Soul Cinema

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka

From Keenan Ivory Wayans, the man who brought us Jim Carrey (initially just one of the bunch on Wayans's television comedy-sketch show, In Living Color), comes I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), a comedy spoof on the blaxploitation films of the 1970s. Wayans plays Jack Spade, an army private just returning from the service. He comes home to find his younger brother June Bug dead of a overdose of gold chains (an "O.G.") He vows revenge, and with the help of some of the neighborhood's old school heroes including Flyguy (Antonio Fargas), Kung Fu Joe (Steve James), Hammer (Isaac Hayes), Slammer (football star Jim Brown), and John Slade (Bernie Casey), Spade wages a war against Mr. Big, the neighborhood crime lord.

In the tradition of Airplane! and Naked Gun, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka pokes fun through satire and offensive comedy. The film also features some of the players that would end up on In Living Color and has appearances from such varied actors as Clarence Williams III, Eve Plumb (better known to most as Jan Brady), and Chris Rock as a rib-joint customer. --Shannon Gee

A hilarious Soul Cinema send-up, this ultra-slick, urban action comedy blows 70's blaxploitation movies right out of the 'hood! Featuring the very funny Wayans family (Keenen, Damon and Kim), Bernie Casey, Antonio Fargas, Isaac Hayes, Jim Brown, Ja'net DuBois, David Alan Grier, Kadeem Hardison and Chris Rock, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka is a perfect "mixture of nostalgia, silliness and genuinely unpredictable humor" (The New York Times). Jack Spade, a goody-goody war hero with medals for short-hand, returns to the ghetto to discover that his brother, Junebug, has OG'd (Over-Golded on jewelry). Jack swears revenge against the local gang boss, Mr. Big, and sets off to enlist an army of Shaft, Superfly and Black Caesarlook-a-likes, that is. They don't come easy, cheap or youngbut they do have nice clothes and enough firepower left in them to practically destroy Mr. Big's Big Brim Bar where the bad guys wearyou guessed itbig hats!

Cooley High

Cooley High has frequently been compared to American Graffiti, and for good reason. Like that classic, Cooley High has a loose, multicharacter structure, autobiographical origins, and the rich texture of its time. Set in Chicago in 1964, the movie follows aspiring writer Preach (Glynn Turman) and local basketball star Cochise (Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs, who went on to star in Welcome Back, Kotter) as they wander their neighborhood, drifting in and out of their classes at Cooley Vocational High School. The two friends pull pranks, crash parties, commit petty crimes, and generally try to enjoy their lives in an impoverished urban environment. Preach falls in love with a smart girl named Brenda (Cynthia Davis), whom he wins over by reciting poetry--leading to one of the silliest and sweetest love scenes you'll ever see. When Preach and Cochise go on a joy ride with a pair of young hoods, they end up arrested. Their history teacher, Mr. Mason (a superb Garrett Morris), gets them off, but the hoods think the boys sold them out and come seeking revenge. Cooley High depicts the rough life of African Americans in the 1960s with honesty and humor, offering no easy solutions or pat lessons. It's a roughly made movie, but Turman and Jacobs are both excellent, and there's an attention to reality that makes it engaging, refreshing, and ultimately moving. The soundtrack is a great compilation of 1960s soul, including the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, and Smokey Robinson. An unjustly neglected film that deserves rediscovery. --Bret Fetzer

Black high school seniors and their adventures in the early 1960s.
Genre: Feature Film Urban Drama
Rating: PG
Release Date: 1-MAY-2001
Media Type: DVD

Coffy

In the opening minutes of Coffy, Pam Grier's star-making role, she blasts the skull of a sleazy drug pusher into pulp like a watermelon and shoots his junkie assistant with an overdose of heroin. Jack Hill knows how to open a movie, and he never lets up on the down-and-dirty action. Coffy is an emergency room nurse by day and vigilante by night, targeting the dealers who made her sister a comatose junkie. She works her way up to the Italian mobsters muscling into the ghetto drug trade while she's romanced by glib, smooth-talking politician Booker Bradshaw and wooed by nice-guy cop William Elliot, whose refusal to sell out to the corrupt force earns him a crippling beating.

There's plenty of sex, a catty girl-fight that leaves the losers topless, and car chases and shootouts galore, but what makes Coffy a blaxploitation classic is Grier's Amazonian presence and fiery charisma, and the gritty, low-budget action scenes marked by visceral, wincing violence. Mob strong-arm Sid Haig (Spider Baby) cackles while dragging his victim (a strutting peacock pimp played by Nashville's Robert DoQui) behind a speeding car in a sadistic lynching, and Grier runs down one bad guy with a speeding car and takes care of another with a shotgun to the groin. Hill had previously directed Grier in The Big Doll House and The Big Bird Cage. Their next and last picture together, Foxy Brown, was originally written as the sequel to Coffy. --Sean Axmaker

She's the ultimate tough and sexy heroine. She's Soul Cinema superstar Pam Grier and whether delivering her justice with a shotgun a razor or just her bare hands she doesn't miss a beat in this "smashing no-holds-barred tale of retaliation" (Variety)! Nobody ever commandeered the screen quite like Pam Grier...and Coffy "couldn t be better! [It's] one of the most entertaining movies ever made"(Quentin Tarantino)!Grier is Coffy nurse by day and avenging angel by night. When she discovers that her little sister has been doped up and freaked out by a greedy drug pusher she not only puts an end to his miserable days but she vows to follow his trail of corruption up to the top the very top. But what Coffy doesn't realize is that all is not as it seems and that the leafy green behind the pushers' scene just may come from someone she knows!System Requirements:Running Time: 90 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 027616857835 Manufacturer No: 1001463

Cotton Comes To Harlem

One of the most influential Soul Cinema pix ever to shoot onto the screen Cotton Comes To Harlem spawned the blaxploitation boom by delivering a "refreshingly different detective action yarn with soul and humor" (Cue) and an unbeatable mix of "fast-paced adventure [and] comic lunacy" (Pacific Film Archive). Detectives "Gravedigger" Jones (Godfrey Cambridge) and "Coffin Ed" Johnson (Raymond St. Jacques) are on the case and in everyone's face when they investigate Rev. Deke O'Malley (Calvin Lockhart) a brother whose "Back To Africa" campaign is nothing more than a big scam for bigga' bucks. But when $87000 of O'Malley's laundered cash gets stashed in a bail of cotton Gravedigger and Coffin find they're not the only dudes suddenly interested in soaring cotton prices! Trailing the bale all over Harlem the detectives come up against the mafia the police black militants and more in an all-out dash to nab the $87000 cash and to 86 anyone who stands in the way!System Requirements:Running Time: 96 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 027616857842 Manufacturer No: 1001464

Based on Chester Himes's novel, this film marked actor-writer Ossie Davis's directing debut. Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques play Himes's volatile police detectives, Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, who are on the trail of white men who pulled an armed stickup at a Back to Africa rally in Harlem. The money belongs to the poor people who paid for a chance to return to the motherland--but was it really a stickup? Or is the flashy preacher at the center of the Back to Africa movement (Calvin Lockhart) involved in a scam to rip off his own people? The plot drags; the best part of the film are the performances (as well as spotting cameos by such actors as the then-unknown Cleavon Little) and the on-location shooting in parts of New York where a camera had rarely ventured previously. Redd Foxx shows up in a small part as a ragpicker that led to his role in TV's Sanford and Son. --Marshall Fine

Black Caesar

Shot on the streets of New York, writer-director Larry Cohen captures the bustle and color of the city in this violent, low-budget crime film. Ambitious Tommy Gibbs (a swaggering, self-confident Fred Williamson) has risen from shoeshine boy to Harlem crime lord, but he wants a bigger piece of the pot. With a racist, high-ranking cop (Art Lund) in his pocket, he begins his expansion with a bloody takeover bid but finds himself betrayed from within and the target of both the cops and the mob. Cohen invests this fast-paced tale (partially inspired by the 1930 gangster classic Little Caesar with a touch of Scarface) with colorful characters (notably a hustling religious leader played by D'Urville Martin), high energy, and a scruffy style. Black Caesar is one of the most entertaining movies to come from the 1970s explosion of low-budget black cast genre pictures, more commonly known as "blaxploitation" films. --Sean Axmaker

Fred Williamson is imposing tough and unflappable (The New York Times) as a street kid who muscles his way into the big-time mob racket in this super-slick crime drama which became the smash hit of its genre and spawned a successful sequel (Hell Up In Harlem). Tommy Gibbs (Williamson) has always had it tough. Growing up on the streets without a father and trying to make his mother proud Tommy resorts to running errands for The Man. But when a crooked cop beats him up Tommy realizes there s a better way to live: by making The Man deliver for him! Infiltrating -- and then destroying -- the infamous Cardoza family Tommy takes over Manhattan as the first black Godfather and puts the squeeze on anyone who dares to get in his way -- including the crooked cop! But as he tightens his grip on others he loses his hold on the most important things in his own life making him the vulnerable target of every cutthroat gangster who ever dreamt of ruling an empire!System Requirements: Running Time 94 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 027616857811 Manufacturer No: 1001461

Sheba, Baby

Pam Grier combines big guns and fantastic '70s outfits in Sheba, Baby. After roughly 4,000 establishing shots of Chicago in the opening credits, private eye Sheba Shayne (Grier) immediately heads to Louisville, where thugs are leaning on her father's business, trying to get him to sell out. The police, alas, are no help, but never fear--Sheba is the kind of private dick who doesn't shy away from dunking a man's face in toxic chemicals to get the information she needs. She soon finds herself going head-to-head with a crime lord named Pilot, and the butt kicking begins. Sheba, Baby offers giant ties, big guns, and a firefight on speedboats, and yes, of course there's a catfight. Mandatory viewing. --Ali Davis

Super sexy soul sister Pam Grier (Jackie Brown) is hotter than dynamite in a role she fills with fiery determination. Proving she's cool, tough and glamorousa female fantasy Wonder Woman (Los Angeles Times), Grier delivers a riveting, gutsy performance in this hard-hitting thriller that leaps from one death-defying scene to the next. Sheba Shayne is a private eye summoned to her hometown to help her father stop the mob from moving in on his loan business. But she gets too close to the fire, narrowly escaping the blast of a car bomb. Gunning for justice, Sheba vows to take revenge. Packing a .44 Magnum, a machine gun and a couple of surprises that will blow the bad guys away, she leaves a blazing trail of blood in her wake and puts the mob on the defensive until she's duped into an ingenious plot that could flatten her curves forever.

Black Mama, White Mama

Pam Grier in a women-in-prison movie? Why did no one think of this sooner? OK, they did. Several times. But this one is different. Black Mama, White Mama is a bizarre update of The Defiant Ones with a little Cool Hand Luke and Chained Heat thrown in for good measure. Grier stars as Lee Daniels, a pimp-and-drug-lord's moll who's looking for a way to escape both prison and her thug boyfriend. The dynamic Margaret Markov ably backs her as rich-girl-turned-revolutionary Karen Brent. The two meet in the friendliest Third World prison ever (Tickling games in the shower! What girlish fun!), and before you can say catfight they're chained together at the wrist. A quick prison break later, our feisty ladies are being chased all over the undefined tropical island by the police, revolutionaries, and dueling pimps. Director Jonathan Demme shares the story credit for this one, and his craftsmanship shows--Black Mama, White Mama hits every mandatory facet of the genre, including butt kicking, gunfire, an Evil Lesbian Prison Guard, gratuitously scanty clothing, and dressing up as nuns. Absolutely not to be missed. --Ali Davis

"A genre all by herself" (Voice), Pam Grier tacklesand shacklesher sleekest role yet as the feistier half of a pair of women in chains and on the run in this "colorful, outrageous and truly exciting" action flick (The Hollywood Reporter)! Grier is Lee Daniels, a prostitute doing hard time in an island prison camp for women where the guards have a new way to punish inmates who fight: by cuffing 'em together! Chained to her bitter rival, white revolutionary Karen (Margaret Markov), Lee finds herself literally linked to the revolutionary causeand on the flywhenKaren's guerrilla friends stage a coup! But this foxy inmate's got a cause of her own in the form of a secret stash of cold, hard cash and a getaway boat! Brawling with her white counterpart over which way to go, and tracked like a dog by guards, guerrillas and a gangster after the loot, she's gotta make her escapebefore both mamas' enemies bring them down for good!

Original Gangstas

Larry Cohen scratched out some of the most memorably offbeat exploitation films of the 1970s, including two of the most energetic blaxploitation action classics: Black Caesar and its sequel, Hell Up in Harlem, which made a star of Fred Williamson. In 1996 they reunited for this tribute to the good old days and producer-star Williamson brought along a few of his fellow 1970s blaxplo icons: Jim Brown (Slaughter), Pam Grier (Foxy Brown), Richard Roundtree (Shaft), and Ron O'Neal (Superfly). They play old friends and former members of a neighborhood gang in economically depressed Gary, Indiana, who reunite when a new generation of gangbangers using their old street name, the Rebels, turns the city into a war zone. It's great fun to see the old faces back on the screen--Williamson is still buff and tough, and Brown and Grier have become more charismatic with age--but they're let down by a slack script and lazy direction despite an almost nonstop barrage of gunfights and back-alley brawls. Even with revved-up 1990s firepower, the film never really captures the explosive energy of the films that made their reputations. You're better off seeing the originals. Paul Winfield and Isabel Sanford also star, and Cohen casts cult faves Charles Napier, Wings Hauser, and Robert Forster in supporting roles. --Sean Axmaker

