Although campy, there are so many iconic Westerns movies and shows that are worth watching, including “The Quick and the Dead,” “Young Guns,”, “Tombstone,” “Once Upon a Time in the West,” and Taylor Sheridan’s “1883,” which is a Paramount+ miniseries you can binge in a weekend. Honestly, if I were to list every worthy contender, we’d be here forever, but tucked away in this genre is a title that was all but forgotten — even during its release. Standing as a sort of antithesis to “Young Guns,” 20th Century Studio’s “Bad Girls” follows a rag tag bunch of cowgirls who set out to make a name for themselves in the Wild West.
Released in 1994, this movie had no shortage of star power with Drew Barrymore, Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Andie MacDowell playing a band of prostitutes turned outlaws. Interestingly, it amassed $5 million and shot to spot one in the box office on its opening weekend, but as word of mouth spread and people realized how bad it was, the numbers took a nosedive. On a $25 million budget, the film earned just $23 million in domestic and worldwide markets. The film has a 13% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 40% rating from users. On IMDB, it’s slightly better with 5.2 stars out of 10-star rating and more than 14,000 reviews.
Why is Bad Girls so disappointing?
There are worse ways to spend 99 minutes of your life, but you can gauge the quality of the acting and writing from the trailer alone. With bombastic one-liners like “You touch her again, and you’re a dead man,” or “Look here, I don’t let my friends get hung,” you’ll understand the film’s tone quickly. You could also study some of the more colorful character threats, like “You’re dead! I just ain’t killed you yet,” and “Pick it up. Put it in. Die like a man.” It’s not exactly what you’d call the pinnacle of art.
You could argue that is to be expected from a Western, a genre inherently meant to be campy and over-the-top, but this one tips the scales a little too much. Unlike some of the Westerns you should absolutely watch even if you dislike the genre, this is one that even hardcore fans of the actors might want to intentionally miss. It’s not quite in the “so bad it’s good” camp either. Sometimes, older movies are fun to watch or revisit, regardless of original critic scores. For instance, there are a lot of ’90s sci-fi movies that were unfairly hated by critics at the time. By all rights, “Bad Girls” seems to have earned its low scores. But you’re more than welcome to be the judge of that.
