Bucktown (1975)

As he arrives in Bucktown to attend a funeral, Duke Johnson (Fred Williamson) witnesses an unknown black man getting beat upon by white police officers. It's a sign of things to come, because when Duke tries to go about his business he too has to contend with the corruption and racism that's rife in the town. Not one to back down, with the help of some old friends Duke fights back.
The violent methods used by the retaliatory force doesn't engender sympathy for their cause, it seems like the wronged party is as bad as the group that it fights against, but happily that's something that the script recognises.
As Blaxploitation flicks go, it does the job well-enough, and it doesn't hurt that it boasts Williamson and Pam Grier playing side by side.

3 double standards out of 5

Sheba, Baby (1975)

Private Detective Sheba Shayne (Pam Grier) answers the call to help out her father, a loan company owner who's getting leaned on by rich heavies who want his honest business permanently closed. Armed with a pistol and a pair of ass-kicking boots Sheba goes in blazing, to do what the police won't.
It's Pam in another tough-talking Blaxploitation flick, doing what she did in most of the others that are named after the title lady. With more outfit changes than necessary, she once again looks the part.
The biggest flaw is the editing, which, if tightened, could've helped patch over the lazy timing and acting, and may even have heightened the weak finale.
My favourite part was perhaps Christopher Joy as Walker, the comedy houndstooth-suited, feather-in-the-hat wearing street hustler.

2½ shotgun redecorations of of 5

Friday Foster (1975)

Miss Foster is a magazine fashion photographer who's sent to cover something other than 70s fashions. Whilst there she witnesses a violent assassination attempt on an influential man. Afterwards, aided by a suavely-dressed Yaphet Kotto, she hunts the killer while being similarly hunted by him.
It's certainly not Pam's best work; not quite amateur hour but not far removed either. On the plus side the two leads definitely work well together, Weathers makes a believable villain, Scatman is his usual great self, and the music is memorable. I'd like to have seen more of the police lieutenant (Ed Cambridge) because he was fun. In conclusion, it has the feel of a TV Movie and if not for occasional nudity it'd probably be suitable for Sunday afternoon viewing.

2½ seduction brandies out of 5

The Big Doll House (1971)

We enter the prison alongside three new arrivals who see first-hand how it's run and what life means for the women behind bars: violence and torture.
Pam Grier in a Jack Hill film is more than enough to have me staying for a screening, but Doll House was her first major role and she wasn't quite as impressive as she'd eventually become. It doesn't help that it's not a particularly memorable WiP film, or maybe my standards are set too high having been spoiled by the Japanese entries in the genre.
Pam's contribution to the soundtrack is worthy of praise, though.
Jack Hill regular Sid Haig plays a vital role as a sleazy delivery man.

2½ slippery wrestles out of 5

Fort Apache, the Bronx (1981)

A police drama that’s based on the lives of real policemen but is nevertheless set in a fictionalised version of the South Bronx.
Paul Newman is Murphy, a straight-talking cop who knows that in order to get through the day you sometimes have to let the rules bend, but only so far as they don’t break. A sound judgement is as important as a steady hand.
It’s a standard character-driven film about cops and their daily trials that includes bag-snatchings, drug pushers pushing their trade and their luck, and even a pimp in a fur coat. It’s nothing special, but nor is it any slouch.

3 neighbourhood sights out of 5

Class of 1999 (1990)

Mark L. Lester returned to campus for a spiritual sequel to his Class of 1984 (1982) film, but second time out he went sci-fi.
A Seattle high school secretly installs three military surplus battle droids as tutors with directives that enable them to dish out disciplinary measures on the spot like a less law abiding Robocop. It's a reversal of sorts from 1984; before it was the students who were to be feared, now it's the teachers.
A youth named Cody Culp, a typical young adult anti-hero, steps up to the mark, but Cody's past makes rallying the troops difficult.
The film's more ambitious than '84 and had a budget that wasn't much higher.
It's ironic good fun seeing Malcolm McDowell as a school authority figure.

