B.A.P.S.
New Line Home Entertainment
Cast: Halle Berry, Martin Landau
Extras: Theatrical Trailer
Rating:
’B.A.P.S.’ is a film about two slightly deluded, clueless hometown girls from Georgia with the dream of opening a restaurant, who travel to Los Angeles to make the necessary money, dancing in a music video. One of them is then asked by the video director’s nephew if she would mind posing as the granddaughter of his grandfather’s long-lost love. She agrees and off she goes to teach the old man some lessons, while in turn he manages to teach her a few things about the pride of her heritage.
Overly moralistic – the title ’B.A.P.S.’ as in ’Black American Princesses’ says it all, I guess – the film never lives up to the potential the premise holds. While it has a great principal cast in Hale Berry and Martin Landau, the film often falls on its face with flat gags and poorly-conceived jokes.
The DVD contains a 1.85:! widescreen transfer of the movie as well as a cropped fullframe transfer. The image is absolutely clean and clear, without blemishes or defects. The level of detail in the transfer is very good and brings out many little details and textures in the production. Colors are strong and vibrant, though never bleed. Skin tones are naturally rendered, giving the image a faithful look throughout. No edge-enhancement is evident and compression artifacts are not existent.
The DVD contains a 5.1 channel Dolby Digital audio track along with a Dolby Surround track. Both are well-produced and create an engaging sound field with good surrounds and a natural frequency response. Basses are full and natural-sounding while the high ends are clear and free of distortion.
The only extra on the disc is the movie’s theatrical trailer.
’B.A.P.S.’ isn’t my bag and director Robert Townsend has definitely worked on better projects. You better rent this one first if you’re curious, I would recommend.
