Bad Girls

After "Unforgiven" revived the Western, we were 'treated' to "Tombstone", "Posse" and finally the ladies got into the act too, with four of Hollywood's most prominent actresses (don't forget Drew Barrymore was in E.T.!) donning on their stetsons and saddling up as "Bad Girls".

The basic premise has Anita (Masterson) beaten up and then avenged by Cody (Stowe) who is then saved from the noose by Eileen (MacDowell) and Lilly (Barrymore). The ladies then pursue their dreams of a new life and fend off the amorous advances of Dermot Mulrooney and the not so charming Robert Loggia. Retribution and further complications ensue before the riding off into the sunset part can be accomplished.

While never quite achieving its Thelma and Louise on horseback aspirations, Bad Girls is a neat variation on a genre that for so long has been dominated by YY-Chromosones (!!! - Ed.). The four actresses acquit themselves well, MacDowell may permanently be on a fashion shoot but Madelaine Stowe more than compensates and it is her strong performance as the reserved and emotionally tortured Cody that holds the movie together

Jonathan (Unlawful Entry) Kaplan never slackens the pace for too long and the Texas plains are stunningly captured ensuring that even when the ladies are out of shot there's always something to hold the attention. What could so easily have degenerated into an exercise in titillation is actually - despite a general critical trouncing - an enjoyable and undeniably stirring film that this particular reviewer would favour over the dirge that was Tombstone any day.

Caroline Smith.