Killer Babes - DVD

Film: For Kitty, Estelle and Nicolette it's all about who has the most expensive handbag, the most attractive pool boy and the firmest breasts. Perfectionism plays such a big role in the lives of the ladies that they are happy to go under the knife for it. But when Kitty (Brache van Doesburgh) suspects that her husband is cheating on her with a younger woman, the beautiful appearance is threatened. And so there is only one possible solution to the problem: the unfaithful husband must be transported to the afterlife. But that proves to be no easy task, because finding a good hitman alone is a real problem for Kitty and her friends. But by chance, the cuckolded wife gets her hands on the seemingly perfect man for the bloody task. But when, through a chain of unfortunate coincidences, he disposes of Estelle and Nicolette's husbands, he falls into a deep crisis of purpose - and Kitty's husband is still alive.

Killer Babes, the latest film from Flodder director Dick Maas, is a mix of black humor and slapstick, with Maas repeatedly reaching deep into the gag mothballs. A few moments of rather physical comedy are now strained badly - but at times it's still hard to stifle a laugh. But the comedy is only really good when the humour is irreverent and bitter and in this way takes a look at the beauty mania and the consumerist superficialities of high society.

However, the staging is too overdone in many moments, which already starts with the camera perspective, so that even the rather clever gags threaten to drown in flat silliness. But the gag density is relatively high, so that there are always some good laughs that make the viewer forget the rather low-brow jokes for a short time. After all, Dick Maas can't be accused of trying to sell his comedy as more sophisticated than it ultimately is. Rather, he employs even the most flat-out silliness with such relentless matter-of-factness that it's hard not to laugh at it so hard.

In its best moments, Killer Babes feels like the much more evil sisters of Desperate Housewives. The three leads, but most notably Bracha van Doesburgh, known from the comedy Schnitzelparadies, embody the professional luxury wives with obvious fun in the politically incorrect action. They make, coupled with the quite numerous existing successful gags, this black comedy despite all its clear weaknesses to an entertaining pleasure of the somewhat wicked kind!

Picture + Sound: In itself, almost every technical aspect of the DVD could be improved. But the bottom line is that the clean picture, with its decent overall sharpness and good color mixing, and the strong Dolby Digital 5.1 mix are quite satisfying for a comedy like this. Good!

Extras: First, the good news. The DVD of Killer Babes has some intrinsically nice extras to offer. A making of (approx. 23 mins), a behind the scenes look (approx. 9 mins) and a visual effects featurette (approx. 11 mins) are offered to the viewer. The bad news: all extras are only available in the original Dutch soundtrack without subtitles. Too bad!

Conclusion: Killer Babes is an amusing mix of slapstick and black comedy that may not work at every moment, fans of Dick Maas and his flodder humor may well like. The film, which is still in its bravest moments by lengths more evil than the Desperate Housewives, presents itself on DVD in decent quality, only the lack of German subtitles in the extras worth watching in itself disappoints

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp