`B.A.P.S.' TRUMPETS MODERN, FEMALE `AMOS 'N' ANDY'.

Byline: Joe Baltake Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

Robert Townsend's ``B.A.P.S.'' starts out excruciatingly, with an image of young African-American women that's borderline racist, but then it manages the feat of traveling to the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

Going from one extreme to the other, it ends on a sickeningly sentimental note. What starts out as one film - a modern, female variation on the old antics of ``Amos 'n' Andy'' - mutates into a sedate sitcom about wealth.

Luckily, ``B.A.P.S.'' has a middle section that redeems it, a long stretch that uses fantasy elements to promote good race relations. True, the basic message of the movie is a highly dubious one. It says that money can buy anything, even good relationships between people of different races and economic backgrounds. But the film gets by on the sheer positivity of this notion.

Miraculously, it isn't offensive - at least, not that middle section.

The title stands for Black American Princesses, and the film chronicles the journey of two homegirls from Decatur, Ga., to the luxury of Los Angeles.

Nisi (Halle Berry) and Mickey (Natalie Desselle in her film debut) are best friends, sort of like Laurel and Hardy. Nisi is tall and slender, while Mickey is short and fat. Nisi's a blonde and Mickey's hair could be called performance art. It has a life of its own.

They each sport several gold teeth.

Loud and extreme, they make a scene wherever they go and, by the second or third scene in the movie, they end up in Hollywood. They plan to audition for a music video and use their earnings to open a combination soul-food restaurant and beauty parlor. Their first day there, they get ``discovered'' by a guy who's a professional nephew (Jonathan Fried) who wants Nisi to pose as the daughter of his aging uncle's former girlfriend. She'll get $10,000.

The old man, Mr. Blakemore (Oscar winner Martin Landau), is dying, but he's filthy rich and, of course, the whole thing is a plot to scam him out of his money. Mixing elements from Garry Marshall's ``Pretty Woman'' (1990) and John Landis' ``Trading Places'' (1983), the film is about how the two young women respond to their new, monied environment and tone down in no time flat.

As they get more conventional hairdos and wardrobes and lose those gold teeth, they come to deeply care for the old guy. And he comes to love them.

All of this is very nice, but there's something deeply offensive about how embarrassed the film is by Nisi and Mickey, how it has no empathy or understanding of their lifestyle and behavior (which are as valid as anyone else's) and how quick it is to make them, well, white.

Not only does the film renovate the girls, but also their old boyfriends from back home. The guys get haircuts and suddenly become more sensitive.

Surprisingly, it's easy to ignore all of these negatives because Berry and Desselle have conjured such endearing creations and have such terrific rapport, not only with each other but also with Landau and especially with Ian Richardson, who steals the film as Landau's butler, Manley.

Townsend, who was one of the original leaders of the New Wave in African-American filmmaking, seems to have lost the independent edge that he brought to his breakthrough film, ``Hollywood Shuffle'' (1987).

It's not so much that ``B.A.P.S.'' is evidence of a dumbing down by Townsend. It's much worse than that. It exposes a sad lack of empathy.

THE FACTS

The film: ``B.A.P.S.'' (PG-13; some mild violence).

The stars: Halle Berry, Martin Landau, Ian Richardson and Natalie Desselle.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Robert Townsend. Written by Troy Beyer. Produced by Mark Burg and Loretha Jones. Photographed by Bill Dill. Edited by Patrick Kennedy. Music by Stanley Clarke. Released by New Line Cinema.

Running time: One hour, 33 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two Stars.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Ian Richardson, left, plays the butler to Martin Landau's rich man who is the target of a scam in Robert Townsend's new film, ``B.A.P.S.''