70's black & white

Wow, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I don't think it was this. A landmark of cinema, this film doesn't pull any punches, from the first memorable scene where young Sweetback gets his name, via a bunch of violence, sex and racism, through to the second half which mostly involves running a lot. An Earth Wind and Fire soundtrack, but you won't be hearing any of their hits. One of a kind. .

Barry Newman, man of honour and cool as a cucumber , aided by blind disk jockey Cleavon Little, speeds through a mesmerizing 15 hour road trip from Colorado to San Francisco, seriously p***ing off the state police along the way. Completely brilliant.

"You gonna have a bank roll so big, when you walk down the street, it gonna look like your pockets got the mumps"

Goldy finishes his five year stretch, and decides to make good as a pimp through the well-trod path of rise, revenge and redemption. Never mind the dubious sexual politics and enjoy the funky dialogue.

"Can you dig it?" "Right on....".



Great score by Willie Hutch.

"LAPD-officer-turned-UN-spy, Cleopatra Jones, hooks up with a handsome thief as she tries to keep a diabolical weapon from being used against the UN Secretary General". Well that's a pile of nonsense. Cleopatra Jones, US special agent, heroine and goddess to all fights the baddies (drug barons, dirty cops, Huggy Bear, etc etc) and frees the world of crime. Or something. Either way, you know the storyline is going to involve all your 70's favourites, such as made-fo-TV action sequences, funky outfits and dodgy dialogue. The script and the music aren't a spit on The Mack, but the plot sits easier on 21st century sensibilities and Tamara Dobson is beeeauttiful.... even if she can't fight for toffee.

If you mixed up West Side Story with Scorsese's After Hours, cloned the cast ten times, took out the singing, and hired an imaginative costume designer, you might get something like The Warriors. Did they employ every twenty something unknown male actor in New York that year? The Warriors gang need to make it back home after they're set up for the shooting of the charistmatic, would-be-supergang-leader Cyrus, but every other gang is hot on their heels and out for revenge. A blink-and-you'll- miss-it part for James Spader as the preppie on the metro (I'm sure that was him!)

Top film. Richard Rountree as Humphrey Bogart, PI, quick with the retorts and a hit with the ladeeze. Classic Isaac Hayes score. .

The story is simpler, and the soundtrack (by the director instead of Isaac Hayes) isn't a patch on the original but for his second outing, Shaft still keeps all his charm and his snappy comebacks, as he handles the bad guys, dodgy cops and swooning women. Very entertaining, I liked it.

Pam Grier gets her revenge on the baddies that turned her sister into a drug addict. Plenty of violence, toplessness and girl-power for people who like that kind of thing, and why not. Nice soundtrack by Roy Ayres.

Early blaxploitation film, about a sophisticated drug dealer running One Last Big Deal in order to get out of the life, while partners and corrupt police try to keep him.in. Cheaply made, and oh-so-seventies, wiith one of the greatest soundtracks of all time soaring above the action.

With Julius Harris on board, a Marvin Gaye soundtrack , and John Walton running illegal dice games, this should have been a 99 minute treat. Sadly these delights were counteracted by a leaden script and the completely charisma-free Mr T.
Buy the album instead.

In a neat piece of cinematic symmetry, one-and-a-half-decades before Larry Fishburne as Furious Styles tells his son "any fool with a d**k can make a baby, but only a real man can raise his children" , little Laurence Fishburne III is getting some wisdom on becoming that man from his mom.
Slightly cheesy drama about an accidental police shooting and the moves to cover it up by all and sundry by smearing the innocent victim's reputation. Of its time but still relevant today, and amongst the variable acting talents, Fishburne is a standout.

1970's blaxploitation film which earns an extra star for having the gorgeous Isaac Hayes in it as title role and leading man. Plus it may have been one of his very earliest films but already he's shining with more star power than a bucket fulof galaxies,. Plus there's a great soundtrack by the man himself. Oh, plus he only goes to bed with his girlfriend for a full ninety minutes, notwithstanding the temptations on offer from stables of whores run by the local pimps including a young Commander Uhura and a very young Yaphet Kotto, a full two decades before he gave up a life of crime to run a Homicide department,.
If you like ths genre, check it out, it's a good one.
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Oh, and did I mention Isaac Hayes was in it too?

Shafts third adventure and the plot wouldn't look out of place in a Tintin story, albeit with a much higher body count (if you're a baddy, you're gonna die. Soon). Plus a good ten minutes of gratutious nudity as Shaft gets his kit off to demonstrate his stick fighting skills . But despite these (because of these?) flaws, it's still one entertaining film, largely thanks to Richard Roundtree's natural on-screen charisma and a heap of pretty tunes from the Johnny Pate + The Temptations soundtrack.

Take a whole bunch of lively characters, shove em in a bag, shake em up a bit and then dump em out in a car wash for a day, and this is what you get. Cracking good fun to watch, and of course a killer soundtrack.