ridiculous rating

Absolutely Fantastic

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

It is strange how many people dislike this movie. It is a Western Classic that has a lot to offer. Great scenery and the ability to look at Lilly ( Drew Barrymore), Cody ( Madeleine Stowe) and Eileen ( Andie MacDowell); Mary Stuart Masterson ( Anita) was never much to look at. They are four prostitutes who have plenty of misadventures in the Old West. Three of the four suffer on screen physical abuse( only Eileen doesn't), and are accused of crimes they did not commit ( Cody killed in Self defense saving Anita from abuse), and allot them accused of a bank robbery they did not do. The men in this movie do not look very good: They were all criminals and ( or) fake, except William ( James LeGros) who is the naive good guy rancher who is dismissed by everyone in the movie except Eileen. The two main characters are Cody, a former outlaw who ran with Kid Jarrett a really nasty outlaw, and Eileen who was a ranchers daughter. Those two were the nicest of the Bad Girls. Lilly. ( a former rodeo star) was mean, Anita ( a pioneer woman ) was hard, while Cody ( although a former outlaw) was the leader who cared about the girls and about a man named Josh McCoy who was spoilers ahead; Murdered by Kid Jarrett. Eileen was actually a good girl gone wrong. One of the most interesting lines of the movie happened between Eileen and Lilly when they went to William's Ranch and Eileen said "My daddy said it was not the railroad but barbed wire that tamed the ranch." Lilly said "You knows lot about Grub Ranches for someone from New Orleans." She told her " I grew up on a ranch not much different then this before the bank took it away." She then said to herself "It has possibilities." Spoilers: At the end all of the girls are going to go to the Klindike to dig for gold ( Cody had Josh's claim), but Eileen did not want to go. She was happy that William offered her the opportunity to share this place with him. She told him the truth about her but said "It's all I the past." And said all I ever wanted was to get off of this diary pile ( the ranch) and all I got was a few fancy dresses and a broken heart. He said I have this land I got no money but I swear I will never break your heart. Since the girls were able to recover the money from the bank robbery Eileen and William will get the reward and will be okay. It is interesting that the other girls would rather go dig for gold then remain behind and be heroes. Everyone in this movie really pays a severe price for their actions except Eileen ( who is lucky to have a man like William who takes ( and loves her) for who she is). 10/10 Stars

This is actually a fairly handsomely mounted and rather traditional western, if it wasn't for the unrelenting glamorousness of the protagonists. Even when they are dirty, you get the impression that it's designer dirt.But that's OK, because the glam factor is one of the things which sells this western.It sure isn't the story, because there are few surprises (although, to be fair, there are a couple of moments which aren't entirely expected).The confusing thing is that the movie is resolutely feminist, yet trades on the very un-feminist element of hot chicks. I suppose this enables it to appeal to two apparently contradictory demographics.The movie is a romp, which makes it a touch puzzling that Madelyn Stowe plays it very straight and serious.But, taking everything into consideration, it is entertaining, undemanding, and easy on the eyes.

Madeleine Stowe, as Cody Zamora, is a hooker who shoots a man in self defense. Being what she is, that is to say, not being Mother Teresa, she doesn't generate much sympathy in this rough-riding town and the good citizens decide to hang her. "Get on with it," she tells them with Promethean contempt. They're about to do just that when three other young women of dubious repute rescue her at the last minute and ride off. In pursuit are a variety of justice seekers, including Pinkertons and other law types, one or two of them, such as Dermot Mulroney and James LeGros aren't too bad. On the trail they run into the Jarrett Gang. Some of the bad girls, and some of the pursuers as well, carry baggage with them related to the Jarrett Gang. There is a violent shoot out.Now, we must note here that the writers weren't reaching too far for original character names. The leader of the girls is Cody Zamora, whereas the leader of the Gang is Kid Jarrett. I'd be surprised if the writers hadn't seen James Cagney in "White Heat" as a gang leader named Cody Jarrett. At least there were no Wades or Coles or Lukes or Matts, although there was a bad guy named Yuma, which is pretty bad.In fact, though, all four of the bad girls could as easily have been men, or more easily. They WOULD have been men back in the 1950s or 1960s. But then I suppose the Jarrett Gang wouldn't have had an opportunity to treat Drew Barrymore to a lesson in Tough Love. At that, though, this is a BIG improvement over "Westward the Women," with Robert Taylor as a sadistic wagonmaster hired to cart a caravan of would-be wives out to a female-starved Western outpost. Taylor consistently treats his wards like dirt and actually whips some of them when they don't work hard enough. There's nothing original here except the gender of the four leads. There is some suggested nudity but no simulated sex or anything else to pique one's interest. They just seem to have rounded up four popular actresses and thrown them into a well-worn dusty rut. The climactic gunplay is lifted straight out of "The Wild Bunch", as are a couple of slow-motion gunshots. No reason for it, except that it had been done before.I thank the whole tenor of the pitcher is captured when there is a scene of them four hoorah gals a-settin' around the camp fire and a-havin' a peaceful chat. All four of them is exquisitely dressed and unimpeachably groomed with modern hair styles and make up in full panoply. Not a hair out of place, y'know? But the make up department has very carefully brushed a comely taupe area on one cheek or a smear of raw sienna across some otherwise impeccable forehead. That's dust and dirt from the road. They been on the trail fer quite a spell. And they talk like they just graduated from Wellesley. (That's this here classy college back East, kids.) Not a single "g" is dropped at the end of a word like "nothing," or -- as we rawboned cowboys like to call it -- "NUTHIN." How can writers and directors be so careless, so contemptuous of viewers? Or maybe I'm mistaken. Maybe they have a different audience in mind. But if so, what is it?

"Bad Girls" (1994) directed by Jonathan Kaplan is definitely a typical Western. It has the riding, the gun slinging, and the cowboys and prostitutes to fill it out. Yet with one large modification, the roles of the women are very different from what has come to be expected as the norm in this genre. The four leading women, even in their given roles as prostitutes, lead the movie and drive the storyline. The first woman, Cody Zamora (Madeleine Stowe) shoots a man for not stepping away from Anita Crown (Mary Stewart Masterson) her friend and fellow harlot. A group of religious zealots that happened to be protesting the hotel where the women worked brought her out to be hanged. Anita and the other two women, Eileen Spenser and Lilly Laronette (Andie MacDowell and Drew Barrymore) pack up to rescue Cody from the noose. From that point on, they are wanted women. They have strong wills and challenge the men that wish to capture them, or humiliate them. I like the idea of this movie in that you would turn gender roles in Westerns on its head, but there are so many instances that made the movie predictable and played down the intended role for the women. The women, regardless of how capable they are at shooting a gun and getting out of bad situations, seemed to just make trouble for themselves. This might have been a way to show the human fallibility, but it further perpetuates the Western genre classification. The only way they got out was though "movie luck," the event where the antagonists' bullets never reach the protagonists or miss them completely, while the protagonist has perfect aim. My opinion of this movie is that it gets a little tedious, has seemingly unnecessary nude scenes, and is fairly predictable. This movie is merely entertaining on a superficial level.