Cult Movies, Blaxploitation

Page 1 of 4 | next

Actors:Victor Arnold (II), Dominic Barto, Sherri Brewer, Drew Bundini Brown, ...
Shaft
by Warner Home Video (DVD) (Release Date: 2000-06-06)

Gordon Parks (The Learning Tree) directed this 1971 detective story about John Shaft (Richard Roundtree), an African American private eye who has a rocky relationship with cops, an even rockier one with Harlem gangsters, and a healthy sex life. The script finds Shaft tracking down the kidnapped daughter of a black mobster, but the pleasure of the film is the sum of its attitude, Roundtree's uncompromising performance, and the thrilling, Oscar-winning score by Isaac Hayes. Parks seems fond of certain detective genre clichés (e.g., the hero walking into his low-rent office and finding a hood waiting to talk with him), but he and Roundtree make those moments their own. Shaft had a couple of sequels and a follow-up television series, but none had the impact this movie did. --Tom Keogh

Actors:Reg E. Cathey, Lance Crouther, Chris Rock, Robert Vaughn, ...
Pootie Tang
by Paramount (DVD) (Release Date: 2001-11-27)

Pootie Tang pushes blaxploitation to the point of surrealism. The title character--who first appeared on The Chris Rock Show--speaks a kind of slang on steroids, an incomprehensible stream of nonsense syllables that nonetheless makes him irresistible to women and a threat to evildoers everywhere. Pootie is part movie star, part superhero, righting wrongs with the slap of his daddy's belt. But when an evil corporation uses a super-ho named Ireenie (Jennifer Coolidge from Best in Show and Legally Blonde) to steal this magic belt, Pootie must find himself again. In the title role, Lance Crouther glides through the movie like Isaac Hayes's skinny younger brother, while Chris Rock lends his trademark bark to multiple roles, including Pootie's father. Crazed editing and a great soundtrack give Pootie Tang a little extra oomph. A bizarre comedy, likely to develop a cult following. Cameos by Missy Elliot and Bob Costas. --Bret Fetzer

Actors:Pam Grier, Booker Bradshaw, Robert DoQui, William Elliott (II), ...
Coffy
by MGM (Video & DVD) (DVD) (Release Date: 2001-01-09)

Actors:Tamara Dobson, Bernie Casey, Brenda Sykes, Antonio Fargas, ...
Cleopatra Jones
by Warner Home Video (DVD) (Release Date: 1999-03-30)

Actors:Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, Calvin Lockhart, Judy Pace, ...
Cotton Comes To Harlem
by MGM (Video & DVD) (DVD) (Release Date: 2001-01-09)

Actors:Pam Grier, Antonio Fargas, Peter Brown, Terry Carter, ...
Foxy Brown
by MGM (Video & DVD) (DVD) (Release Date: 2001-01-09)

Actors:Isaac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto, Alan Weeks, Annazette Chase, ...
Truck Turner
by MGM (Video & DVD) (DVD) (Release Date: 2001-01-09)

Actors:Pam Grier, Austin Stoker, D'Urville Martin, Rudy Challenger, ...
Sheba, Baby
by MGM (Video & DVD) (DVD) (Release Date: 2001-01-09)

Actors:Brenda Banks (II), Jana Bisbing, Brenda DeLong, Pat Haywood, ...
Dolemite
by Xenon (DVD) (Release Date: 2002-03-19)

Who's the baddest motherf****r to blow onto blaxploitation screens? Forget Shaft and just ask X-rated comic and "godfather of rap" Rudy Ray Moore. He'll give you the gospel of Dolemite. Street hustler, pimp, and all-around ghetto superhero Dolemite began life as a character in Moore's nightclub act and was a natural character for his self-financed film debut, a revenge tale set on the corrupt streets of L.A.Dolemite is sprung from prison by an impossibly understanding warden so he can find the drug-dealing, gun-smuggling crooks who framed him. With the help of his all-girl army of kung fu killers and the most flamboyant wardrobe this side of Cher, he lays waste to dozens of bad guys while spouting his funky raps. Thick, slow and sleepy, Moore is neither a natural actor not a convincing martial arts action hero, but his lazy line deliveries are great, lyrical cascades of four-letter words and "ghetto expressions," and he performs two of his most famous stand-up raps, ...

Actors:Pam Grier, Margaret Markov, Sid Haig, Lynn Borden, ...
Black Mama, White Mama
by MGM (Video & DVD) (DVD) (Release Date: 2001-01-09)

Page 1 of 4 | next