Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Spikeopath Bad Girls is directed by Jonathan Kaplan from a screenplay by Ken Friedman and Yolande Turner. It stars Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell and Drew Barrymore. The plot sees the four girl actors playing prostitutes on the run following a justifiable homicide and a hanging escape. Suffice to say that they get into scrapes & double crosses whilst being pursued by the Pinkerton's.Being asked to suspend disbelief is one thing, being force fed drivel masquerading as pro-feminism is entirely another. Bad Girls is a mess of a movie, an insult to the Western genre, the fans of the lady actors, to the lady actors themselves; who simply deserve much much better and arguably worst of all; to women in general. The script is laughable, serving only as an excuse for the gals to sling those guns and hips when possible, and be abused and saved by "men", while the plotting is by the numbers as everything falls into place readily. There's even slow-mo shots where they serve no purpose of enhancement. Throw into the mix that three of ladies look nothing like on the run outlaws, all shine and span and make up with nice hair (Masterson the exception as she has a modicum of believability about her), well it's rather a depressing experience all told. Sure, as a red blooded guy I'm not going to be turned off by Barrymore's shapely thighs adorned in white stockings, or Stowe's truly gorgeous face, but when the highlights of a "girl" Western is something that's only aesthetically sexy for men, then they clearly have got it wrong.So what's the justification for it being so bad? Well the back story offers up the answer. Film was meant to be directed by a woman, Tamra Davis (erm-Billy Madison & Crossroads), but she was jettisoned a couple of weeks into production. The plan with Davis at the helm was for it to be a Western told from a female point of view. However, Kaplan (The Accused/Unlawful Entry) was brought in quickly and the screenplay rewritten in a hurry. And boy does it show. Technically it's a duffer too, Jerry Goldsmith's score is cheap in texture and Jane Kurson's editing is choppy to say the least. There's no eye catching cinematography (Ralf D. Bode), while the acting away from the script hindered girls (ie: the men), is either a waste of time them being in it (Nick Chinlund) or badly directed (James Russo). While Dermot Mulroney seems only to exist as being a link to Young Guns; the "boy" version that this is clearly trying to ride the coat tails in on. If you want a good Western about the girls fighting the good fight then seek out George Marshall's 1957 film The Guns Of Fort Petticoat. It's a fun movie that at least has believable women fighting back under duress. Bad Girls, tho, is just bad in every department. 2/10

slmcgrat Bad Girls was filmed beautifully in the Texas wilderness, the story line between these women in the Old West held my interest and the humor was delightful. Starring Andie MacDowell, Drew Barrymore, Mary Stuart Masterson and Madeleine Stowe. These were brave gals trying to survive on their own, back when women had no rights if they weren't married, and society blacklisted any independent unmarried woman trying to earn a living, even if you were a widow with land rights denied to you. DrewBarrymore was especially adorable - although all the girls were quite good in their respective roles. A very enjoyable "light" story! The soundtrack was lovely as well. I have to rate this an "R" as there is some violence and bad-boy behavior toward woman.

AnusPresley This film could easily be dismissed (deservedly) as yet another McMovie off the assembly line, but for one thing - it appears to be a really lame homage (as opposed to blatant rip off) to the mother of all westerns, _The Wild Bunch_ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065214/). The opening features a Temperance Union march and the ending with a (lame and bloodless) shootout, complete with gattling gun - from which the heroines walk away unscathed and without a hair out of place. Everything in between is peppered with stuff lifted from _Wild Bunch_ - bandits robbing a US army arms shipment to sell in Mexico most prominent, and the lead up to the finale of the 4 gals on horseback riding into bandido town to rescue a compatriate is a carbon copy. Even chunks of dialog are lifted - "Well why dontcha all kiss my sister's black cat's ass"...This is more than simply bad - its insulting. Peckinpah must be spinning in his grave.

zephyrean1 "Bad Girls" (1994) directed by Jonathan Kaplan is definitely a typical Western. It has the riding, the gun slinging, and the cowboys and prostitutes to fill it out. Yet with one large modification, the roles of the women are very different from what has come to be expected as the norm in this genre. The four leading women, even in their given roles as prostitutes, lead the movie and drive the storyline. The first woman, Cody Zamora (Madeleine Stowe) shoots a man for not stepping away from Anita Crown (Mary Stewart Masterson) her friend and fellow harlot. A group of religious zealots that happened to be protesting the hotel where the women worked brought her out to be hanged. Anita and the other two women, Eileen Spenser and Lilly Laronette (Andie MacDowell and Drew Barrymore) pack up to rescue Cody from the noose. From that point on, they are wanted women. They have strong wills and challenge the men that wish to capture them, or humiliate them. I like the idea of this movie in that you would turn gender roles in Westerns on its head, but there are so many instances that made the movie predictable and played down the intended role for the women. The women, regardless of how capable they are at shooting a gun and getting out of bad situations, seemed to just make trouble for themselves. This might have been a way to show the human fallibility, but it further perpetuates the Western genre classification. The only way they got out was though "movie luck," the event where the antagonists' bullets never reach the protagonists or miss them completely, while the protagonist has perfect aim. My opinion of this movie is that it gets a little tedious, has seemingly unnecessary nude scenes, and is fairly predictable. This movie is merely entertaining on a superficial level.