Review of Bang

Bang (1995)
7/10
Original, ridiculous, quasi-authentic
14 February 2000
Warning: Spoilers
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)

This is an interesting movie with some superior shtick. It's outrageous of course, but there's a semi-plausibility to it throughout, once you accept the initial premise. Here it is: Asian kind of girl (Darling Narita) gets kicked out of her L.A. digs by a landlord thinking only of his mortgage payments. He just locks her out and tells her he is selling her stuff. But she has some hope: she has an audition with a Hollywood producer. His "office" is his home in the Hollywood hills. Before she goes in she befriends a schizophrenic street person. He hustles her for a dollar. Inside the house "producer" proves to be particularly slimy and we can see he is just scamming her for sex, and when she doesn't come across he verbally abuses her and throws her out. The schizo dude meets her and trashes the street a little just to pent and splits as a motorcycle cop drives up. She runs because it looks like she did the trashing and he chases her into the lush hills where he handcuffs her and gives her a choice: On your knees and do the deed, or you'll spend a night in jail. After assuming the position she manages to grab his gun and handcuffs him to a tree. She has had a bad morning. She freaks and makes him strip and takes his uni, dons it, and his motorcycle and goes on to play cop around town.

She cruises some ghetto scenes and gets way into her act: she encounters pushers, dealers, killers, hookers, pimps, gangland lords and she gets engaged. Everybody thinks she's a cop, but she seems to forget herself sometimes. She hands out some money to some street people, runs out of gas and smokes some weed with a Latino hommie. By the way, the scene in the car with Juan and Jesus is just really excellent as it captures the barrio style. Then it gets a little rough. The cute cholo gets blasted in a drive by as his bro is filling her gas tank. She takes off after the perps and ends up shooting a dude. She spots this Asian hooker and tries to tell her she is doing wrong but gets kicked around by her and her pimp for her trouble.

Strange how the film has turned a little. She walked more than a mile in the cop's shoes and suddenly we have identification with the enemy in a sense. The movie is now a kind of slapstick symbolic jaunt showing how being a cop in the modern urban scene corrupts absolutely. (I wonder how much of this was intended by Director and writer Ash.)

She goes to the ocean to shake off what has happened to her. And then of course she returns to have her way with the lecherous producer and the wayward cop and further befriends the schizo dude. Ah, gee it's kind of sweet in a la la land sort of way.

Best joke on the square: CIA = Cocaine Import Agency.
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