3½ negative reinforcements out of 5

Black Mama, White Mama (1973)

It’s a typical ‘women in prison’ sexploitation flick for a while with catfights, showers and an aggressive guard with a lady-boner for the prisoners, but it changes to an on-the-run chase movie giving the two very different women their time in the spotlight. The pair, a black hooker and a white revolutionary, are pursued by three different parties as they make their way across an island. It even throws in a Western style shootout to keep things exciting.
The secondary characters have their own opposites and rivalries going on and there’s a well-defined distinction between who deserves our sympathies and who doesn't, even though no one is angelic.
More than the sum of its parts, BM,WM is another great Grier movie.

3½ strong links out of 5

Coffy (1973)

Aptly named. She's black, hot, can keep you up all night or burn you. It's a Blaxploitation revenge thriller that has a few lull moments but overall rarely puts a foot wrong. There are hilarious moments, too (I lost my shit at the pimp's onesie!). The titular female takes an active role doing what the cops won't: putting a stop to the drug pushers that infect the city. It's not for wholly selfless reasons but that doesn't negate the good she does... with a shotgun. There's a lot of nudity but it really doesn't need it, there's enough meat in the script without the need for compensation elsewhere.

4 campaigns out of 5

Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973)

Human jealousy, a sexist lust for power and movie voodoo all combine to bring Prince Mamuwalde back from the dead.
The dark and stormy nights help push to the fore the fact that Scream is as much a vampire film as it is a blaxploitation film and it isn't going to compromise on either aspect. The former is maintained by a number of dramatically creepy and menacing attacks on victims, whereas the latter is achieved perhaps best of all during a hard-hitting scene on the streets when the vampire, again played by William Marshall, meets a couple of pimps.

3 cultural artefacts out of 5

BILL & TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY [1991]

Everybody's favorite dudes from San Dimas are back in director Peter Hewitt's Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, the sequel to the 1989 comedy cult hit.
This time around, the Wyld Stallyns are killed by futuristic robot versions of themselves and must enlist the help of Death to make a most triumphant return to the living.  The two leads are even more comfortable in their roles and it shows, especially if you keep your eye on Bill and all his hilarious mannerisms & gestures.  William Sadler as an Eastern European Grim Reaper steals every scene he's in with his deadpan delivery.  The film is a couple notches darker than it's predecessor and a helluva lot weirder but that's part of it's charm.  There's some incredibly inventive camera-work that's damaged by overly sloppy editing and awkwardly rushed takes.  Casual fans of the original feel this isn't as good, however dedicated fans feel it's even better.

3 heads of the Faith No More Spiritual & Theological Center out of 5

Wilder (2000)

aka Slow Burn

Pam Grier plays a single mom who’s also a Chicago detective, firm but loving towards her kids, tough and uncompromising on the job. When a case involving a dead woman in a suitcase ruins her day she takes aspects from many of her previous roles and rolls them together into something less than the sum of its parts while trying to solve it.
The script attempts a balance of seriousness and light heartened comedy that doesn't quite succeed, but at least it gives the film some kind of identity. The editor tries to spice it up further but the choice of musical accompaniment undoes most of the hard work.

2 overcompensations out of 5

Jackie Brown (1997)

I've seen all but one of Tarantino's films and all but one of those multiple times. From that incomplete selection, JB is the best.
It has the usual long takes heavy with dialogue, but they serve a purpose other than to show off. It’s mature thematically. The storytelling has some twists and turns but it’s not struggling to adhere to the usual gimmickry, perhaps because he didn't write it from scratch (it’s an adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel, Rum Punch (1992)). It spends a long time building up to the pay off, longer than many films run in entirety, if truth be told, but because it’s a story for adults, not just post-pub thrill-seekers with undiagnosed attention deficits, the time invested is rewarded with more than just gunfire and spectacle. Bravo, QT. Bravo.

