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B*A*P*S
BAP*S
Directed by	Robert Townsend
Written by	Troy Beyer
Produced by	Jay Stern
Starring	Halle Berry; Martin Landau
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release date	March 28, 1997
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10,000,000[citation needed]
Box office	$7,338,279

B*A*P*S is a 1997 comedy film written by Troy Beyer, directed by Robert Townsend, and starring Halle Berry and Martin Landau.

Plot[edit]

B.A.P.S is a comedy where two African American women go from poor to rich.Nisi (Halle Berry) and Mickey (Natalie Desselle-Reid) are waitresses in a soul food diner in Decatur, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta). Their dream is to open the world's first combination hair salon and soul food restaurant.

To accumulate start-up money, they audition for a music video in Los Angeles. Through an unusual turn of events, they end up assisting a Beverly Hills butler and caring for an aging millionaire who welcomes them into his mansion. They become Black American Princesses (BAPs) "livin' large and takin' charge!" amongst the rich and famous.

They soon find themselves in the middle of a plot to milk the millionaire of his fortune. Nisi, is the big dreamer of the two and likes to dance. While at work she sees on the television that a rapper is having a call-out for dancers to come out and try out to be in his video.Nisi sees this and gets distracted easily. When the ladies get off of work they see their boyfriends who were supposed to pick them up from work. These two are also dreamers and suprisingly the girls are tired of it. When the girls get home Nisi is doing Mickey's hair and another dream comes out. Nisi and Mickey want to open up a hair and chicken salon. While they're talking about their dreams and going out to the club, on the television another commercial about the rappers video tryout comes on. While doing Mickey's hair Nisi then sees over Mickey's shoulder in a magazine another ad; she then takes this all in as a sign to go. After doing Mickey's hair Nisi convinces her to agree to go to California.The girls then head out to the club. When the girls arrive to the club, two men ask them if they wanted a drink, the girls say yes awnd head to the bar with them. At the bar the guys order the girls beer but when it was time to pay they wanted the girls to do so. The girls, disgusted start to walk away and when they do grabs Nisi, and her boyfriend comes to the rescue. The boyfriends then ask the girls if they want a drink and make the sme mistake of not wanting to pay, this makes the girls mad and they break up with them. The break up pushes Nisi even more to want to leave and go to California for the audition.^[2]

After coming together with all the money, they had they take a trip out to California. When they get there they go to the audition and it was horrible for Nisi. When they leave the audition a man approaches them saying that he has an opportunity for them to make money. They then leave with this man; when they arrive at their destination they arrive to the Blakemore residents. When they go into the house they are welcomed by the nephew of Mr. Blakemore, who wants to hire Nisi to pretend to be the granddaughter of a women that Mr. Blakemore was in love with. After thinking, the girls agree because of all the money that they would get. The girls and Mr. Blakemore bonded right away. He took them shopping, out to dinner, and let them cook for him. Soon after they were close to Mr. Blakemore the nephew’s ultimate plan comes out. His plan in the beginning was to set the girls up to look as if Mr. Blakemore was using the girls for something that he wasn’t. He claimed that he was suing his uncle for spending their family money on the girls. The lawsuit against Mr. Blakemore did not go through and the girls were stuck there acting.^[3] The girls decided the best thing to do was to tell Mr. Blakemore everything but when they went to tell it wasn’t the right time. They then continued to hang with Mr. Blakemore, and he started to call them B.A.P.S, which stands for Black American Princesses. The girls and Mr. Blakemore became very good friends, along with the butler. Aside from all the drama with the Blakemores, Nisi was still going through it with her boyfriend, as to whom she continued to argue with over the phone. The butler sees this and calls both girls boyfriend to come out. In the end on the movie, Mr. Blakemore dies, and the girls get back with their boyfriends. The girls also were given money from Mr. Blakemore and they were able to open their dream shop and help their boyfriend’s start their business. ^[4]

Cast[edit]

Halle Berry — Nisi
Martin Landau — Mr. William Blakemore
Ian Richardson — Manley
Natalie Desselle-Reid — Mickey
Troy Beyer — Tracy Shaw
Luigi Amodeo — Antonio
Jonathan Fried — Isaac
Pierre Edwards — Ali
Anthony Johnson — James
Bernie Mac — Mr. Johnson
Faizon Love — Tiger J
Rudy Ray Moore — Nate

Awards and nominations[edit]

1998 Acapulco Black Film Festival

Best Actress — Halle Berry (nominated)

Themes[edit]

The main themes of B.A.P.S are love and greed. Love is brought to spotlight to the girls throughout the movie. Mr. Blakemore shares his love and they have their boyfriends who love them. The nephew in the movie displays the most form of greed. The nephew let money greed come between him and his family.

Perception Preview[edit]

Top Critique on the rotten tomato, from the USA Today says "It's the kind of movie they don't make anymore -- and when they did, it was at the bottom of the bill after onscreen ads for local merchants." Robert Ebert from the Chicago Sun-times states that "Jaw-droppingly bad, a movie so misconceived I wonder why anyone involved wanted to make it." The review were both positive and negative toward the movie, they either applauded the acting and humor portrayed or they talked down on the humor. ^[5]|}}