Remember when Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez were making their Grindhouse double feature of Death Proof and Planet Terror? They were so excited about reviving this seemingly neglected style of cinema, which died when cheap local theaters with a small screen gave way to multiplexes owned by large corporations. These large corporations answered to boards and investors thus instilling an arbitrary moral code that forbade them from showing cheaply made exploitation flicks filled with gratuitous sex, nudity and violence. Nevermind that this business model wasn't as profitable as dedicating multiple screens to the latest blockbuster. Tarantino and Rodriguez had a good idea when they made Grindhouse, even if the two films had a few serious issues (Death Proof's dialogue was indulgent, Planet Terror was supersaturated with genre-atypical special effects). Bitch Slap doesn't make these mistakes.
The plot itself is a joke on all the recent psychological action flicks obsessed with revealing twists and turns with flashbacks. In terms of all the things you want from this type of film: it's all there. The scantily clad, incredibly busty trio of femme fatales does everything from pouring water on each other to having sex in the back of a trailer. It's exploitation at its finest. Violence? So much. So much violence. Shredding a man's face with the back tire of a motorcycle creates a fountain of gore. Nevermind that the last half hour is little more than five people in a desert punching, torching, shooting, and slicing the hell out of one another. Bitch Slap has everything you want from an exploitation film. Everything. It's so much fun to watch.
The film, though not necessarily the story, starts with the trio, in a car parked in the desert. Hel (Erin Cummings), the lascivious, redheaded business-woman, Camaro (America Olivo), the drug-popping war-monger, and Trixie (Julia Voth), their naïve stripper accomplice, pull a bruised kingpin out of the trunk of their car and begin a routine interrogation as to the whereabouts of a treasure buried somewhere in the desert. What the treasure is, why it's buried in the desert, why they're looking for it and so many other questions begin to rack up thanks not only to the fact that the dialogue is intentionally cryptic (like 50% of the dialogue in LOST) but because they keep flashing back in time showing a new face and then introducing it with a new plotpoint. Zoe Bell, of Death Proof and who choreographed the numerous stunts for Bitch Slap, makes a brief appearance. However, of the new faces introduced by the film's incessant time traveling tendencies, the holy trinity of Saturday afternoon television comes in to play: Hercules, Xena, and Gabriella. Yes, Kevin Sorbo, Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor all make an appearance, the latter being the most amusing as a lustful nun with seemingly bi-curious interests.
By the time the film's climax hits, the exact identity of each character is thrown into doubt, but you know they all collectively dread the dangerous, enigmatic figure known as Pinky.
The cinematography of the film has a visual flair aided, instead of hindered, by the use of green-screen backgrounds to fill in every scene that doesn't take place in the desert. It's a fun film to watch and a pleasant surprise for anyone who thinks B-movies are dead.
DVD Bonus Features
There's an impressively long and thorough making of featurette which is just ten minutes shy of being as long as the film itself. It chronicles the making of this inevitable fan-favorite film from day one at the read-through roundtable. Two different audio commentaries finish out the DVD and, if you're at all an amused fan of the flick after the first viewing, you'll want to check them out.
"Bitch Slap" is on sale March 2, 2010 and is rated NR. Action. Directed by Rick Jacobson. Written by Rick Jacobson, Eric Gruendemann. Starring America Olivo, Erin Cummings, Julia Voth, Michael Hurst, Ron Melendez.