5 levels set just right out of 5

Foxy Brown (1974)

Jack Hill followed up the successful Coffy (1973) with another blaxploitation flick led by the queen of the genre, Pam Grier. You mess with Foxy’s man and you mess with Foxy, and the last thing you want to do is tangle with her, because she gives as good as she gets. She’ll even go so far as to become a high-class hooker to get revenge on your pale ass.
Buckle yourself in for some “funky”, “dig it” and “right on” violence with occasional bouts of fine comedy to lighten the savage mood.

3 pickles out of 5

Escape from L.A. (1996)

Snake's back! He’s blackmailed into retrieving something from a lame criminal that resembles a boutique Che Guevara.
The political statements and satire are where you’d expect them to be, but something went very wrong with the rest of the film. It’s more comic book than before and the script is so bad that it comes off like a parody of the first film, which is something the last half hour seems to play up to. It'd be easy to pretend otherwise, but the truth is it's not a worthy sequel.

2 shitty modes of transport out of 5

Fortress 2: Re-Entry (2000)

Sequel to the adventurous but ultimately average Fortress (1992). By attempting another escape, John Henry (strictly, still guilty) pokes a metaphorical middle finger up the nose of a tyrannical prison supervisor, but first he must find a way to disable the watchful computer eye.
The question you should be asking yourself now is: wasn't that exactly what happened in the previous film? The answer is yes.
Beneath the futuristic paint job it’s a prison movie by numbers; it even has a day one fight in the dining hall. I hate seeing food wasted.

1½ behaviour modifications out of 5

MARS ATTACKS! [1996]

As much of a hugely unfocused mess Tim Burton's sci-fi comedy Mars Attacks! is, it's still one of my top five favorite films of his.

Inspired by 1960's Topps' trading cards of the same name, the film is more of a homage than a satire of 1950's sci-fi b-movies and 1970's ensemble cast disaster films.  Beneath all the goofiness and scattered chaos is a ruthlessly funny dissection of American society and culture that ultimately hurt it's popularity in the States but was a great success in the rest of the world.  It's colorful, loud, hilarious, tremendously corny and occasionally shocking, all of which makes for one of Burton's craziest films to date.  

3 peace doves of war out of 5

The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)

Pluto Nash. Yup. It’s real. Someone (you know who you are) better laugh it up as much as they can because he’s going to be eating moist kitty litter for giving me this eye-bleeder. Out of respect for his reasons, and to raise my anger to a suitable level whereby I can punish his testicles with nettles without any pangs of remorse, I watched all of it. All. Every bastard bit. My Friday night, ruined. There will be blood and swollen, stinging man parts. It lost the studio over $100 million. Good. That means there won’t be a sequel.

0½ because, amazingly, I've been forced to watch worse out of 5

Ghosts of Mars (2001)

Taken as a whole, GoM isn't very good. The illuminated nights make everything look set-bound even though all exteriors were shot on location. Stath’s single-note action hero style doesn't fit well in the Carpenter world, and Ice Cube lacks any kind of menace. The SFX budget was small and it really shows. The generic, metal chugga-chug guitar stuff is awful.

Conversly, the ambient music is good, Pam Grier is cool and Natasha Henstridge is a perfect fit. There’s a strange, recurring use of a flashback within a flashback, having one character tell the tale of a different character.

The real saving grace is the commentary; I love a Carpenter commentary.

2 bottled teeth out of 5

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

Ray Bradbury is a fine author; his words own the page but they rarely translate well to the screen. (Book Review.)
I first saw SWTWC when I was ten. It made me fear Carnivals and spiders. Looking at it today, it hasn't aged well, although it's still an enjoyable film with an obvious message for young and old. Plus, the diabolic Mr. Dark is forever burned into my memory.
For fans of the author, kids who like to be scared and nostalgic old farts. I am now, or have been, all of those.

3 autumnal nightmares out of 5