High concept Dirty rotten sirens.
Plotline An all-girl con-trick comedy starring Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt (I Know What You Did Last Summer) as a mother/daughter team with a perfect formula for fleecing rich men (including, at the start of the film, Ray Liotta). Weaver lures them into marriage by withholding sex, then Jennifer leads them astray. Bingo! A big divorce settlement. But when they go after a mega-rich tobacco tycoon (Gene Hackman), the double-crosses start to multiply.
Costume drama The fact that Love Hewitt's character is a professional flirt is the excuse for getting this nubile starlet into skimpy outfits. According to many reviewers - the male ones, to be precise - her low-cut tops are the best thing in the movie.
On song As in last year's Galaxy Quest, Weaver proves she's got a real flair for comedy. Her funniest scenes come when she poses as a Russian vamp, with a ludicrous accent, and sings an over-the-top version of The Beatles' Back In The USSR.
Polly gone Hackman is also on top form, his character being a wheezing nicotine-addict who pushes the dangers of passive smoking to new extremes - as he proves when his breath causes a nearby parrot to drop dead.
Oral test Love Hewitt's professionalism was severely tested during a scene in which her character entraps Ray Liotta in a compromising position. The exact nature of that position meant she had to spend several hours under a desk with her head between Ray's legs.
Verdicts 'Not a great comedy but it's raucous, hard-working and ribald' - Chicago Sun-Times. 'Unless you're a Hackman aficionado, there's no reason to bother' - San Francisco Chronicle.
