5.5 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.3 |
Four former harlots try to leave the wild west (Colorado, to be exact) and head north to make a better life for themselves. Unfortunately someone from Cody's past won't let it happen that easily.
Starring: Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell, Drew Barrymore, James RussoWestern | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Do I look like a criminal?
Here's a manufactured, by-the-book, cliché-riddled movie if ever there was one. It's a movie that's of the brainless variety, with its only claim to fame
or reason to watch being its turning of the tables, replacing the expected lead characters with different lead characters. In this case, it's removing the
scruffy, hardened Western leading men with a quartet of pretty ladies who might not have scraggly days-old beards but who do prance around in
dirty dresses and with faces covered in mud and blood. It's an interesting dynamic, a would-be intriguing premise, but Bad Girls falls so
laughably far into convention that one simply cannot take the movie seriously or enjoy its skewered character roster for all the lame humor, generic
dialogue, expected situations, unimaginative score, bland direction, and overacting. Bad Girls has it all, and rarely is the movie watchable, let
alone entertaining. At its best, it's an easy target for ridicule, the sort movie aficionados watch for an opportunity to poke fun at something rather
than for true entertainment value or dramatic resonance. The
movie is a prime example of lame 90's filmmaking, a quickly-produced, no-thought, low-quality Action picture built around a "unique" premise that
doesn't work because it never otherwise escapes tired convention.
Chicas malas.
Bad Girls rides onto Blu-ray with a disappointing 1080p high definition transfer. This is fairly typical of these Fox-turned Anchor Bay releases; it's clear this is an old master lazily plopped onto Blu-ray with little concern for quality, though hence the cheap price. The image is speckled, through not obnoxiously so, throughout. Rather heavy edge enhancement plagues the image from start to finish. Details appear smoothed down and washed out. The film takes on a pasty, lifeless, and flat texture. There's absolutely no definition on dusty streets, wooden and stone building façades, or human faces and Western garb. Colors are bland, though green grasses and a few brighter outfits do look fair and offer a nice temporary reprieve from the brown earthen tones that dominate the movie. Banding and blocking are minimal, but blacks tend to overwhelm surrounding elements. Between the poor details and the edge enhancement, this one just doesn't do much for audiences in search of superior HD fare.
Bad Girls features a serviceable but far from memorable Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Though music plays with fair spacing -- including a prominent surround support element -- it lacks precision clarity. This holds true whether light score or more rousing action accompaniments. Sound does maneuver through the listening area with general ease and accuracy, nicely effecting the on-screen goings-on. Horse and buggy rattle across the stage, for instance, nicely painting a sonic picture that positively reinforces the visuals. Minor atmospherics are nicely inserted, whether chirping birds or the light din of galloping horses and chatty townsfolk. Gunfire and explosions both enter the soundstage with satisfactory clarity, energy, and accuracy. Dialogue is generally clean and grounded in the center, though there are times it becomes slightly muddled underneath competing elements, such as an early scene in a bar before Cody shoots Anita's attacker. This track won't set sound systems ablaze, but it's a capable presentation and the "highlight" of this release.
All that's included is the Bad Girls theatrical trailer (1080p, 1:31).
Bad Girls might be good for a chuckle or three, but serious genre aficionados will rightly look down on this one. Bad Girls offers routine filmmaking, generic characters, a poor pace, and does little with its switch-a-roo premise. There's some fine eye candy to be sure, and the ladies look great even covered in dust, but the film is otherwise a poor excuse for a rich Western. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of this 20th Century Fox catalogue title features substandard video, midlevel audio, and no supplements that cannot be found by a few keystrokes on Youtube. Skip it.
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