Female lounge singers see a murder, now they need to hide. They flee from Chicago to Los Angeles where they hideout performing in a drag bar…as the talent. I bet you're saying the same thing I did when I saw the trailer. However, "Connie and Carla" isn't as bad as it reads. Not special, but not bad.

"Connie and Carla" is the follow up writing effort for Academy Award® nominee Nia Vardalos who claimed notoriety with her film "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and subsequent TV series off it. She and fellow Academy Award® nominated actress Toni Colette (The Sixth Sense) star as title characters after they witness a murder, flee from Chicago…blah, blah, blah.

So in Chicago, Connie and Carla have no audience, but posing as men in a drag duo, their audience comes out of the woodwork of Los Angeles. The response saves bar owner Stanley's establishment and transforms it into a dinner theater cabaret with recognition from the news media.

Of course, Connie and Carla get notoriety and the bad guys, played by Robert John Burke (Simple Men) as Rudy the boss and Boris McGiver (Little Odessa) as his Russian henchman, soon find them.

Unfortunately, what I just described is the boring portion of the film, the strength of the movie comes in its subplot as Jeff, played by David Duchovny (TV's X-Files), fights to accept his brother Robert's homosexual and drag-queen lifestyles. They have not seen each other since Jess was age 12. Robert a.k.a Peaches, played by Stephen Spinella (Cradle Will Rock), eventually shares Connie and Carla's stage as part of the entertainment, along with three other amusing supporting characters.

Of course, Connie (Vardalos) falls for Jeff, but Jeff won't bite cause he is not attracted to other men. Duchovny gives the film its merit, since Connie and Carla's "running from the drug dealers" story is pretty empty of worth. The most hilarious scenes come from Duchovny, playing nervous around gay men, but trying so hard to be the accepting straight guy.

Vardalos and Colette are great together, but their dialogue at times seem too contrived for a laugh. Colette's character comes off as inconsistent many times. Some scenes, she's a bubblehead. Other scenes, she's the more sharp of the pair. It would work if her personality remained in tact, but it doesn't.

As a screenwriter, Vardalos doesn't break any new grounds, especially with the hoaky ending inevitably given. Again, not a surprise. She does not top "...Greek Wedding," but her subplot is very well established, very well spoken and well presented performance-wise.

TV director Michael Lembeck (TV's Friends) has done little in the arena of motion pictures, but his attention to details regarding art direction, costuming and makeup really make the movie's aesthetic quality high.

Overall, the movie is very silly and done before, but the parts that are somewhat original make it somewhat worth seeing. There's a lot of special features on the DVD disc which are also pretty enjoyable.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?