Bitch Slap – DVD Review

The Film:

Sometimes we hinge too much on trailers, but how could one not get excited for the Bitch Slap trailer? It oozed that long-lost sleaze once made popular in Russ Meyer sexploitation films of the 1960′s like Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965). Oh, those by gone eras. Quentin Tarantino has made these old exploitation genres somewhat hip again with his odes to them in Kill Bill (Shaw Brothers Kung Fu films) and in Grindhouse. One of the key things those old B-movies had that Tarantino didn’t was the ability to make their films without much self-referential nods and a sky high budget. I mean, it took Grindhouse $60 million dollars to do what someone like Umberto Lenzi or a Russ Meyer had in $10,000′s.

Bitch Slap has a lot going for it. Following Russ Meyer’s conventions of babes, boob fascination, and female empowerment, the flick had it all down to a T. Heck, it was even a low budgeted film! Where Bitch Slap goes off of the rails is in two key areas: one is the pure excess. How much is too much? Bitch Slap clears showcases how much is too much, with a slew of flashbacks (that really ruin the film’s momentum and plotting), music video moments, and slow motion scenes of girls either getting out of the car or flipping their hair back (like from a guy’s POV, that’s not a bad thing, but after the umpteenth time it is). The story is simple, yet director Rick Jacobson mixes way too many things together. Three girls are in the middle of a desert looking for some buried diamonds. Amongst their attempts to find it, there will be an onslaught of double-crosses and plot twists. None of them work, and they constantly ruin the simple story.

The flashbacks try to add to the twists, sometimes given us back story, but it hollows the film. By keeping it simple with the buried diamonds angle, the cat fights, the villains, in the middle of the desert, we would have one nice little flick. The script isn’t clever enough, as it tries to be satirical towards the sexploitation genre, but it isn’t Black Dynamite. If anything, Bitch Slap also tries to be a Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez flick on a dime. Again, it fails.

The other major problem is again with the flashbacks. The flashbacks are all filmed with a digital matte background and it isn’t rendered well, taking you out of the picture. By taking these flashbacks out, it would’ve streamlined the film. These digital matte back grounds are starting to become pretty popular in low budget film making, and I understand why. They’re probably cheap to do, helping the director to open up ideas and film faster, but without some time and money, they look bad.It’s all a shame, in the end, because of what Bitch Slap had going for it. There’s just these few little rotten apples and pears amongst the delicious melons.

The DVD:

Audio/Video: For a DVD, the presentation is really good. The image is highly detailed and colorful. While the FX/digital elements don’t hold up, it’s certainly not the transfer’s fault. The Dolby Digital audio is loud and aggressive. There’s nothing to complain about from this Fox release.

Commentaries: The first track, featuring the director and producers, talk much about the film, although I found it dry at times. The second track features the girls as well as the director and producers, and is fluffy but a fun listen. Topics like boob sweat kept me listening.

Behind Bitch Slap: Would you believe me if I said this making-of is 99 minutes? Don’t fret, even if you weren’t this film’s biggest fan, the doc is impressive. It’s pretty thorough, easily making the commentaries useless, which is good, in my opinion. Interviews, on-set footage, table reads, this covers it all, offering up a nice look at what goes into production of a film, let alone a low budget film.

Conclusion: Bitch Slap should’ve been better, but it’s all so excessive, in the areas we didn’t need the film to be. It’s mildly entertaining, regardless, as the Fox DVD is great. Like where’s the Blu-ray?

The Film: Rating:

The DVD: Rating: