The Street Fighter (1974)

 

NOTE: I'm going to go by the characters names in the english dub for this review because that is what I watched. If you want the Japanese character names read the cast list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Street_Fighter

There were two aspects of this movie I loved. The use of slow-motion was great because it helped me see what was going on during the fight scenes. While I enjoy movies where the moves look more fast and real I also like seeing them cinematically. This did that. I'm not sure what martial arts are being used at times but I enjoyed what I saw. Few movies show the devastation stuff like this can do to the body and this movie never shies away from that. Breaking teeth, breaking skulls, vomiting from being punched, bloody kills. This would satisfy a horror fan with the amount of blood, gore, and bodily injuries. I also enjoyed that there were no heroes in this movie. Some characters like Sarai are innocent and Terry protecting her makes him seem more heroic but no one is full hero. Terry is arrogant and greedy but does one heroic thing by protecting Sarai. Some of the character rivalries between Terry, the mob, and the Shikenbaru family reminded me of something out of western. That is only increased by Terry and Junjo wanting to have a duel at the end of the movie. Even some of the other characters like Dingsau have three dimensional character moments that elevate this to more than just a great and violent martial arts movie. It has substance. 

The movie starts with Terry Tsurugi (Sonny Chiba) going to a prison disguised as a monk in order to break out Junjo Shikenbaru (Masashi Ishibashi). Junjo wants to duel Tsurugi in a fight and they start fighting in the cell. He uses a punch that lowers Junjo's heart rate enough to put him into a coma in order that he will have to be taken to the hospital, as this is the prison policy if someone is ill. While en route to the hospital Terry and his sidekick, Ratnose (Goichi Yamada) ambush the ambulance and break Junjo out. While Terry and Ratnose watch the news about the breakout, Junjo's sister, Nachi (Etsuko Shihomi) and his brother Gijun (Jiro Chiba) come to ask for more time to pay. They had said they would pay 3 million yen for Terry to breakout Junjo. Terry is not okay with this and fights them. He dodges a flying kick by Gijun who falls out of the window. He then beats Nachi and sells her into sex slavery, under the control of Mutaguchi (Fumio Watanabe). Mutaguchi then attempts to hire Terry to kidnap Sarai Hammett (Yutaka Nakajima). Sarai is the daughter of a recently deceased oil tycoon. Terry refuses when he learns that Mutaguchi is influenced by the mafia.

Meanwhile Sarai is being protected by her Uncle Masaoka (Masfumi Suzuki) who runs a karate school. Terry goes to the school and kidnaps Sarai but he is soon surrounded by Masaoka and other members of the school. He quickly dispatches several of the students but fights Masoaka to a standstill. Soon after this two blind henchman are hired by the mob to capture Sarai and Masaoka tasks Terry with protecting her. Junjo is also found as well as Nachi. They are hired by the yakuza's ally in Hong Kong, Dingsau to avenge their brother's death and kill Terry. Terry and Ratnose are eventually ambushed by men using a bulldozer and manage to kill them. One of Sarai's allies betrays her and eventually the two blind men help kill her bodyguards and she is captured. Terry rescues her, but then is also captured and Ratnose gives away Sarai's location in order to spare Terry's life and that causes Terry to forsake him. 

The blood and gore in the fight scenes is incredible in this movie. There are many scenes where Terry karate chops or punches someone's head and force makes blood come out. One of the coolest scenes is when he hits someone in the head and you see this animated X-ray of the guy's skull fracturing. There are also many gory splat scenes where people fall from high distances and the movie doesn't hide the result. There is one great scene where Terry holds onto a balcony on the freighter and trips a guy to fall by grabbing his feet. There are many fights where he stomps on arms and pokes at people's eyes and even rips people's throats out. As I said in the thesis the action is filmed in a way where the fighting never looks too fast, nor too slow. This is one of my favorites as far as editing the fight scenes goes. 

This movie wouldn't be as interesting if the characters weren't interesting. Sarai is the only innocent character in this and Masaoka is the only one I would consider a "good guy." Even the Shikenbaru family does not seem totally innocent. This movie reminded me of a western in that way, specifically spaghetti westerns where it seems like the hero of the story is just a hero by circumstance in some cases.  I always think of A Fistful of Dollars where the hero is responsible for every death in the movie, yet he does something heroic by compromising himself to save a family. Terry only does one noble thing in this and that is save and protect Sarai. Apart from that you see him be sexually aggressive, basically trying to force himself on any woman he meets. He kills Gijun, or is at least responsible for his death, and has Nachi sold into sex slavery because they wanted more time to pay. Terry is a selfish character and when he gets mad at Ratnose you think he is a hypocrite. Even other characters like Dingsau are interesting. During the duel at the end he kills men that are trying to interfere, showing he has some moral compass as well. Everyone has something more to them than you would expect. There are also some funny scenes. The workout scene with Terry and Ratnose comes to mind. 

Spoiler Section

Terry fights with one of the blind samurais and Ratnose sacrifices himself to help Terry. Terry eventually finds everyone on board a freighter and fights his way through the guards to rescue Sarai. Dingsau eventually lets Junjo duel him. Nachi puts Terry in a hold and has Junjo stab both him and her. Terry rips out Junjo's vocal chords to win the duel. The movie ends with Sarai and Dingsau helping him to stand up. 

I can't wait to watch this movie again as I think I will remember even more imagery from some of the fights and I want to be with some of these characters again as immoral as some of them are. 

Rating: 10/10

Trivia: First film in the United States to get an X rating solely for violence.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbXbwO4gQGA

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl_zkOruS5I

Sheba, Baby

 

Has the usual charm of Pam Grier and the 70s looking blood and squibs I like. This movie goes through the motions a lot though. There are no really memorable action scenes or moments that are better than any of Pam's other movies. The action scenes almost look like anything you could see on television from back then. While still more violent and sensual than any PG-rated-movie could be today, the rating holds it back I think. There are a couple of memorable shootouts and some interrogation scenes involving chlorine and a car wash that are memorable. Thematically it is more surface level. It is about powerful white elite people moving in on Mom and Pop businesses, but that is just on the surface. I think this one was missing Jack Hill's direction. Austin Stoker, who people would recognize from Assault on Precinct 13 also plays a memorable role. 

