No, that doesn’t mean I loved this movie. It means that the movie revels in being a B-movie and strives to fulfill every expectation of one in less than 2 hours. In many ways it succeeds and in others not quite. But for fans of exploitation films, you’ll get a kick out of BITCH SLAP.
The story is fairly simple, though it becomes more and more complicated as the film plays out. Right off the bat you know you’ve got a tribute of sorts to film maker Russ Meyers (especially his film FASTER PUSSYCAT KILL KILL) when you show three buxom women all ready for hard knocks action. Hell (Renee Cummins) is the leader of the group and she’s driven them to a remote desert location for a reason.
Camero (America Olivio) is a jacked up thrill seeker, ready for a fight whenever possible and popping pills like no tomorrow. Of the three, she’s the butt kicking, gun toting one, ready, willing and able to kill at the drop of a hat. Trixie (Julia Voth) on the other hand is subdued, complacent and more or less innocent. Recruited by Hel, Trixie was the stripper with a heart of gold sent in to seduce Gage (Michael Hurst). Gage, a bad cop, knows where the location of a fortune in diamonds is and the girls are out to get them.
Unfortunately things go wrong early on and right after they discover that Gage got the diamonds from a master thief and killer named Pinky. Dangerous doesn’t begin to describe Pinky as his reputation involves taking out an army of killers armed only with a sword that ended with him standing atop a pile of bodies.
The girls fight among themselves as they try to locate where Gage buried the treasure. Rather than just diamonds, they find an underground bunker filled with weapons galore that Gage had been trading. This is far more than they expected. With the exception of Hel.
While they dug for the treasure and fought among themselves, the girls failed to notice they were being watched as well by a pair of dubious characters, the punk rocked out Hot Wire (William Gregory Lee) and his gal pal Kinki (Minae Noji) who sports Japanese school girl clothing and a wicked razor bladed yo-yo. They take the girls hostage but come on, you know that this will eventually lead to their demise and possibly one of the girls buying it as well.
Twists and turns and double crosses abound as the film draws to its end. Along the way the viewer is exposed to flashbacks that fill in the gaps every few minutes that explain who the characters are and where they came from. And all expectations of exploitation are on display featuring plenty of cat fights (choreographed by Zoe Bell), enhanced breasts, nun-sploitation and lesbianism between the three in one form or another. If that’s your bad you’ll get what you want. If not (like me) you’ll use the fast forward button to get through to the story.
The movie accomplishes what it set out to do from the start which was a tribute to the B-movie films of the past. The girls are all lovely to look at and if memory serves me well, none of the leads displays anything more than cleavage, though several others display more. The dialogue is raunchy in parts but does stick in your mind at times with a chuckle alongside it. The majority of the film was shot on green screen and it shows. But that’s part of the charm as the cheesy look it gives the film when it’s used this much and done so so obviously that it is apparent making it appear more low budget than it is.
Director Rick Jacobson states in the extras that he wanted to make a film property that was his alone having worked on so many TV series and the like. He’s done so here while at the same time offering homage to both Russ Meyers and Quentin Tarantino. Making a low budget film with his own stamp is what he set out to do and he sort of succeeded. His involvement also brought in numerous cameos by actors from his past involvement with both XENA and HERCULES. Kevin Sorbo stars as Hel’s government handler while Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor star as nuns.
Is the movie worth watching? Perhaps a dollar redbox rental isn’t a bad thing when you consider this film. Or if you are a die hard B-movie fanatic or exploitation film lover. More mainstream film watchers might not be that interested though. Is it fun? In some ways. Does it deliver what it sets out to do? In spades. But let’s face it. The bottom line is that this movie is for viewers that want to see buxom women in an action flick. If you get more out of it when watching fine. As for my criteria of would I watch it again and keep it on my shelf? Maybe, but for me it’s more for the campiness and my love of exploitation films. As for your own shelf, you’ll have to watch and decide on your own.
No comments:
Post a Comment