'B.A.P.S.' offers glamour, cheese to saps

The next scariest thing to Chris Farley in a tight Ninja suit has arrived in Beverly Hills - complete with gold teeth, big funky hair and an in-your-face attitude.

REVIEW
	B.A.P.S. At Showcase

Halle Berry and Natalie Desselle star in "B.A.P.S.," (Black American Princesses), a Robert Townsend comedy about two girls from Georgia who head for Glamour Town with a dream as big as their hearts.

Nisi and Mickey (Berry and Desselle) have always wanted to open the world's first establishment that combines a soul food restaurant with a hair salon.

When a chance to audition for a music video and win big money comes up, the two friends drop everything to jump on a plane to Los Angeles.

Through a turn of events, they flop at the auditions but are offered a job at a Beverly Hills mansion belonging to an aging millionaire (Martin Landau). As they live large and have the time of their lives, they soon discover their involvement in a plot to extort money from the kindly old man.

"B.A.P.S." is a film that starts out loud and abrasive - and ready to go straight to video. The movie opens with Nisi and Mickey at their jobs in a diner, serving greasy grits with their tacky press-on nails. Soon they hook up with their good-for-nothing boyfriends who look like pimps straight out of a '70s blaxploitation flick. All of this gives you the feeling that "B.A.P.S." is a blatant parody of some other black comedies that feed on stereotypes.

As the first half tackled the subject of two opposite stereotypes meeting in a head-on crash, the second part of the film deals with true love gained and lost.

Though extremely sappy and unrealistic at times, the end of the film is inspirational and touching. Through the old man who lost his true love, the girls learn about what is important in life. Their final epiphany will either cause tears to flow in the audience, or widespread groans because of the overdramatization.

Halle Berry goes from a rich man's wife to a rich man's house guest with eccentric fashion taste. She plays her character Nisi well, but her immense amount of talent makes her stick out like a sore thumb in this film.

"B.A.P.S." starts off as a stupid ridicule of two extreme cultures that are widely stereotyped, but it transforms itself into a sweet story about love and life.

So the only advice that I can give about "B.A.P.S." is this: To enjoy this movie, which is Beyond All Plausibility, you'd better Bring A lot of Patience.

Natalie Desselle and Halle Berry are B.A.P.S.

04-11-97