Plot Summary Contains Spoilers

The movie starts with some of typical yellow blaxploitation font and a great theme song by Barbara Mason. Two men are talking in a building. Andy Shayne (Rudy Challenger) and "Brick" Williams (Austin Stoker). They run a loan company and Andy is giving people deals because his company is being intimidated by a bigger one. After Brick leaves Andy is assaulted by three men. Andy's daughter, Sheba (Pam Grier) is getting back to Chicago, where she works as a private investigator. Her partner had not told her about a letter she received from Brick saying her father was in trouble. On this she travels to Louisville, Kentucky to meet with Brick and her father. 

Her father talks to her about not doing a man's job which is the only time an interesting idea about gender bias is brought up. Her father calls the man who keeps threatening his company, Pilot (D'Urville Martin). Pilot says to accept the buyout or die. He tells him he put a bomb in his car that will go off 10 seconds after the keys are turned. Sheba is about to drive the car and Brick and Andy get her within safe distance before the explosion happens. Sheba at this point starts doing things herself. She goes to the police who say they can't spare anyone for protection to which she says they're just mad they'd have to miss a poker game. She interrogates one suspect by drowning him in chlorine and finds out the location of a meeting and someone who informs who works at a used car lot. She goes to a meeting where Pilot is. Her and Brick give chase but Pilot gets away. She also interrogates a street criminal near a used car lot and threatens him while in a car wash to give away Pilot's name. Criminals break into Andy's place and kill him while Sheba and Brick are there. Sheba manages to kill at least one of them. 

Pam as Sheba threatening "number one," at the car wash.

Sheba now goes after Pilot and after going to where he works is chased into a nearby amusement park. She eventually corners Pilot and holds him over a roller coaster to find out a code number for a private party he goes too. He also says the man above him is named Shark. Brick also finds out that all these businesses that are going under have the same insurance company. Sheba gets to Shark's yacht party. Her cover is blown when Pilot shows up. Shark (Dick Merrifield) takes her hostage and later drags Pilot across the water from a rope while hanging from a speedboat. He threatens to do the same to her but she uses a blade she had hidden to cut the ropes. Brick finds a note about Shark's yacht and has the cops with him to track down the yacht. At this point a shootout ensues and Sheba catches up to Shark on a speedboat and kills him with a spear gun. Sheba and Brick reunite on the boat and she says she will go back to Chicago but will come to see him since they are now partners with their loan company. 

Pam has an arsenal in this movie including a Colt Python and Mac-10. The ending speedboat chase is decent.

There are some classic Pam moments in this. I like when she threatens the street criminal, whom she later holds at gunpoint in the car wash and says, "I'm going to put my number one foot up your number one mouth." That checks out because he is known only as number one. Also when she is caught later she tries to seduce Shark which is something Pam does to the villains in all of these movies. The investigatory aspect is just Brick finding things out offscreen.  Most of the action scenes including the chase at the meeting are quite run of the mill and don't standout. I was surprised at the amount of blood squibs though for a PG movie. There is even a sex scene implied between her and Brick where you see full side boob. So way more than you could get away with for a PG movie today. With the shootout on the boat I kept waiting for more blood squibs and then three great ones come in rapid succession, on the guy's legs and then one gets shot in the chest. I really liked the one close up shot of Pam with a magnum out of focus, then a tight focus on her face as she contemplates whether to shoot the guy or not. The amusement park filming location was cool. I've never seen someone threaten someone while holding them over a moving roller coaster so there was that. I always enjoy seeing the older prices on food stands. Like 50 cents for a burger?! I'd only recommend this to hardcore Pam Grier fans looking for something beyond her usual blaxploitation movies.

Rating: 6/10

Trivia: The Yacht in the film "Nu-Tronic," was owned by prominent Louisville, Kentucky businessman, Herman Weist. He received a credit as the, "marine sequence coordinator." The yacht is still around today and has been renamed "Mavis A." 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN5e64Wd528

Watch movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmtIKWKukxE

Foxy Brown

 

My favorite of Pam Grier's Blaxploitation movies. Foxy Brown doesn't have the heavy handed sociopolitical themes of Coffy. While some of that is there it is much more fun and funny at times. The comedy in this never feels out of place either. I also like this character more than Coffy as Foxy is more clearly a hero. What she does for Claudia is more heroic than anything Coffy does. One of the things that made Coffy more of antihero was the fact that some of the people she goes after were victims themselves. Foxy is able to get her vengeance and have some fun along the way. That scene of her and Claudia with the politician is a laugh riot. Pam Grier has also never looked better in a movie. The dresses she wears, her hair, and her makeup have never looked better. When this movie gets violent it doesn't let up. I also think some of the sociopolitical stuff was a bit simpler and easier to analyze in this movie than in Coffy. 

Plot Summary Contains Spoilers

The movie starts with Link Brown (Antonio Fargas) being cornered by the people who owes drug money at a hot dog stand. Link calls his sister, Foxy Brown (Pam Grier) to help get him out of there. A car chase ensues where Foxy nearly hits the two men with her car and Link gets on the top of the car while one of the men grabs onto the windshield before falling off. Foxy meets with her boyfriend, a former undercover federal agent who testified in court against Stevie Elias (Peter Brown) and Kathryn Wall (Kathryn Loder). Steve and Kathryn run a "modeling agency" that is actually a front for prostitution and drugs. Meanwhile, Foxy and her boyfriend, Michael (Terry Carter) are walking down the street one day and see multiple men get into a fight. One of Foxy's friends, Oscar (Bob Minor) arrives and fights a drug pusher. He talks about drugs being the new slavery and that they are sending that man out of town. He runs a neighborhood watch of sorts with a Black Panther Party type of group.

