On this day in comedy on March 28, 1997 B*A*P*S was released by New Line Cinema
Directed by Robert Townsend and written by Troy Beyer, B.A.P.S stars Halle Berry and Natalie Desselle-Reid as Decatur, Georgia waitresses trying to come up. They want to open up the first combination beauty shop / soul food joint and go to make a music video in Los Angeles, California to raise the money. Since we are talking about Halle Berry (no matter how ghetto they tried to make her look); they instead wind up in Beverly Hills at a sick old millionaire’s mansion helping his butler (Ian Richardson) take care of him and living the life of Black American Princesses (thus the title).
However, the girls are ghetto. They’re not skanks. So once they see how other gold-diggers are trying to financially abuse the old rich guy (Martin Landau), they decide to pump the brakes themselves and look after him on the real. Of course when he finally dies he leaves them half his money. So they were ghetto, but not ‘ignant’.
B.A.P. S. features comedians Bernie Mac, Faizon Love, Rudy Ray Moore, Pierre and Anthony Johnson. It was panned by critics and audiences were too enthusiastic either. The film grossed a grand total of $7,338,279 on a $10 million budget, but we are talking about Halle Berry. She got nominated for Best Actress by the Acapulco Black Film Festival.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
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