Bonnie's Kids (1973)

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

just watch it!

A Brilliant Conflict

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Pretty teen temptress Myra (Robin Mattson) is talking dirty to her boyfriend on the phone when her drunken stepfather walks in and decides to show her what a real man is like. As Myra is being attacked, her big sister Ellie (Tiffany Bolling) appears brandishing a shotgun and gives him both barrels. So begins this gritty slice of sleazy '70s exploitation, which delivers sex, violence and morally dubious characters aplenty as the girls (whose mother was named Bonnie, hence the title) flee their home to start life anew with their uncle Ben, unaware that he is a ruthless crime boss.As drive-in/grindhouse cinema goes, Bonnie's Kids is tough to beat, ticking off many of the ingredients that avid fans of the genre live for: two gorgeous leads in Bolling and jailbait Mattson, both of whom deliver gratuitous nudity; a large bag of dirty cash to tempt the weak; a pusillanimous private eye led astray by a beautiful woman; a pair of hired goons who provide the film with acts of bloody violence; a smattering of lesbianism; and a wonderfully downbeat ending. It's pretty obvious that Quentin Tarantino is a fan, the film clearly serving as inspiration for Pulp Fiction (Does the name Bonnie sound familiar? Do Ben's interracial hitmen, hired to retrieve a valuable package, remind you of anyone? And what about that Butch/Marcellus-style chance encounter in a store that results in shocking violence?). If, like me and QT, your idea of entertainment is watching reprehensible lowlifes living on the edge, this should fit the bill nicely.

Dear Arthur Marks, Bonnie's Kids was a nice piece of erotic entertainment. There isn't much in it except for the scantily dressed Tiffany Bolling and Robin Mattson strutting their stuff. Though I liked the locales too - American highways, motels, gas stations and that large farm.The plot was also mildly interesting. A pair of sisters shack up with an uncle and his lesbian wife after they murder their lecherous step father who could not keep his hands off them. The sisters are desperate to escape their commonplace existence. When a chance to steal her uncle's money during an errand presents itself, the elder sister (the gorgeous Tiffany Bolling) goes for it.There are enough occasions for the ladies to shed their clothes and walk around showing off their legs. There isn't much in terms of dialogues (Robin Mattson's outburst at her lesbian aunt was quite hilarious though) or plot developments. But you kept it tight. There were some interesting characters like the square salesman who tries to court Tiffany. The freewheeling background score is supposed to remind us that it is all just good fun. Nice effort overall, Arthur.Best Regards, Pimpin.(6/10)

I've been watching quite a lot of arty-farty foreign flicks of late... so what better way to chill out and take out a break from all the pretentious posturing, than to take on the sort of movie that would have had the drive ins packed 40 years ago. You have a couple of gorgeous babes, senseless violence throughout, casual racism, rampant homophobia, a ramshackle story which goes in every direction and gratuitous nudity as a given. What more could you ask for?Well, perhaps an ending which will p*ss a lot of people off... GUARANTEED. And maybe they could play the one tune they have on the soundtrack slightly less than every other scene. Other than that, you'll get what you expect. A passable time waster, but don't expect it to be too distracting when y'all smooching with ya babe in the front seat. Don't forget to brush your teeth!! Or at least chew minty gum...... 5/10

Brassy, sharp-witted, take-charge vixen-on-wheels Ellie (leggy, beauteous 70's B-movie perennial Tiffany Bolling at her most trampy and tantalizing) and her adorable, dewy-eyed, flirtatious younger sister Myra (cute, tiny, girlish Robin Mattson, who served her time in such grind-house schlock as "Candy Stripe Nurses" and "Return to Macon County" before moving on to more respectable work in the soap operas "All My Children," "General Hospital," "Ryan's Hope," and "Santa Barbara") are a pair of delectable, no where near as "innocent" as they seem country babes who live in relative squalor with their gross, irritable, lecherous step-dad Charlie (a memorably vile Leo Gordon), a real scuzzbucket who gets blasted by a shotgun-hefting Ellie after he attempts to rape Myra. Ellie and Myra hightail it to the big city and hole up with their wealthy, crooked Uncle Ben (the ever-gruff Scott Brady), who's elbow deep in assorted illegal activities. Ben's shady sleazeball partner Eddie (a sensationally slimy performance from consummate hambone thespian Alex Rocco) and Eddie's equally no-count libidinous pal Digger (a coolly vicious Timothy Brown) hire dopey, wishy-washy private eye Larry Evans (an amiably addle-pated Steve Sandor) to pick up a valuable suitcase full of mucho stolen loot; Ben sends Ellie along to make sure the pick-up goes smoothly. Naturally, Larry and Ellie become an item, acquire the package, and decide to keep the hot cash all for themselves. They hightail it to Mexico. Eddie and Digger give chase.Graced with an appropriately amoral, cold-blooded tone, several suitably mean and jolting plot twists, languorous, but steady pacing, a nice streak of bitch-black humor (Digger and Eddie accidentally blow away the wrong couple at a seedy motel!), and generous offerings of sex, violence and nudity, "Bonnie's Kids" makes for a really enjoyable, fairly surprising and pleasingly junky nickel'n'dime crime melodrama which nicely fits into the then faddish film noir tradition (Bolling in particular makes for a marvelously bitchy and conniving femme fatale). Arthur ("J.D.'s Revenge") Marks' solid direction and the clever script carry the day with commendably brisk, no-frills efficiency, capably abetted by Carson Whitset's funky, insouciant, rumbling jazz score, Robert Charles Wilson's adroit, animated, occasionally leering cinematography (Mattson takes a welcome nude bath at the very start of the picture and Bolling is first seen in an eye-catching rear end sticking up at the camera shot, looking mighty desirable in a tight, clingy hash slinger uniform), a gritty subtext which explores with stark frankness the grim reality concerning greed and betrayal, a wonderfully wicked surprise bummer ending, and top-rate cameos from veteran character actor Max Showalter as a sludgebag traveling salesman and a pre-"Cagney and Lacey" Sharon Gless as a weary greasy spoon waitress. An unjustly neglected little sleeper which was often double-billed with the fantastic "The Candy Snatchers" at drive-ins back in the day.