Link sees the picture of Michael in the newspaper before his plastic surgery. Because Link wants to get back in good with the crime syndicate and get more drugs, he rats out Michael, who they know as Dalton. Two hitmen come and kill Michael. Foxy notices the drawing on the newspaper that Link had been doing. She confronts Link and asks for names and he gives her Kathryn's name. Foxy poses as a prostitute to get in good with the syndicate. She puts them in a bad position by getting one of their clients, a judge, in trouble. Foxy is kidnapped though when she stays behind to save Claudia (Juanita Brown) a woman trapped in that lifestyle who has a husband and a kid. She saves Claudia at a bar but then gets captured by the two henchman from the beginning of the movie in order to hold them off so Claudia can go free. She is knocked out and taken to a farm which is where drugs are made. Two white men drug her and rape her but she eventually escapes using her mouth to secure a razor blade and cutting off her ropes binding her. She uses a coat hanger to stab one of them in the eye and burns the other. 

Kathryn at this point orders Stevie to kill Foxy. He tries to get info out of Link and kills Link and his girlfriend. Foxy asks Oscar and the Black Panthers for help. She charms her way into flying with the pilot who goes to the farm (Sid Haig). They arrive and and the Black Panthers kill Stevie's crime partners and castrate Stevie. Foxy goes back to Kathryn and gives her Steve's balls in a jar. She then kills her guards and shoots her in the arm. She says that death would be too easy for her and her and Steve are going to have live and suffer like she has.

Pam Grier has never looked better in any movie. She's always gorgeous but she looks so stacked and beautiful and that red dress and that powder blue dress later. Claudia looks great in that green dress she wears. The costume design and makeup are great in this. I also like so many lines in this movie. 

Pam's hair is on point in this movie

Has anyone ever looked better in a red dress?

Here are some of my favorites from Foxy: 

I love the exchange in the bar where the woman tells her she has a black belt in karate and Foxy knocks her out with a barstool and says, "I have my black belt in barstools." 

The whole scene with the judge is hilarious and Foxy and Claudia seem to have so much fun messing with him. 

Taken from IMDB:

Foxy Brown: [pretending to be call girl, Misty Cotton] Baby, is this what you're going to use on me?

[points at the Judge's crotch]

Judge Fenton: What?

Foxy Brown: I mean, I've heard of a meat shortage, but, that's ridiculous!

Judge Fenton: Well, you've got - well, eh, the other girls liked it.

Foxy Brown: Oh, I'm sure I'll like it. But, I just can't find it! Claudia, help me find it. I think its down here somewhere. Watch it. Don't rub on it. The charge, Your Honor, is assault with a very undeadly weapon.

Claudia: I mean, you talk about your blunt instrument!

Judge Fenton: Well, you're different, alright. I'll say that for ya.

Foxy Brown: You too, little man.

I also love what she says when she confronts Link, "They got a stick of dynamite on you and the fuse is burning. 

I enjoy a lot of sociopolitical stuff in this movie as well. There is something to be said about systemic racism and the connection it has with drugs trying to keep black people down. There is something interesting in that a black fed, in this case Michael saying he couldn't even get an indictment on the syndicate. Yet he is ratted out by an addict just trying to get his next fix in Link's case. Since both Steve and Kathryn are white there is even more meaning to the idea of modern day slavery and almost a racial revenge angle of sorts. That is only exaggerated by Steve getting castrated by the Black Panthers at the end. People like Link exist in the real world. The type of person to sell out someone in their family because they are so addicted. It only gets him a few days back into his habit before he is killed. 

Most of the characters are three dimensional in this. Even Link talks about the void in his life that addiction fills. "Foxy, I'm a black man, and I don't know how to sing, and I don't know how to dance, and I don't know how to preach to no congregation. I'm too small to be a football hero, and too ugly to be elected mayor. But I watch TV and I see all them people and them fine homes they live in and all them nice cars they drive and I get all full of ambition. Now you tell me what I'm supposed to do with all this ambition I got?" I also think this relates to the mental health problems people have today. Link is just like anyone else struggling when he says what other people have but everyone struggles sometimes. No one is happy all the time and no one is sad all the time either. 

As I said before Foxy is a much different character from Coffy. Coffy is more of a survivor and less of a hero. People always talk about the save the cat moment from Alien making Ripley a hero. Foxy has a save the Claudia moment in this where she basically lets herself be captured, not without a fight of course, so Claudia can get back to her husband and kid. It should be noted that after Claudia and Foxy did what they did with that Judge they were onto them and Claudia was scared of what the consequences would be. She seems dependent on that lifestyle and again the allegories to slavery, with dependence and tearing someone away from their family can be found. Foxy also does the same clever things that Coffy did like hading razor blades in her afro and the small Bauer .25 caliber pistol that Michael taught her how to shoot. I like the filming locations as well, specifically the food stand in the beginning. I always enjoy seeing the prices from old times at places like that in older movies.

Foxy holding the Bauer .25 caliber pistol which she later hides in her afro during the confrontation scene with Kathryn

When this movie gets bloody and violent it really goes there. The eye stabbing scene, the bloody result when Link is shot. I am glad the movie holds off on showing you the rape scene which i didn't need to see. It is interesting that Pam really isn't topless much in this movie. At the very beginning she goes topless and that is really it as far as I know. The rest of the movie is her in very stylish clothes. My favorite scene is the one with the judge just because it is quite funny and Foxy and Claudia are awesome together. The score in this is great with more emphasis on percussion than the ones in Coffy and Friday Foster. 

Rating: 10/10

Trivia: American International Pictures objected to this being a sequel to Coffy. It was meant to be a sequel and that is one of the reasons why Foxy's profession is never discussed as Coffy was explicitly shown to be a nurse.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMJCorShtSc

Friday Foster

 

A Hitchcock-like wrong-man style thriller with Pam Grier in the lead is quite fun. While the mystery itself was a bit underwhelming, which lessens the tension, the action was well done. Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, and Carl Weathers elevate this movie. Pam uses her wit and charm more in this movie, which makes more sense since she is playing an ambitious reporter. I never thought I would see Carl Weathers play an assassin and get into a rooftop chase and fight with Yaphet Kotto but here we are. There is one well edited car chase and a couple of different foot chases that are electric. Eartha Kitt shows up for a few minutes and has a heat check moment where she takes over the movie. The themes are interesting like always in these kind of movies. This was made right after the civil rights era and it has to do with the white power structure trying to eliminate any black people who a say in the government, while still using black people to do their bidding. This is one of Pam Grier's more fun movies from around this time. 

