Bad Girls (1994) starring Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell, Drew Barrymore, James Russo, James Le Gros, Robert Loggia, Dermot Mulroney directed by Jonathan Kaplan Movie Review

Bad Girls (1994)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Madeleine Stowe in Bad Girls (1994)

Bad Movie not Bad Girls

According to the Preacher and his loyal congregation Echo City, Colorado is on its way to being Sodom and Gomorrah with the four prostitutes Cody (Madeleine Stowe), Anita (Mary Stuart Masterson), Lilly (Drew Barrymore), and Eileen (Andie MacDowell) at the saloon being the focus of his attention. When Cody shoots dead a man for being too rough on Anita the Preacher leads the lynching mob. But before they can hang Cody her three friends ride on in and help the scarlet temptress escape. Together the four now former prostitutes head for Agua Dulce, Texas where Cody has a small fortune stashed, along the way encountering various troubles and men.

I gotta know, was "Bad Girls" made as a serious western for women or was the intention to make a cheesy movie which made you groan whilst trying to entertain in a bad movie kind of way? I honestly don't know because it is ridiculously over the top yet the humour doesn't always seem intentional. The thing is that without knowing the intention "Bad Girls" ends up a bad movie which kind of gets embarrassing in how bad it gets.

Mary Stuart Masterson in Bad Girls (1994)

So what do I mean bad? Well let's take the lynching scene where we have a fire and damnation preacher with bible in hand leading the hanging of Cody as he calls her a scarlet temptress with a scorpion between her legs. If that isn't ridiculous enough we then have the rescue as we have one of the women riding in on a wagon which of course is in slow motion in order to get the full effect of hair flying in the air. It is so ridiculously over the top that you can't help but groan.

But you say that is only one scene yet trust me every 5 minutes there is another one; an unbelievably cheesy scene involving a run away wagon with Lilly riding after it on horse back to stop it. Then there is a scene with are four sexy heroines skinny dipping only for a man to show up and for Cody to get out of the water completely naked and stand there with a gun pointing at him whilst having a conversation. Oh and there is some excruciatingly cheesy dialogue which runs through every single scene.

In the end "Bad Girls" is one of those movies which whilst some times is entertaining in a bad movie way you end up watching because of four attractive stars. It is a sad thing to say that whilst Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell and Drew Barrymore are all capable actresses the entertainment they bring to "Bad Girls" springs from them all looking gorgeous and being likeable not because they have decent characters to bring to life. And when it comes to the various men in the movie that have even less to do and basically pose in each scene they appear in.

What this all boils down to is that "Bad Girls" is simply bad and rather than being entertaining in a bad way is more of a groan movie. About the only thing it has going for it is that its female cast are beautiful and likeable.


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