The biggest and baddest stars of Soul Cinema, Fred Williamson (Black Caesar), Jim Brown (Slaughter), Pam Grier (Foxy Brown), Ron O'Neal (Superfly) and Richard Roundtree (Shaft) return to the genre that made them famous in this "big, brassy, overblown, pyrotechnic valentine" (Entertainment Today)! Also featuring Isabel Sanford ("The Jeffersons") as Bookman's mother, this all-new, all-action tale of slick, ten-fisted retribution "delivers as generous a measure of sensational entertainment as any of the Shaft or Superfly pictures of a generation ago" (Long Beach Press-Telegram). Williamson is Bookman, a former hood who made it to the big time with his smooth football moves. But when the gang he founded back in his hometown starts shooting up the wrong peopleincluding his fatherhe returns to the old turf, rounds up some of his own posse and begins an all-out street war to return the neighborhood to its rightful state of justice!

The Monkey Hustle

From the director of Friday Foster and J. D. s Revenge comes a free-wheelin fast-dealin look at life in the ghetto Chicago style. Filled with comedy fantasy and a cast of unforgettable characters The Monkey Hustle is a fast funny and downright funky film that has it all and a little more! Everybody s got a scam goin on in this small Chicago hood but nobody s got it goin quite like Daddy Foxx (Yaphet Kotto). He s so smooth he teaches Flim-Flam 101 how to score scam jimmy and jam and get over on anyone! But when a new expressway threatens to express its way through their turf Foxx and all the other monkey hustlers have to band together or the only place left to do their deeds will be between six stripey lines on a blacktop!System Requirements:Running Time: 90 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG UPC: 027616901552 Manufacturer No: 1005926

Friday Foster

Pam Grier is Friday Foster, a photographer's assistant at a glamour magazine assigned to cover the secret arrival of a reclusive black millionaire (Thalmus Rasula). "Just get your cute little behind out there and take your little pictures and goddammit don't get involved!" Of course she does: The scene erupts into an attempted assassination, and Friday digs up a conspiracy that reaches to Washington, D.C., and involves sassy, flamboyant fashion designer Eartha Kitt, lascivious but good-at-heart minister Scatman Crothers, and a powerful black congressman. Yaphet Kotto costars as a good-natured P.I. she tags along as a sidekick and bodyguard, and Carl Weathers makes a strong impression as a silent but deadly hit man systematically silencing potential witnesses. The script feels more like a comic book than a movie (it was inspired by a newspaper comic strip), with Grier playing Friday as a plucky, resourceful amateur, stealing cars and stalking killers armed with nothing but a fully loaded camera. She's better as the street-smart pistol-packin' mamas of Coffy and Foxy Brown, but still commands the screen every minute she's on. Arthur Marks fills the film with shootouts and (rather bland) car chases, but the highlights are an assassination by garbage truck and a free-for-all firefight at a religious retreat. Jim Backus costars as a wheelchair-ridden racist millionaire, Godfrey Cambridge plays a flamingly gay conspirator, and Ted Lange is a flashy, fast-talking pimp in two comic scenes. --Sean Axmaker

Soul Cinema superstar Pam Grier leads an outta-sight, all-star cast, including Yaphet Kotto (Alien), Eartha Kitt (TV's original Catwoman), Carl Weathers (RockyÂ(r)), Scatman Crothers (The Shining), Ted Lange ("The Love Boat"), Jim Backus ("Gilligan's Island") and Godfrey Cambridge (Cotton Comes to Harlem) in this ultra-slick, pulse-pumping actioner that brings a foxy camerawoman into the focus of danger! When photographer Friday Foster (Grier) unwittingly uncovers a white supremecist plot to knock off all of the country's top black leaders, she andher free-wheelin', trouble-dealin' P.I. friend, Hawkins (Kotto), go on a mission to stomp the killers' plans! From the backstage murders at a righteous fashion show to a pedal-to-the-metal car chase from a funeralin a hearse(!)this shutterbuggin' babe will go anywhere and do anything to expose the corruptiononly this time, the shooting isn't just with a camera!