p e n g u i n d e v i l

Yes, that’s it. Inspired by browsing through Joe Bob’s Profoundly Disturbing, I decided to check out some classic blaxsploitation that I hadn’t seen in a good long while. As most of what I have of this ilk (aside from the Pam Grier films, which you’ve heard enough about here) is stored away or gone now, so there were slim pickings. This led us to start off with Superfly… Well, basically, it is a dumb piece of hooey. but it has a great soundtrack! The story of a cocaine dealer named Youngblood Priest who has decided that he and his partner should use all of their accumulated money to make one last big score that will make them enough bread to retire for good. Of course, there are some problems with this scheme. The person that he wants to buy the stuff from is retired, his partner doesn’t really want to retire and, of course, the cops are on the take. Which leads to some unforeseen problems. One a personal angle,  some of his women like the idea but some don’t. Regardless, I don’t know how they can be seen with him as his pimpmobile (or I guess it would have to be a flymobile) is a horrid looking contraption.

It terms of the movie, everything is bad: the acting, the dialogue, the film quality. It’s a washed out, badly acted and dumbly scripted thing. The fights scenes are terrible, most folks look like it is their first time on camera and they might be reading from offscreen cue cards. And it is quite boring. But it does have one of the great soundtracks of all time and Curtis Mayfield actually makes an appearance in the film.

They try to make up for the rest of this movie by trying to make the film “hot”, but it comes across as lukewarm. There is an extended bathtub “love” scene that isn’t just dragged on way to long, but it is also played in slow-motion… Which was just a bit to much of not much.

So yes, it may be a classic, but it is a classic of its time and that needs to be kept in mind while watching, as it certainly doesn’t hold much now. Unlike the movie I was actually reading about which led me to watch this, Shaft, made earlier by this director’s father. Oh and, is this supposed to be Superfly or Super Fly?