The movie starts with some location shots of Washington D.C. There is a cool camera shot where you see Pam Grier through the lens of a camera. The music is great too. Friday Foster (Pam Grier) is an investigative journalist who on New Year's eve is with her younger brother Cleve (Tierre Turner). She gets a call from her boss, Monk (Julius Harris [who James Bond fans will know as Tee Hee from Live and Let Die]). He asks her to go report on Blake Tarr (Thalmus Rasulala) the country's wealthiest black man arriving at the airport. At the airport three men in cop's uniforms are seen passing out guns and soon a gunfight erupts in the airport. Friday runs into Yarbro (Carl Weathers), one of the cops before he gets away. The other one, Chet, is the boyfriend of Friday's friend, Cloris (Rosalind Miles). 

Pam Grier as Friday

Carl Weathers as Yarbro

At a party of some kind Cloris is also killed and she says something to Friday, "black widow," before she dies. Soon anyone who knows about black widow also starts getting killed. The head of the modeling agency where Cloris worked, Madame Rena (Eartha Kitt) blames a man named Ford Malotte (Godfrey Cambridge). Friday starts getting help from private detective Colt Hawkins (Yaphet Kotto). Tracking their leads to D.C. Friday has Malotte book her with a Senator named Hart (Paul Benjamin). Hart eventually reveals that Tarr faked his own death...

What I enjoyed about this movie are the action scenes and how certain mystery elements were paid off well later. The flowers at Cloris' funeral being sent by Hart for example was a neat touch. There was some good suspense as well. Yarbro and Friday get into a scuffle in her bathroom after he tricks Cleve into telling him what apartment they live in. After two people see him not wanting to leave witnesses he walks past her and down the stairs but you don't know he will walk past her. At the funeral she sees Yarbro and takes a picture but whne she goes to show the picture to Colt, he had all ready left. She steals a hearse to chase him and they wind up in a factory where he gets away.  I like how this chase is balanced with first person shots, long tracking shots and bird's eye camera views. The chase between Kotto and Weathers ending in a fierce rooftop fight is great as well. 

Pam Grier is as fun as ever in this movie. I enjoy the chemistry between her and Kotto. Her fearlessness in action movies when women were often relegated to characters who needed saving or just pining for the hero is quite ahead of it's time. While she plays an ambitious reporter, she is not above sleeping with men to get what she wants, which she does multiple times in this movie. It doesn't seem like she doesn't want to do that either. So it could be both showing her sexuality and getting what she needs for her job. I enjoy the line she gives Senator Hart and their exchange. "What will the gossips say?" "They will say I have made love to one of the most beautiful women DC has ever seen. One of the funnier moments between her and Kotto is Colt playing a role as her chauffeur at the party. I even like Friday's wit at the beginning of the film where she sneaks up to the guard to go in the hangar and brings him a drink and calls him LeRoy like she knows him. He says there is no LeRoy that works here. Its a funny moment. Eartha Kitt also shows up for a few minutes to say things like "We're all familiar with the joy of sex. Particularly since that doctor has determined that sex is on the male mind every other minute - and on the female mind every other second. Well, I've put it all together in one group which I call 'The Four Seasons of S-E-X".

Spoiler Section

Soon everyone whom Friday mentions black widow too ends up dead. Malotte is killed by Yarbro who runs into him in a telephone booth while driving a truck. When Rena offers more information she is shot by Yarbro and that is when Weathers and Kotto have agreat chase and fight. Colt ends up shooting him several times, killing him. Friday eventually meets with Blake Tarr who reveals that his unity program is black widow. His assistant Charley (Jason Bernard), who Cloris had called earlier, another great payoff from the beginning is working with a white politician named Enos Griffith (Jim Backus). Griffith is working to take down any black politician trying to gain power. Colt and Friday find out that the unity program is at Jericho's (Scatman Crothers) place. Two men are watching them and Friday steals an ice cream truck. She sees an army assembled and shows up to tell Senator Hart that an army is there to kill them as every black leader is at that summit. They are able to hold off the army of men and find out Charley betrayed them. Charley and Colt fight and Colt knocks him out saying "What you need is an education." The movie ends with Colt, Charley and Cleve all hanging out. 

Pam Grier and Yaphet Kotto are awesome together

Since this movie was made just after the time when men like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers were all assassinated it feels reverential for the time. The relationship between Tarr and Hart in this movie is actually like King and Malcolm X's difference in philosophies but joining together for the greater good. The flaws in this movie have more to do with the writing and some things that could have been cut out. There is a pointless subplot involving a pimp that keeps trying to get Friday to be one of his girls. Black widow being more of an idea rather than a mystery is somewhat disappointing as the action and not the mystery mostly drives the narrative forward. I could have used many more movies with Pam and Yaphet together. I even enjoyed the presence of Edmund Cambridge as the other cop who talks about how he needs a beer multiple times. There is a lot to like here. If the final shootout were filmed better, because it is quite underwhelming, that would made this better than just decent. 

Rating: 7/10

Trivia: The film is based on a newspaper comic strip of the same name by Jim Lawrence. It was the first mainstream comic strip with a black lead character. 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpdSX_kRSU8

Watch movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ptufslVgoE

Coffy

 

Coffy is fun movie because of many things. The score by Roy Ayers features a great combination of soul vocals with funky jazz music. The themes are macro and focus on how politicians are in it for themselves as soon as they get power. Coffy learns the same thing by the end of the movie. Throughout different times in the film she kills for revenge and self defense and by the end she feels better about it because she is killing someone who in her eyes deserves it rather than just a pusher trying to make money in the beginning. I think there are some interesting things to analyze there. Pam Grier's lines are endlessly quotable and this movie makes her an even stronger character by never making it seem exploitative. Coffy uses her sexuality and wit to get what she wants but she never gets taken advantage of, and she is vulnerable which makes her a multidimensional character. I think the pacing suffers a little bit in the middle when Coffy is captive but it heats up again as soon as she escapes.

