Review of Bitch Slap (2009) by Federico F — 06 Aug 2015

Three girls, a down-and-out stripper named Trixie (Julia Voth), a drug-running killer and ex-convict named Camero (America Olivo), and a corporate powerbroker nicknamed Hel (Erin Cummings), arrive at a remote desert hideaway to extort massive riches from a ruthless sword-wielding killer named Pinky, who is also a notorious underworld figure. None of the three women is who they appear to be: each has an ulterior motive. They have kidnapped a gangster called Gage (Michael Hurst) and try to force him to reveal where the treasure is buried. He refuses, believing they will kill him anyway, but Hel promises he will not be harmed. Camero shoots him, against the wishes of Hel, saying she made no such promise. His phone rings, and they believe Gage is connected to Pinky. Things become more complicated when a police officer named Deputy Fuchs arrives. Unknown to them, he was in the audience five nights ago when Trixie performed as a stripper to seduce Gage. However, the three women have hidden the body and are able to convince Fuchs to leave. Eventually truths are revealed, ulterior motives are exposed and hidden identities unmasked. Nothing is quite what it seems as the fate is balanced among this trio of sexy femmes fatales...

This so called exploitation film is described as "a post-modern, thinking man's throwback to the 'B' Movie/Exploitation films of the 1950s-70s as well as a loving, sly parody of the same." The film claims to be is inspired by the Dragstrip Girl, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Kung Fu Nun, the pantheon of blaxploitation and other exploitation films which had a renewal in popularity after the cult success of Grindhouse in 2007. In Variety, Joe Leydon wrote "Overblown and underwhelming, 'Bitch Slap' is a desperately unfunny attempt to satirically recycle cliches and archetypes from sexploitation actioners of the 1960s and '70s". Amy Biancolli of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote "The idea is to amuse anyone who's not offended by all the over-baked violence, bad acting and slapping babeage, but it's so heavy-handed and hyper-stylized that any extant wit gets smacked into submission. The attempt to be a tongue in cheek exploitation flick with campy dialogue, cat fights, massive violence, lesbianism, exposed skin, big breasted anti-heroes and the novelty act of obvious green screen studio settings fails in my book. I think that they have really tried hard to be dodgy and B-movie like, but compared to let´s say Robert Rodriguez "Machete" this production and director just don´t have the skills to make something like "Machete" which handled the genre in a much better way. There´s tiny hints of something in the right direction, but that´s pretty much it. If Robert Rodriguez would´ve made "Bitch Slap" or Quentin Tarantino it would´ve been a different and a more functional piece of film within the genre for sure. I will not lie, I did like Julia Voth as she has a quite radiant appearance and she is drop dead gorgeous to put it mildly. I did as well like Minae Noji as the over the top Kinki. There´s something intriguing about her. However, I would rather suggest you to see the classic Russ Meyer movie "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" than "Bitch Slap".