an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

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.

It may be a bit hard to fathom why this is called "Bonnie's Kids" when the mother character "Bonnie" is dead before the movie even starts and does not appear at all, even in flashbacks. But this is no doubt a reference to the movie "Bonnie and Clyde" which this film at times certainly resembles. Two sisters are living with their drunken, brutish stepfather after the death of their prostitute mother. The older sister (Tiffany Bolling) catches the stepfather trying to molest the younger sister(Robin Mattson) and shoots him dead. The two go on the lam and end up at the home of an uncle, who owns a fashion magazine, but (rather incongruously) is also a vicious gangster on the side. The older sister goes to pick up a "package" for the uncle from a dimwitted private detective. They fall for each other and when they discover the "package" is a large amount of cash, they flee with it with two of the uncle's dangerous associate (Alex Rocco, Timothy Brown ) in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, the younger sister is seducing practically everyone in her uncle's household from his studly gardener to his lonely lesbian wife. The ending makes the finale of "Bonnie and Clyde" seem positively cheery by comparison.This movie has a real early 70's atmosphere of bleak pessimism to it, much like "The Candy Snatchers", another cult film of that era starring Bolling. It isn't just the downbeat ending though, but the fact that ALL the characters are totally amoral and unsympathetic, even the supposed heroines. The two sisters are more than willing to use their sexy bodies to get what they want and they seem completely untroubled by morals or basic human feelings. After convincing him to steal the money, the older sister is perfectly willing to betray her private detective beau and run off with a lecherous traveling salesman to save her own skin. The younger sister, meanwhile, is even more callous: she drives one of her lovers to suicide and then just laughs when she discovers the body. In the end, she doesn't even seem to care about the fate of her older sister.These sexy but totally unsympathetic heroine roles were pretty much the specialty of Tiffany Bolling. So, not surprisingly, she's pretty good here. This is one of Mattson's first movies, but she would go on to a brief exploitation career (i.e. "Candy Stripe Nurses"), and a much longer career in American television. In way she almost manages to "out-Bolling" Bolling here. She was still pretty young when she did this role, but nevertheless men (and lesbians) everywhere will no doubt be thankful that they don't have a malicious temptress like THIS for a stepdaughter. Director Arthur Marks, who also produced "The Candy Snatcher" would go on to do a couple influential "blaxploitation" movies ("Detroit 9000", "J.D.s Revenge"). I can't say this movie will fit everyone's taste, but one things for sure--they don't make 'em like this anymore.

This is a thoroughly entertaining 1970's sleazy crime film - where desperate people do desperate things for sex and money. The clothes, the music, the lingo, the hair styles - a great time capsule of the early 70's. The curious thing is the movie has some real interesting quirks to it - one being a "salt and pepper" hit team - white guy, black guy who spend a lot of time walking hallways, sitting in a car, sitting in diners and talking about this and that - very much like Travolta and Jackson in "Pulp Fiction". Now, is THIS film the first to have such a hit team - probably not. But in the theatre midnight movie showing I saw it at - many people were shouting out the "Pulp Fiction" similarities. Hmmmm. Just like many people bring up the jewel robbery in the powerful Asian crime film "City On Fire" as the "inspiration" for the jewel robbery in "Reservoir Dogs". Hmmmm. Anyway, the movie of "Bonnie's Kids" is a blast - good and gritty and Alex Rocco (Moe Green in the Godfather and the Emmy-winning sleazy agent in the short-lived comedy Famous Teddy Z) is the white guy assassin.

I remember seeing this movie on a triple bill with "Policewomen" and "Superchick". "Bonnie's Kids" was typical drive-in fare; lots of killings, lesbianism, rebellious teens, self-absorbed/hedonistic pleasures; about the only topic it didn't touch was getting high. One thing that always bothered me about this movie: What was the cash for? Drugs? Blackmail? Extortion? Protection? Funny Money? That in itself should've merited a sequel! The other notable thing was that NOBODY in this "epic" (I use the term loosely) went on to bigger success. The intro indicates that this was Robin Mattson's first film, whoever she is!On a scale of 1-10...hmmm...maybe a 7.25.