The film starts with a mob boss and a drug pusher getting lured to house by Coffy. She pretends to be a prostitute who will give them anything but while one isn't looking she takes out a shotgun. This is the beginning of some of her quotable lines. She kills the mob boss by shooting him and forces the pusher to overdose on drugs. She blames the pusher for the ailing state of her little sister LuBelle who was hooked drugs at a young age. After killing these two men Coffy is visibly shaken and can't stabilize someone for surgery as she works as a nurse. Coffy meets with her cop ex-boyfriend, Carter (William Elliott) who brings news of the crime she just committed. Coffy goes to meet her current boyfriend, City Councilman Howard Brunswick (Booker Bradshaw). Brunswick is going to run for senator. Meanwhile someone tries to get a picture of Howard and District Attorney Ramos (Ruben Moreno). A one eyed man (John Perak) threatens the waitress taking the picture with a knife. More on this later.

Pam Grier as Coffy

Coffy has a talk with Carter about how she believes that police don't go after big criminals because they are all on the take or they know someone who is. Carter explains to her that a man named Vitroni (Alan Arbus) is taking over the crime operations in Los Angeles and Carter's partner is on the take from Vitroni and a big time pimp named King George (Robert DeQui). Carter refuses to join him. His apartment is broken into by thugs and him and Coffy are both assaulted. Carter suffers permanent brain damage. At this point Coffy resolves to get her vengeance for Carter. She goes to see a former patient named Priscilla (Carol Locatell) who works for King George. She threatens her with a broken glass bottle to tell where King George's stash is. Coffy meanwhile poses as a Jamaican prostitute to infiltrate King George's racket. She does so and gets into a fight with the other prostitutes in the presence of Vitroni who wants to spend the night with her. After Vitroni demeans her she prepares to kill him but is whacked from behind by the two men who went to Carter's house. One of them is Sid Haig playing Omar. Coffy lies and says that King George ordered the hit.

Sid Haig as Omar

Omar ties a noose around King George attached to a car and eventually kills him with the objects he runs into. Coffy is shown tied up in a shed. She is shown making a weapon out of one of her hair pins. Later Vitroni has a meeting with Ramos, the One Eyed Man, and surprise...Howard. He brings in Coffy to test Howard's loyalty saying he is okay with killing her to move up in the world. Coffy is about be injected with a lethal dose of drugs but switches the drugs and lures Omar outside of the car under pretense of having sex with him. She stabs Omar with her hair pain. The two corrupt cops assigned to her are also killed. One by getting ran over while pursuing Coffy. The other is killed in explosion after an accident while chasing her. Coffy takes a car and goes back to the house where the meeting was and kills everyone. Virtoni tells her where Howard is hiding as she says she will let him live, but doesn't. She goes to Howard's beach house and kills him after he begs for forgiveness. She is about to accept, when a naked white woman comes out of Howard's bathroom she he isn't too broken up about losing Coffy. The movie ends with Coffy walking on the beach. 

I like that this movie never goes full on exploitation. There are exploitative scenes but this movie goes full on rape-revenge or something like that. Yes you see Pam Grier topless plenty of times which is great, but it never feels like she is forced to that. It feels like a means to an end. She retaliates on Vitroni after he demeans her by calling her the N-word and spitting on her. She never gets to the point of actually having sex with Omar, stabbing him well before that. She never does anything with the two criminals at the beginning of the movie. Her being strong and never being exploited, while also showing some struggles with her own actions at the hospital makes her a more human character. She is much better written than female characters of many of today's movies who are strong and fine with killing while going through nothing at all. The scene where Coffy beats up the other women is the only scene that seem exploitative but it still has a purpose of getting her with Vitroni and shows how competent of a fighter she is. 

There are many scenes I love as well. The scene where Omar puts a noose on King George can be seen as funny but at a certain point I started to think about how that kind of stuff actually happened in hate crimes. This movie actually does stuff like that quite a bit. The one prostitute Coffy beats up a lot is now more vulnerable than ever before. While Coffy does a lot of things to help herself and eliminate criminals we don't know what the women will do now either. So there are questions about what she is doing really being right or not. When she goes afte Priscilla, Priscilla's face had been cut by King George and her girlfriend comes in mad that another woman came to their house. At the beginning of the movie, while Sugarman and his pusher were criminals, the pusher is treated as less than by Sugarman. So there is this criminal hierarchy this movie talks about and later how Howard is just a person who is becoming apart of that structure.

Whenever blood is needed in this movie it really well done. The awesome squibs when Coffy shoots Ramos at the end, the arcing shot of blood from Omar's throat when he is stabbed, and the wounds on the guy that is operated on the beginning. Also that brief shot of Coffy blowing off Sugarman's head at the beginning. I loved the way the violence looked in this movie. It added to the feel as well. This movie has an element of funniness to it but it never goes full on and by making the deaths real it adds to the authenticity. Pam Grier is exce

Howard is your typical power hungry politician under the guise of actually doing things for the people. How many politicians are like this? Ones that when they get notoriety and power leave behind the exact people they promised to help or those that got them there. I like comparing his two speeches. One to the people at a rally and one to Coffy at the end: 

"Where do you think that $100 a day goes? Oh, sure, part of it goes to black pushers and distributors. But, the main part of it - the really big part - goes to those white men who import the narcotics. And the big part goes to those white men who corrupt our law enforcement agencies. And the big part goes to those white men who draft our black boys and send them over to Indo-China - to protect other white men who are the original suppliers of the narcotics. So, you see this whole thing becomes a vicious attempt as a part of the white power structure to exploit our black men and women in this society."

