Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

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Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

SnoopyStyle In 1953, young Tommy Gibbs helps a mobster kill his target and then later beaten by a crooked cop. He spends time in prison and in 1965, Tommy (Fred Williamson) takes on a contract from mob boss Cardoza without authority. He convinces Cardoza to give him one full block in exchange for being their secret kill squad. He slowly gains power and influence bringing him in conflict with the ruling Mafia.This remake is surprisingly good. It is violent. Williamson is iconic. The story telling is a bit disjointed. The barbershop scene has some scary violence. The shaky hand with a straight razor is very uncomfortable. There is a ground level edgy reality to all the scenes in Harlem. The most iconic scene is probably Tommy leaving Tiffany. It's obvious filmed guerrilla style. Many of the passerby seems clueless and confused by the action. It would be nice to do more with the other characters. There are great individual scenes like the mobster forcing Tommy to shine his shoe. This is high level blaxploitation.

Wizard-8 "Black Caesar" was one of the most successful black themed entries during the blaxploitation era of the 1970s, successful enough to produce a sequel. Seen today, it's both interesting and entertaining, though it does have some problems. Writer/director Larry Cohen was obviously working with a low budget, which does give some sequences a skimpy feeling. Also, the movie often moves all over the place, with key characters suddenly appearing (or disappearing for long stretches), and scenes seemingly missing here and there. Fortunately, the movie is still watchable. The performances are good, with Fred Williamson taking command in all of his scenes. Interestingly, whether you are white or black (or some other race), more likely than not you'll be surprised that Cohen doesn't make Williamson's character terribly likable or sympathetic. Despite this, chances are you'll keep watching because you'll be curious about what this character's ultimate fate will be. While the movie may not be the best blaxploitation effort made, it is a very watchable one despite its crude touches.

tomgillespie2002 Not one to miss on an opportunity, Larry Cohen's second feature film utilised the explosion of blaxploitation cinema after the successes of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) and Shaft (1971), and crafted his own "black" action film, modelled on the 1931 film Little Caesar. Fred Williamson plays the titular role, a boy from the streets, witnessing and being victim of brutality from the white community, and particularly a local police officer, McKinney (Art Lund). As an adult, Caesar's goal is to become kingpin of Harlem, and he won't let anything stand in his way.The narrative is a story told over, which focuses on a person who looses everything in the pursuit of power, including childhood friends, wives, and particularly looses sight of the person that they are. It's always great to watch a Cohen movie from this period. When filming in the streets (in this case New York - of which is his usual setting), his guerilla-style is self evident: clearly in the making of these films, Cohen does not get any kind of permission to film, he simply turns up and does it. In one scene, Williamson has been shot, the camera follows him down the busy street from a roof top, and passers by seem to want to help him. It's these elements of exploitation cinema that I embrace.Whilst this is certainly not one of Cohen's greatest (check out his horror output for some terrifically socio-political subtexts), the film oozes charm. Not only do we have the easy-cool of Fred Williamson, the film also has the ubiquitous Gloria Hendry , although not in her usual kung-fu-influenced fighting mode. Even though this film is less well known than Shaft or Superfly (1972), who's soundtracks were composed by soul giants Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield respectively, Black Caesar's soundtrack is provided by the godfather of soul himself, James Brown: Break it down! Heeyyyyaa!!www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

khallgist I loved it when I saw it at a drive-in on at date a "hundred" years ago when it first came out and I still love it!! I knew Fred Williamson when he was a player for the KC Chiefs and I thought he was super cool then and super cool as an actor later. I was so shocked this week when I mentioned him to the young people I work with and not one of them had ever heard of him. These were supposed KC Chiefs fans! I've been steering all of them to this website to learn more about Fred. He used to hang out in the Kansas City singles bars and that's where I met him years ago. I remember he drove a black Porsche and was so cool. Later I loved all of his movies from the 1970s and 1980s, but I didn't know until now that he was still making movies. I'm anxious to see some of the new ones now.