''Bitch Slap'' (alternate title: ''Before Me We Say I Do'') is a 2009 American

action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

directed by

Rick Jacobson Rick Jacobson is an American film director, television director and producer, and stage and television actor. Biography Jacobson graduated from the California Institute of the Arts film and television program. Jacobson's most recent work includ ...

and starring

Julia Voth Julia Voth (born May 16, 1985) is a Canadian actress and model. She is best-known for her roles in the 2009 film ''Bitch Slap'' and the TV-series ''Package Deal'', as well as for being the character-model for Jill Valentine for a number of the '' ...

Erin Cummings Erin Cummings (born July 19, 1977) is an American actress and online film pundit. She has appeared in the television series, ''Charmed'', ''Dante's Cove'', ''The Bold and the Beautiful'', ''Cold Case'', ''Dollhouse'', '' Spartacus: Blood and Sa ...

, America Olivo and

Michael Hurst Michael Eric Hurst New Zealand Order of Merit, ONZM (born 20 September 1957) is a New Zealand actor, director and writer. He acted in the television programs ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' and companion series ''Xena: Warrior Princess'' ...

, with cameos by

Lucy Lawless Lucille Frances Lawless (; born 29 March 1968) is a New Zealand actress and director. She is best known for her roles as Xena in the television series ''Xena: Warrior Princess'', as Number Three (Battlestar Galactica), D'Anna Biers on the re-im ...

Kevin Sorbo Kevin David Sorbo (born September 24, 1958) is an American actor. He has had starring roles in two television series: as Hercules in '' Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' (1995–1999) and as Captain Dylan Hunt in '' Andromeda'' (2000–2005). ...

, and

Renee O'Connor Evelyn Renee O'Connor (born February 15, 1971) is an American actress, producer, and director, known for the role of Gabrielle on the television series '' Xena: Warrior Princess''. Early life Born in Houston and raised in suburban Katy, Texas b ...

Plot

Three attractive and voluptuous vixens, a down-and-out

stripper A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at private events. Modern forms of stripping m ...

named Trixie, a drug-running killer and

ex-convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts ...

named Camero, and a corporate powerbroker nicknamed Hel, 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 are who they appear to be: each has an ulterior motive. They kidnap a gangster called Gage 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 and kills 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 hide the body and are able to convince Fuchs to leave. While digging for the treasure, Camero asks the girls about the best sex each has ever had, believing the answer tells her something important about their character. She admits her best sex ever was with a circus

contortionist Contortion (sometimes contortionism) is a performance art in which performers called contortionists showcase their skills of extreme physical flexibility. Contortion acts often accompany acrobatics, circus acts, street performers and other liv ...

, although she did not even know the contortionist's name at the time. During a water fight, Trixie falls onto something in the sand. They dig; however, instead of buried treasure they find the dead body of one of Hel's contacts. Trixie goes into the trailer to collect herself as Hel follows her to check on her, only for Trixie to seduce Hel into making out and going second-base with her, which leads to them having vigorous sex until Camero catches them in the act and is furious, as she apparently is in love with Hel too. They are interrupted by Hot Wire and his girlfriend Kinki, whom Camero is familiar with. At gunpoint, the two abuse the women and force them to dig for the buried treasure. Deputy Fuchs returns just as they discover the location of an underground bunker, He attempts to save the women, but instead causes a gunfight, which Hel ends with a high-powered machine gun found earlier in the nearby trailer. Camero asks the meaning of the code Hel uses on the bunker access keypad, "75650". At closer inspection it appears that the number 1 is associated with the letter A, 2 with BCD, 3 with E, 4 is with FGH, 5 is with IJK, 6 is with LMN, 7 is with OPQ, 8 is with RST, 9 is with UVW and 0 is with XYZ. With this info the code numbers spell "PINKY" Hel and Trixie find the hidden bunker full of goods stolen from Pinky, including a mysterious weapon, diamonds, and a beautiful sword, which Trixie takes. Camero, believing she is in the midst of a double-cross, fights Hel for the diamonds. Camero overcomes Hel and sets Trixie afire along with barrels of flammable liquids. Camero leaves Hel in chains while she attempts to drive away with the diamonds; however, Hel quickly uses the super-machine gun to free herself, and fires a rocket that destroys the car Camero was driving. Hel admits to Trixie that she is a secret agent who reports to a man named Phoenix, and that she is on a mission to retrieve the weapon they found in Pinky's lair. Camero returns and again fights Hel. After she beats Hel to the ground, Camero assumes she is dead and moves to kill Trixie. As Trixie will not fight back, Camero tries to rape her, but stops when she sees a tattoo and realizes Trixie was the shadowy contortionist from her past. Before she can kill Trixie, Camero is shot in the back and killed by Deputy Fuchs, who managed to survive the explosion. However, instead of thanking him, Trixie kills Fuchs using a hidden

throwing star A is a Japanese concealed weapon used by samurai or ninja or in martial arts as a hidden dagger or '' metsubushi'' to distract or misdirect. History The origins of the ''bo-shuriken'' in Japan are still unclear, despite continuing research ...

