BitchSlap Unrated DVD Review
March 7, 2010 No Comments
Hel (Erin Cummings), Trixie (Julia Voth) and Camero (America Olivo) have an uneasy alliance. The busty trio have joined together to relieve a dangerous crime boss of $200 million in diamonds, which have been hidded in an abandoned mobile home in the middle of the desert. The girls have enlisted the unwilling help of one of the bosses’ generals, Gage (Michael Hurst) to show them where the diamonds are hidden. While Camero and company are interrogating Gage, they are interrupted by a steady stream of visitors, all of which are a threat to blow their plan. As the tension rises the girls begin to distrust each other more and more, and by the end it is clear that not everyone will make it out alive with the diamonds.
The film continues on with a Memento flavored pacing, as flashbacks play backwards every few minutes until the viewer is watching events from several months earlier. At times a few of these became confusing and pointless. I liked the reverse flashbacks but there was just waaaay too many throughout the movie. The plot itself was clever to a point, almost too clever for what the film is trying to be. It is by no means Memento itself, however it is much more complicated and has a lot more twists than say, Switchblade Sisters, or Thriller, A Cruel Picture.
The cinematography varies throughout the movie, with some greenscreens looking good and others (like Camero on the motorcycle!) coming across very fake. Fight scenes were extremely well choreographed and the writers even threw in an awkward but fun water bucket fight among the three girls for good measure. While there is plenty of shirt popping cleavage thrust into the camera shots as well as micro skirts and ripped shirts, there is no real nudity in the movie so I would imagine the Unrated tag is adding in mainly additional language and possibly violence.
The movie is well cast, although whenever you are doing a send up to past exploitation film, it is really hard to interpret whether campy moments are toungue in cheek or accidental. All three female leads are great, with America Olivo putting in a convincing performance as a bad ass renegade lesbian who trusts no one. Erin Cummings plays the level headed business woman who has the connections to fence the hot stones and leggy Julia Voth is convincing as the trusting stripper who has been drafted to get the gems from Gage. Speaking of Gage, Michael Hurst is a scene stealer as the outnumbered strip club owner, although his reactions to getting tortured were just short of ridiculous (like getting a bullet in the testicles and saying “you blew up my teabag!” but then virtually going back to normal) Again, not sure if this is part of the tribute or bad writing but it bears a mention. Also, speaking of dialogue, the trio of women have an endless barrage of vulgarities to refer to each other and their anatomy to the point that it becomes laughable quite early on, as people scramble to pull up the subtitles just to verify what was said.
By the way, I also endorse the use of the commentary track whenenver a song comes on. I say this because the lyrics to the stripper style rock ballads have the most ridiculous words ever uttered as a soundtrack to a movie. Most of these moments were in Charlie’s Angels inspired shots where the camera locks in for a closeup of a fishnet clad leg sliding out of a car or a tight closeup of someones breasts or crotch. I suddenly found myself remembering Whitesnake’s video collection. But I digress….
BitchSlap includes a 100 minute making of feature entitled “Building a Better B Movie.” Divided into three segments that hover around the half hour mark, the extensive feature covers the behind the scenes aspect of Bitch Slap from the first table read to the finished film. Rick Jacobson and Eric Gruendemann do a good job at explaining everything and actor Michael Hurst makes the occasional appearance to lighten the mood and make sure the viewer is not getting too oversaturated with the technical stuff. The movie also includes 2 commentary tracks. The first technical commentary features the producer trio of Rick Jacobson (Writer/Producer/Director), Eric Gruendemann (Writer/Producer) and Brian Peck (Associate Producer.) The trio have a good rapport with each other and the commentary is well paced, however if you watched or are planning on watching “Building a Better B Movie” then you are going to hear a lot of repeated material. The track I preferred was the cast commentary track, featuring Julia Voth (Trixie), Erin Cummings (Hel) and America Olivo (Camero.) The ladies of Bitch Slap have a fun time watching the finished film and provide a lot of anectdotes and memories about the movie. Pleasantly absent is any sort of extended footage reel, featuring scenes that were not good enough to make the final cut. Finally, just an observation, this movie is actually a decent candidate for a digital copy although none is offered. I can see someone watching Bitchslap on their iPod or PC on the go more than I can the majority of films that include digital copies.
Recommended for Rental Special Features:
Building A Better B-Movie Documentary
Commentary by Producers Rick Jacobson (Writer/Producer/Director), Eric Gruendemann (Writer/Producer) & Brian Peck (Associate Producer)
Commentary by Principal Cast: Julia Voth (Trixie), Erin Cummings (Hel) & America Olivo (Camero)
Bitchslap is available on DVD now, courtesty of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
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