Now his quote at the end: "Black people want dope and brown people want dope, and as long as people are deprived of a decent life, they're gonna want something just to plain feel good with. And nothings gonna change that - except money and power. And that's what I'm after, baby. Power - to change things for our people. I want to get all that money back into the hands of black people."

The problem is people and Coffy have been killed, or so he thinks while he is trying to get that power for himself. Howard is just like anyone else lying to people about what is really doing. He is just as much a part of that structure as anyone. This movie is about Coffy learning just that. By the end she seems content with who she has killed instead of being sick like at the beginning. She sees by the end that people like Howard and Virtoni are the real ones responsible for her sister's addiction and ailments. It is interesting the company he starts keeping is the white men are part of that power structure. He is just as helpless to stop them when he is the corrupt one. Carter can't stop them as an honest cop, so Coffy's way is the best way, but it is still against the law and normally most people can't go against the law kill everyone from a power structure. This movie makes you think two things: Yes Coffy avenged her sister and yes she killed some people at the top but as long as drugs and money are two things struggling people want people can profit off that it will always be around. It will also never bring her sister back. So there is a bittersweetness to this ending as Coffy now has no one even though she accomplished what she wanted to. 

Rating: 9/10

Trivia: When asked why she did so many nude scenes and this film and others Pam Grier said, "When asked about why she chose to do so many nude scenes in this and other films, Pam Grier. said, "Being nude in those movies, I was trying to help men understand. Society created this mystery about the vagina, the breasts. When you create a mystery, people want to see it and attack it if they can't have it. So I was like, 'Here's the mystery. I hope I bore you and you'll never get a hard-on again'."

Vitroni's house was actually Roy Rogers' real life house.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyz9XeQwggQ

Cop Game

 

Featuring one of the best rocking 80s theme songs, gratuitous slow motion gun shooting and ammo wasting, exploding huts, stock footage of exploding huts, explosions, and an incredible car chase that looks like it involves miniatures, this has all the hallmarks of a Bruno Mattei movie. I did like the story to this one too. Many twists and turns revolving around a Russian spy in the final days of the Vietnam war. At times it almost felt like a Call of Duty mission as a movie set in Saigon. The mystery aspects felt like a blending of giallo and an American conspiracy crime thriller. It reminded me a lot of Sergio Martino's Silent Action. There is some incredible stunts by Massimo Vanni and Dell'Acqua brothers. There is some heart to this too. The relationship between Brent Huff, an American military policeman and his partner, a Vietnamese local makes for some fun and a complicated relationship. It's like a buddy cop movie with some conspiracy like Lethal Weapon mixed with Apocalypse Now.

Plot Summary Contains Spoilers

The opening of this film features the same Mattei text we have seen in other movies and an aweseome 80s rock song featuring the title. Three men with machine guns and masks are seen going to a pool are where some soldiers are on some R and R. They go into a separate room and shoot up one guy in a separate pool. Colonel Kasler (Werner Pochath) learns of this death. The soldier killed was a man named Watts. It is soon revealed that a missing General named Shooman may be responsible. Shooman and his Cobra Force have gone AWOL and are still trying to win the war. General Morris (Brett Halsey) orders an investigation headed by "Skipper," (Romano Puppo). Skipper, as he repeatedly says he hates to be called sends two men to investigate, Morgan (Brent Huff) and Vietnamese cop, Hawk (Max Laurel).

Someone goes after Colonel Kasler and manages to wound him and Hawk and Morgan pursue. They eventually corner him but he is shot before they can get anymore information. Morgan sees a woman named Annie (Candice Daly) at a bar and he follows her back to a motel. She points him in the direction of a man in another room whom he fights and kills. Files later reveal him to be a former member of Cobra Force who transferred with two other men 30 months ago. Three men have been the ones doing the assassinations. They ask the Colonel to tell them what is really going on as they know he has been holding out on them. He tells them that Lieutenant Pierce will be the next officer to be targeted. Watts, Kasler, and Pierce were in a village six months ago they thought was a base and a lot of innocent people were killed by Shooman. He is now trying to cover that up. 

While tracking Pierce to a strip club, Hawk and Morgan have a more deep conversation about what Hawk really thinks of him and his country. They stop to see Hawk's family on the way. They get into an awesome car chase involving many miniatures where they stop some of the people from following them. Once there, the two remaining assassins show up and kill Pierce but Morgan and Hawk kill them. One of them gets into an awesome fight with Hawk where Hawk can't slow his strength and beats him to death. Meanwhile, in a scene straight out of a buddy cop movie Skipper shows up and chastises them for creating more chaos and destruction. General Morris now asks Morgan and Hawk to go to the front to find General Shooman. General Morris eventually tells Skipper that there is a Russian spy within the military and the whole story with Shooman was a lie because they think he is actually a Russian mole known as Vladimir. Hawk and Morgan meet Shooman at the front and here we have plenty of stock footage from Double Target with some exploding huts. Shooman takes a liking to the cops and says they will go see General Morris the next day. He explains that the story is all made up and his three men went rogue and weren't doing any killing for him.

Meanwhile assassins lead by Massimo Vanni's character show up at the base to kill General Morris. Morris gets to his car but Vanni is waiting there for him and shoots him. Hawk and Shooman travel by car but their car is ambushed and blown up by the assassins. Morgan wasn't in the car because he had been wounded while at the front. There is a touching funeral scene for Hawk where we see his family again. His wife gives Morgan a picture of the two of them. Morgan goes to see Annie and all is revealed. She is a KGB agent working with another plant, Colonel Kasler! They had both met in college in the states. Their men take Morgan out of the room and he finds a way to escape while Annie kills Kasler as her superiors say he had become to ruthless and careless. While Morgan is held at gunpoint by Annie, Hawk's wife shows up out of nowhere and kills her. Morgan had called Skipper and he shows up and kills Vanni who had his sniper set on Morgan. 

