B.A.P.S.
A film review by James Berardinelli
Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 4.0 Alternative Scale: ** out of ****
United States, 1997 U.S. Release Date: 3/28/97 (wide) Running Length: 1:30 MPAA Classification: PG-13 (Profanity) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Halle Berry, Martin Landau, Ian Richardson, Natalie Desselle,
Jonathan Fried, Troy Beyer
Director: Robert Townsend
Producers: Mark Burg, Loretha Jones
Screenplay: Troy Beyer
Cinematography: Bill Dill
Music: Stanley Clarke
U.S. Distributor: New Line Cinema
In his last film, 1993's THE METEOR MAN, director Robert Townsend (THE FIVE HEARTBEATS) simultaneously paid homage to and satirized comic book superheroes. This time out, he's attempting to do much the same thing with fairy tales. Or, more precisely, with one fairy tale -- that of "Cinderella." Only here, instead of glass slippers, horse-drawn carriages, and prince charming, we have stiletto heels, Rolls Royces, and a genial, terminally ill gent played by Oscar winner Martin Landau.
B.A.P.S. (which stands for "black American princesses") is a lightweight, minimally entertaining piece which represents a marginal improvement over THE METEOR MAN. The film is severely flawed (due primarily to a shocking lack of imagination and creativity), but it is more watchable than this year's other would-be modern-day fairy tale, Fran Drescher's awful THE BEAUTICIAN AND THE BEAST. In B.A.P.S., at least some of the jokes are funny and the serious moments aren't galling.
The premise of this film is, as you might expect, rather thin. The main characters are two young black women of little note whose dreams are wasting away in their home town of Decatur, Georgia. Nisi (Halle Berry with blonde hair and gold-capped teeth) and Mickey (newcomer Natalie Desselle) hope one day to be able to open a combined beauty salon/restaurant, but, in order to do so, they need a lot of money. So, when they spy an ad for the "Video Dance Girl of the World" contest (first prize: $10,000), they ditch their do-nothing boyfriends and hop on a plane to L.A. But, although they lose the contest, they catch the eyes of a couple of con men who offer them $10,000 plus room and board in an East Beverly Hills mansion if they'll be nice to dying Mr. Blakemore (Martin Landau). The butler, a crusty British type named Manley (Ian Richardson) is suspicious of them, and watches their every move like a hawk.
While I realize that the plot of B.A.P.S. is designed as nothing more than a frame for jokes and gags, it still annoys me when any film proceeds along such dull and predictable lines. Would it have been that difficult to inject something new or moderately adventurous into the film? Instead, what we get is a double variation of the fish out of water scenario folded into the "Cinderella" envelope. While Nisi and Mickey struggle to find their footing in the aristocratic world of Beverly Hills (there's an obligatory bidet scene that's supposed to be a lot funnier than it actually is), butler Manley learns to let down his hair. We've seen it all before.
At least the cast is mostly solid. Martin Landau's abilities are sorely wasted here, but the other three principals are used to good effect. Halle Berry, despite the distracting hair color, is her usual affable self, making Nisi a great deal more likable than she probably was on paper. Ian Richardson, the terrific British actor whose career role was that of the deliciously despicable Francis Urquhart in three mini-series (HOUSE OF CARDS, TO PLAY THE KING, and THE FINAL CUT), is perfectly cast as the snobbish butler. The humor in the Manley-goes- shopping-for-rap-CDs is due entirely to Richardson's no-nonsense performance. Finally, there's first-timer Natalie Desselle, who has the comic energy and physical presence of a young Nell Carter.
Townsend elected to shoot the entire film using a soft focus technique that creates an omnipresent glow. While this emphasizes the fairy tale quality of the story, it does little to hide the deficiencies of Troy Beyer's flimsy script. An interesting cast is only half the battle, and, from the moment he chose such a derivative screenplay, the director lost the other half. The best Townsend can do with B.A.P.S. is go for cheap, easy laughs (the aforementioned bidet scene being a good example of this). Paying movie-goers deserve more, especially from someone who has previously shown signs of genuine comic aptitude.
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@bc.cybernex.net ReelViews web site: http://www.cybernex.net/~berardin
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