn't look lovelier on Blu-ray and overall, the movie is a lot of fun.