There were many things I enjoyed about this. Brent Huff is really funny in this movie. There is one scene when they chase the would be assassin of Kasler he lets off a string of expletives when they fail to catch him. I love it at the end when he admits to not needing his cast and then pulls it off to reveal a gun hidden in it. I enjoy the scene where Hawk beats one of the two soldiers to death by accident. The amount of gratuitous slow motion ammo wasting is insane. This gives Zack Snyder a run for his money in that aspect. This also has some of the best whose who of Italian genre actors in it. I've mentioned a couple but I love it when they movie cuts to to Mike Monty for two seconds and I think Mattei just had Mike Monty go with him everywhere he made his movies in a military uniform because he always plays a small role as a military figure. He's like the Dale Dye of Italian Nam-sploitation movies.  It's nice to see Brett Halsey in anything. While this did skip on the blood squibs more than normal for a Mattei movie it had more chases which I enjoyed. Again the Severin film restoration is great.

English Dubbing Cast: 

• Frank Von Kuegelen dubs Werner Pochath as Kasler
• Nick Alexander dubs Romano Puppo as Skipper  

Rating: 8/10

Trivia: The theme song was sung by Maurizio Cerantola, the lead singer of Italian rock/metal band: Shout.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ2Ztndea5Q&t=33s

Born to Fight (1989)

 

This actually had, dare I say a bit of substance for a Mattei movie. The banter between Brent Huff and Mary Stavin is actually quite funny at times and I laughed at some of Huff's lines. The conflict of the story is between government cover up of POWs, a defected soldier who killed all the other prisoners so he could live, and the relationship between Brent Huff's character and the General. A general he had previously threatened because he refused to help his friends who were taken prisoner. Now he knows what it is like to be a prisoner himself. That being said this is also Bruno Mattei ripping off The African Queen and Crocodile Dundee with an Apocalypse Now story somewhere in there. Plenty of exploding huts, gratuitous ammo wasting from M60s and M16s, blood squibs, and slow motion. I really think Claudio Fragasso actually made a decent script for this one though.

The movie starts with reporter Maryline Kane (Mary Stavin) showing up in restaurant near the water to meet with former soldier Sam Wood (Brent Huff). Wood escaped a notorious prisoner of war camp that Kane wants to take him to so she can do a feature story on him. He agrees, but only after being paid $50,000. Once they get to the area Sam refuses to cooperate but a random dying POW eventually encounters both of them. Maryline asks about the General, revealing more motives than meet the eye. Meanwhile, Vietcong show up and destroy their boat and take them prisoner. They escape and the film transitions to a nearby POW camp where General Weber, (John Van Dreelan) Maryline's father and other soldiers are held captive. A CIA operative named Bross (Romano Puppo) is secretly collaborating with Maryline and goes to the prisoner of war camp to negotiate. 

Mary Stavin as Maryline and Brent Huff as Sam

Maryline and Sam meet with Bross. Sam eventually spies on him talking with Duan Loc (Werner Pochath) who is revealed to have defected to the opposition after killing Sam's other men while a POW. Sam had also escaped a POW camp and General Weber prevented him from getting more men to go back and save his friends. They torture Sam in the water but he finds a way to escape to the other side of the river and leaves one soldier alive to tell Duan Loc (Kurt) that he will kill him. While the prisoners are being escorted Bross and his men show up in a helicopter and kill the Vietnamese soldiers with them. They eventually are surrounded by more men and it is revealed the guns they got fired blanks and that the Vietnamese soldiers they had "killed" are alive as Bross wants to disavow any knowledge and eliminate evidence of any POW camps. Sam shows up and kills all of the soldiers. He then turns his attention do Kurt and goes to destroy his camp. He reconciles with General Weber who apologizes for not helping him before. They destroy the camp and Sam kills Duan Loc. Meanwhile, Bross has killed the last of the prisoners and taken Maryline. Sam and Weber kill Bross's men and Weber kills Bross. Sam stays on the Island but Maryline goes to see him the next day staying back to be with him. 

I like how right away Sam is seen as a tough guy in a bar by grabbing a snake by the throat and having it spit the venom in his glass. He wears a cowboy hat and leather clothes to look like Indiana Jones or Crocodile Dundee and even says the Bogart line "Here's looking at you kid." So that is some of the things they are going for. I enjoy the rapport between Huff and Stavin. You can hear they still have chemistry by listening to the commentary. Also Stavin has some of the most piercing eyes I've ever seen. She gives Meg Foster a run for her money in that category. I enjoy the part where she distracts the guards by throwing money and she says something about how money actually buys happiness. Since she only got to play small roles in Bond movies she comes closer to playing a full fledged Bond girl in this and Strike Commando 2. 

Let's get to the typical Mattei stuff though. There is some awesome shootouts in this and some really good blood squibs as well. As always with his movies the level of squibs is a bit inconsistent. There's some great shootouts when they have to escape the hotel. I enjoy the part where Huff hoots and hollers dropping from the ceiling and shooting with some Peckinpah like slow motion. I like that he went all Colonel Kurtz and kept a collection of weapons in a tunnel he dug. Seeing Brent Huff dual wield an M60 and an M16 is awesome. Those last two shootouts are just insane. I enjoy how all the POWs think there is more than one soldier. Huff actually shows some acting chops with his face twitching when Maryline mentions the General is her father. Also they put the soldiers in water running toward landmines well before Rambo ever did that. That is when Massimo Vanni's character is killed unfortunately. Always like seeing him and Puppo in roles because I know they were also stuntmen. I love that Brent Huff does the Mel Gibson from Lethal Weapon 2 and shoots Kurt and says the name of all his men when he shoots him repeatedly.  Once again I'd recommend the Severin blu-ray of this if interested. Man do I want to meet Brent Huff at a con or something someday. 

