Gang of Roses

September 2024 · 5 minute read

Female hiphoppers look just plain silly in the new revenge oater, "Gang of Roses." What should have been a comedy is made with such lock-jawed seriousness and literalism that auds laugh -- but at these gun-totin' gals, not with them. One-week theatrical window will close shut fast, followed by quick getaway to dusty vid shelves.

This review was updated on Oct. 14, 2003.

It’s been a long downhill slide from the days when pop stars held their own in Westerns — like Ricky Nelson in “Rio Bravo” — to female hiphoppers looking just plain silly in the new revenge oater, “Gang of Roses.” What should have been a comedy is made with such lock-jawed seriousness and literalism by writer-director Jean Claude La Marre that auds laugh — but at these gun-totin’ gals, not with them. One-week theatrical window will close shut fast, followed by quick getaway to dusty vid shelves.

Related Stories

Icons representing film, music, books and news being connected by AI nodes and lines VIP+

Generative AI & Licensing: A Special Report

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and guest Vice President Kamala Harris during Wednesday’s March 15, 2023 show. Photo: Scott Kowalchyk/CBS ©2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Kamala Harris To Make First Late Night Appearance as Presidential Nominee This Tuesday on 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert'

When gold-hungry crooks gun down the sister of ex-outlaw Rachel (Monica Calhoun), she wants revenge so she straps on her swanky all-leather outfit. Pic then abruptly introduces three other seemingly unrelated Wild West women: Maria (LisaRaye), who’s an ace with a knife; Chastity (rapper Lil’ Kim), who kills her lovers once she tires of them; and Zang Li (Marie Matiko), who loves twirling her six-shooters.

Popular on Variety

Somehow, the trio knows to meet with Rachel — their former bank robbery leader — and hear her pitch on settling her personal score. The enticement is a buried stash of $500,000 in gold.

First, the gang frees Kim (Stacey Dash), a hothead with a pistol, from the gallows (with a bit of help from Mario Van Peebles, in an uncredited, single-shot cameo). Step two is looking fine in an array of bare-midriff outfits while galloping across what clearly appears to be the Paramount Ranch to the beat of a hip-hop number.

Step three is scoping out the competition (led by a ludicrous Bobby Brown as vision-impaired Left Eye Watkins), while Chastity flashes her come-hither looks at the local deputy, Babyface Malone (La Marre).

Hardly a Western genre cliche remains untouched, down to a wooden Indian and a single tumbleweed blowing down a deserted street. The final shootout can’t come soon enough. Full-time thesps in the cast, including Calhoun and LisaRaye, and their rapping co-stars are all equally dreadful, hopelessly tilted toward such modern behavior that it wouldn’t have been jarring to see someone pull a cell phone from their holster.

Few Westerns have looked or sounded phonier, and La Marre’s direction doesn’t even try to spin the genre into a completely hip-hop style, in the way that acid Westerns imposed ’60s drug culture over 19th century America.

Jump to Comments

Gang of Roses

More from Variety

Most Popular

Must Read

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Variety Confidential

A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXF%2Fjp%2BgpaVfp7K3tcSwqmifkaO0brvFZqmoq5WoenJ%2Bj2lsbHBmaIVw