Belles de l'Ouest

When the prostitute Cody Zamora (Madeleine Stowe) shoots a military man in self defense and is about to be hanged, she is rescued by her three companions (Masterson, Barrymore, MacDowell). They want to leave for Oregon, but are pursued by Pinkerton agents and their paths cross with Kid Jarrett, the local thug, and his mob.

The movie itself is pretty fine; the problem is that it appeared too late. After such landmarks as "Unforgiven", or even "Dances With Wolves" - not to mention the classic antiwesterns of the 1960s and 1970s - a western which is nothing more but a pure entertainment appears somewhat empty and unfocused. Also, it is somewhat underwritten: the good chicks are individualised, clean and smart, the bad guys are a mass of dirty, drunken, constanly sinisterly laughing, idiotically-behaving, stereotypical villains. In the 90s? please! The movie could have worked as a tribute to classic old westerns, but what worked fine in the case of "Silverado" is here neglected - sadly, because this would significantly improve the picture. All in all, not a bad movie - just nothing new and original. 5/10

Ridiculously and dreadfully stupid film set in the Old West. Do you really need a plot summary? You asked for it: Four prostitutes (Drew Barrymore, Madeline Stowe, Andie MacDowell, Mary Stuart Masterson) decide to fight back or something stupid like that.

Skip it. Please, save yourself and skip this mess that is worse than a made-for-TV movie.

1/5 stars -

John Ulmer

A girl-power western for the MTV generation, Bad Girls blatantly rehashes plot elements from The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven but lacks the depth of characterisation, the moral seriousness and the real feeling for the Western's history that made those films such outstanding examples of the genre. Director Kaplan seems to think he's pulling off some revisionist coup by putting women in the central roles, but he offers only lame stereotypes which combine the hoariest of old Western cliches (they're prostitutes!) with the emptiest of post-feminist attitude-striking (they're the Spice Girls on horseback!). The real offence of the film, though, is its opportunism and dishonesty. These foxy chicks are ostensibly rebelling against the oppression of women, specifically their objectification as sexual objects. But as they kick ass Buffy- or Xena-style, the camera lingers on thier hot bods as it would in any soft porn exploitation flick. There's even a lesbian subtext to titillate the most jaded of gentlemen's palates. What purports to be some kind of feminist fable in fact has the sexual politics of your average issue of Loaded magazine. Better seek out the surreal Freudian poetry of Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954) or the down and dirty realism of Maggie Greenwald's The Ballad of Little Jo (1993) for Westerns that have something substantial to say about sex and gender.

I really liked this movie because I love horses and I like the actors in this movie. The storyline is simple and it is a great action chick flick. It has humor, adventure and a great overall girl bonding feel to it. It is the story of four friends who work in a parlor house who find themselves getting into trouble and having to go on the run. It is a story of the depth of friendship, strength, starting over, finding love and fighting back. Who said women can't kick some butt. A real feel good movie that is great to watch on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I would recommend adding this movie to one's movie collection. This is one movie where women are the heroes of the movie.

The idea of making a Western with women in the leading roles was an interesting one, but the casting was not exactly ideal. Don't get me wrong, the women in "Bad Girls" look great in their Western outfits, and they do a fine acting job as well, but only Drew Barrymore really convinces as a "bad girl" - you can see the fire of intensity burning in her eyes (Madeleine Stowe is a close second - at times she is convincingly defiant). And for a "feminist" Western, the women get mistreated rather frequently. But the biggest problem with this film is an unfocused script that never really takes off. "Bad Girls" was a big commercial and critical flop, but I don't think it's such a bad movie - it's just not as good as it should have been. (**)