. Hel awakens, having survived Camero's attack. Trixie then reveals that she, in fact, is Pinky, and concocted the entire plot to retrieve the sword she took from Gage's bunker, which he had taken from her six months previously.

Cast

as Trixie *

as Hel * America Olivo as Camero, and Sister Prudence Bangtail *

as Gage * Ron Melendez as Deputy Fuchs *

William Gregory Lee William Gregory Lee (born January 24, 1973) is an American actor. Career His first prominent role was as Virgil on '' Xena: Warrior Princess'' in the last 2 seasons. He also played the character of Zack on the series '' Dark Angel'' (2000–2001 ...

as "Hot Wire" * Minae Noji as "Kinki" * Scott Hanley as "Black Ice" *

as Mr. Phoenix * Dennis Keiffer as MacDaddy *

as Mother Superior *

as Sister Batril * Mark Lutz as Deiter Von Vondervon *

Debbie Lee Carrington Deborah Lee Carrington (December 14, 1959 March 23, 2018) was an American actress and stuntwoman. Her best known movie roles include playing a Martian rebel in ''Total Recall (1990 film), Total Recall'', an Ewok in ''Return of the Jedi'' (and in s ...

as "Hot Pocket" *

Zoë Bell Zoë E. Bell (born 17 November 1978) is a New Zealand Stunt performer, stuntwoman and actress. Some of her most notable stunt-work includes doubling for Lucy Lawless in ''Xena: Warrior Princess'' and for Uma Thurman in ''Kill Bill''. As an act ...

as "Rawhide" *

Brian Peck Brian Richard Peck (born July 29, 1960) is an American convicted sex offender and former dialogue coach and actor. From the late 1990s to the mid-2000s, he worked on popular children's shows produced by Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, including ...

as Wrong Place - Wrong Time

Music

John R. Graham composed the musical score and the soundtrack was released in 2009; featuring 29 songs. The film also features songs by

AM Conspiracy AM Conspiracy was an American alternative metal band from Orlando, Florida, formed in 2005. Their current lineup consists of Jason "Gong" Jones, who was member of the band Drowning Pool when they recorded the album '' Desensitized'', (vocals), ...

Rebel Vengeance A rebel is a participant in a rebellion. Rebel or rebels may also refer to: People * Rebel (given name) * Rebel (surname) * Patriot (American Revolution), during the American Revolution * American Southerners, as a form of self-identification; ...

and

Eagles of Death Metal Eagles of Death Metal is an American rock band from Palm Desert, California, formed in 1998. Founded by Jesse Hughes (vocals, guitar) and Josh Homme (drums), the band also includes a wide range of other musicians who perform both on the band's ...

Release

The film was released in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

on January 8, 2010 in theaters and video-on-demand. It received a limited run of three weeks in three theaters and closed January 21. The film grossed $17,365 at the domestic (US and Canada) box office and $199,436 foreign.

Home media

An unrated DVD was released on March 2, 2010 in the United States.

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 29% based on 17 reviews, with an average rating of 4.55/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 19 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. In ''

Daily Variety ''Variety'' is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation. It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933, ''Daily Variety'' was launched, based in ...

'', IM Global's Stuart Ford described ''Bitch Slap'' as "a pure exploitation pic — chicks, boobs, guns and bad guys, in that order". In ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', 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 The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

'' 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. It's just not any fun." Mark Olsen in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' noted that, "Despite its obsession with décolletage, ''Bitch Slap'' is surprisingly puritanical (much teasing, no pleasing)."

Inspiration

The 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 is inspired by the '' Dragstrip Girl'', ''

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! ''Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!'' is a 1965 American exploitation film directed by Russ Meyer and co-written by Meyer and Jack Moran. It follows three go-go dancers who embark on a spree of kidnapping and murder in the California desert. The ...

'', '' Kung Fu Nun'', the pantheon of

blaxploitation In American cinema, Blaxploitation is the film subgenre of action movie derived from the exploitation film genre in the early 1970s, consequent to the combined cultural momentum of the black civil rights movement, the black power movement, ...

and other

exploitation films An exploitation film is a film that seeks commercial success by capitalizing on current trends, niche genres, or sensational content. Exploitation films often feature themes such as suggestive or explicit sex, sensational violence, drug use, nudi ...

which had a renewal in popularity after the cult success of ''

Grindhouse A grindhouse or action house is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows low-budget horror, splatter, and exploitation films for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a f ...

'' in 2007.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 1212974, Bitch Slap 2009 films 2000s English-language films 2009 action films Films set in 2009 2000s exploitation films American action films American exploitation films Girls with guns films Lesbian-related films Summit Entertainment films Films directed by Rick Jacobson 2000s American films English-language action films 2009 LGBTQ-related films