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.

"Bonnie's Kids" is – plain and simply put – one of the absolute greatest and most entertaining exploitation movies to have emerged from the entire 70s decade; period! This movie is a totally bonkers and exhilarating thrill ride from start to finish and, with a little bit of crazy imagination, you could even state that this is bizarrely unhinged fairy-tale! Two beautiful young "princesses" named Ellie & Myra, sisters and daughters of the infamous Bonnie who's dead even before the movie begins and only referred to verbally, live with their violent and abusive stepfather. When he attempts to assault Myra, Ellie blasts him away with her shotgun and hides the body in the cellar. The two girls subsequently go on the road and head for El Paso, where they plan to live with their dubious Uncle Ben; owner of a nudie magazine and a notorious crime boss on the side. While young Myra develops a special bond with Ben's frustrated and oppressed lesbian wife Diana, Ellie gets asked by her uncle to do an errand. She has to go and pick up a package from the private detective that her uncle's henchmen have recruited, but she and Larry fall in love and discover that the package contains a gigantic amount of money in cash! They intend to keep the money, but find themselves relentlessly pursued by Ben's henchmen. Admittedly, this brief description makes the film sound rather ordinary but I guarantee that this isn't the case! The 105 minutes of running time are literally chock-full of versatile events that are alternately comical (the sleazy salesman) and brutish (the nihilistic killing of the young motel couple), as well as plenty of road-movie styled action and sleazy coming-of-age themes. But the most remarkable thing about "Bonnie's Kids" is undoubtedly the colorful cast of characters! Every single character is unique, and yet they all have something in common: every character – from the two protagonist girls to the most insignificant supportive role - is a totally amoral and self-centered individual. Myra doesn't care about anybody but herself and shamelessly uses her luscious young body to discover life, while Ellie quickly profiles herself as a stone cold and carnivorous killer bee. Then you have Ben's two goons Eddy and Digger, respectively played by exploitation veteran Alex Rocco and the Afro-wearing Timothy Brown. Like another reviewer already cleverly pointed out, it might very well be that Quentin Tarantino modeled his legendary characters Vincent and Jules (John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson) from "Pulp Fiction" after these two! Their looks and personal behaviors are similar, but they also spend their days chatting in their car, sipping drinks in cheap diners and ruthlessly executing people when necessary! Considering Tarantino's well-known taste in movies, I'm 200% convinced that "Bonnie's Kids" is a beloved favorite of his. Writer/director Arthur Marks was particularly specialized in Blaxploitation cinema and directed a handful of them ("J.D's Revenge", "Bucktown", "Friday Foster"…) but "Bonnie's Kids" is undeniably his best work: a fantastically deranged, unscrupulous, energetic and insanely imaginative exploitation masterpiece! *edit: I just read in the trivia section that Tarantino is indeed a tremendous fan of this film and even paid tribute to it in "Pulp Fiction" by naming one of the segments "The Bonnie Situation". I didn't even think of that!

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.

For small-fry entertainment, you can't beat BONNIE'S KIDS...it's clever, briskly paced, and sexy as Hell. Ambitiously played by a cast of highly capable performers, all of whom should have been better utilized in Hollywood, this unassuming little offering stands as one of the crown jewels of 70s drive-in fodder. Noir-ish story revolves around a pair of gorgeous young sisters who are determined to get ahead no matter who gets screwed in the process. When a private detective comes round to deliver a "special package" to one of the girls, things really start cookin'...a crime story with more flurried excitation, concupiscent titillation, and shifty maneuvers than a Crisco coated Naked Twister marathon. On a scale of 1-10, BONNIE'S KIDS gets a solid 8.5...right up there with THE CANDY SNATCHERS as a sleazy must-see classic.