English dubbing cast:

• Robert Spafford dubs John Van Dreelan as General Weber

Rating: 8/10 

Trivia: Mary Stavin was Miss World in 1977. She also played small roles in Octopussy and A View to a Kill making her one of the few women to play Bond girls in multiple movies and in two different roles. She joins the ranks of Ursula Andress (if you include the 1967 Casino Royale), Maud Adams, and Martine Beswick on that list. That doesn't include actresses who played Moneypenny or Eunice Gayson who played the same.character in the first two Bond movies. 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyTK5cMDOw4

Double Target

 

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Doing a thesis of a Bruno Mattei movie is difficult. I think it should be a law to drink alcohol while watching his movies. If you're a teetotaler you're totally missing out. This is essentially Rambo: First Blood Part II with an estranged father and son subplot thrown in. So, Braddock: Missing In Action III, totally ripped this movie off. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ripped off the chase with a passenger seated motorcycle. This is another case of Italian ripoffs actually doing things before other films did. Now apart from that this movie features: asthmatic Donald Pleasence playing the same character Charles Napier played in Rambo 2, gratuitous shooting of an M60 in slow motion, exploding huts, shark stock footage, killing a shark with an exploding spear gun, laughable attempts at father and son intimacy, lines and scenes copied from Rambo 2, miniature explosions, giant bazookas, grenade launchers, and Bo Svenson pulling a Steven Berkoff playing a Russian when he isn't one. This is so fun, but as usual with Mattei there's a lot of fat in the non-action scenes. So it is like Burger King compared to Rambo's filet mignon but you what sometimes I'm in a hurry and Burger King hits the spot.

The movie starts with several different attacks in Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Malaysian-American embassy. Bob Ross (Miles O'Keeffe) is drinking some Bud and watching the news and he gets a phone call. He goes to a Vietnamese embassy of some kind trying to find his son. The official there says his marriage to a Vietnamese woman wasn't legal and that she died in a concentration camp, something the official calls a "Re-education camp." As Ross he leaves he is kidnapped by Russian Colonel Galckin (Bo Svenson) but he gets into a fight with his right hand man. Meanwhile suits from outside the embassy rescue him. He goes to an American base and meets Senator Blaster (Donald Pleasence) who sends him to a region where the two Russians are leading a terrorist group.

Donald Plesence in yet another late 80s Italian movie as Senator Blaster

After facing off with some more Vietcong and blowing up a shark...more on that later...Ross meets his contact, Toro (Ottaviano Dell'Acqua). Ross is introduced to his son Jan (Edison Navarro) at a local village. He gives him a picture of him and his mother together but Jan rips the side of the picture with him in it. Jan blames Ross for the death of his mother. After going into the Russian base they escape on a motorcycle. Galckin leads his men to the village where Jan is who eventually gives himself up. Ross and Toro show up to get Jan back. While escaping Toro hits a landmine and stays behind to sacrifice himself while Ross and Jan meet up with more contacts including McDougall (Luciano Pigozzi) and his daughter Mary (Kristine Erlandson). McDougall's men are actually bad guys and Ross sends Jan and Mary away as he sees what is going on. Unfortunately McDougall is killed in a shootout. They go stay with some friends of Mary's. There is some substance here as Mary starts to come on to Ross and he invites her to go back to America with him and Jan. Jan can't seem to forgive his father. While going through the jungle after escaping the friend's house they captured. Galckin wants Jan to kill his father on a broadcast but refuses to do so. While his father is caged Jan shows up to kill the guard and sets Bob and Mary free. Bob gears up and uses a bazooka and grenade launcher to destroy much of the base. The next day they are pursued by helicopters which he destroys as well. Ross and Galckin have final showdown fighting on the outside of a helicopter. Ross wins and they leave to go to America. Everyone at the base except the Senator celebrates Ross's victory. 

I didn't go through most of the things I loved in this movie while I talked about the plot because there are so many things. I enjoy how the soldiers in this are like stormtroopers and can't hit anything. Like when Toro and Ross get on the motorcycle they are inside a crate and come out surrounded by maybe 40 guys and no one shoots them right away and no one can hit them. There are some great slow motion scenes of shooting M60s and every hut just seems to have nitroglycerin in it because they explode on a few shots. The giant bazooka is an awesome movie weapon. Early on I love Ross's escape from the embassy as he just fights a bunch of dudes, but also gets surrounded in a warehouse and takes them out one by one. My favorite of which is when he tips a guy over who is climbing a ladder. I haven't even gotten to shark scene. Ross goes into Vietnam on an awesome miniature submarine and gets into a fight with a shark near a giant net. This has the most obvious stock footage. It does end though with him using an explosive spear gun to blow up the shark. Asthmatic Donald Pleasence and his typical late 80s scenery chewing is great. I enjoy his giant glasses that would make even Joe Gibbs say those are some big glasses. The final helicopter showdown is great too and you can tell there was real stunt work involved. Also Massimo Vanni plays one of the Russian soldiers and seeing him is always great. He's like the Where's Waldo of Mattei and Enzo G. Castellari's movies. 

There are so many things copied from Rambo. The list of accomplishments Pleasence reads off for Bob Ross. A lot of action movies would go on to do that. The people in the briefing room. Mike Monty playing Colonel Waters basically playing Colonel Trautman. It has the scene of him playing dead before he blows up a helicopter. It even has the scene of the right hand man shooting at the main character to no avail and then the main character using an explosive projectile and waiting for them to turn back around and then blowing them up. Mattei was so shameless with his thievery but also made these movies fun and didn't just try to make a bad movie. I could see huts explode and people get riddled with blood squibs anytime so I loved this movie. Also the scene where he tricks the soldiers into cutting some fruit which he had laced with explosives is great too. Jan just all of the sudden loving his father is hilarious, I really think Missing in Action 3 copied that. I don't think it would have been above Cannon Films to have seen this movie somehow. Miles O'Keeffe is awesome too. I would highly recommend the Severin films blu-ray if you are interested. I'm sure you can find this movie in varying quality on Youtube or Archive.org. 

English dubbing Cast: 

• Larry Dolgin dubs Mike Monty as Colonel Waters
• Robert Spafford dubs Luciano Pigozzi as McDougall

Rating; 8/10

Trivia: Ottaviano Dell'Acqua is more known as a stunt performer than an actor and he played the zombie with the worms in its eyes on the famous poster of Zombie 2 AKA Zombie Flesh Eaters. Miles O' Keefe who is now reclusive was a dream guest for host Graham Norton, who did have him on his show.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QesEUvv_8TI