Lucybespro
It is a performances centric movie
Gurlyndrobb
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Erica Derrick
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
dmanyc
There's great Blaxploitation films (Shaft, Coffy, Blacula) and then you have The Guy From Harlem. There's so much wrong with this film, where does one begin? 1) The title alone. The guy is supposedly from Harlem but the movie is filmed in Miami. So what was the point of calling him the guy from Harlem when he's not even IN Harlem? 2) Names of detectives are usually memorable (Shaft, Baretta, Kojak). Al Conners has to be the blandest detective name I've ever heard.3) He has two assignments. Assignment 1 is being babysitter to a foreign dignitaries' wife. Assignment 2 is rescuing a gambler's daughter kidnapped by some dude named Big Daddy. Both women he rescues, both are taken to a blonde woman's apartment to hide out (Blondie gets sent to a hotel), both end up wearing the unsexiest lingerie ever, and both get sexytime with Al Conners. So the clients get some and the poor secretary and Blondie are denied some sugar? 4) Gambler apparently has a problem with his indoor voice. "GOOD MORNIN', GOOD LOOKIN'!" Good Lord, I had to turn down the volume.5) The descriptions of Big Daddy goes like this: "Very few people ever see Big Daddy. The only thing I can tell you though, he's about six feet two inches tall, has blond, curly hair and, man, you talking about some muscles... he got some muscles on him, and he always wears bands around his muscles. That's the only thing we can tell you about Big Daddy. Nobody ever sees him. " Funny, when they cut away to the gym scene, I spotted Big Daddy in two seconds. How is this dude hard to find? 6) Fight scenes are suppose to be exciting. These fight scenes were anything BUT exciting.7) The music sounds like it's borrowed from video games.8) Is that an actual office or did they borrow a church basement? 9)Has anyone ever smelled a New York strip steak? Do they even exist? 10)"You tell Big Daddy nobody fools with The Guy From Harlem, you dig?" doesn't have the same oomph as "Cut the crap man, this is Shaft."11)Aside from the hideous lingerie, the fashions are cool. The flowery wallpaper, however, is headache-educing.12) For a detective with a calm, eloquent voice his acting is awful. I take that back; everyone's acting is awful. And the dialog: "Sweetie, I got an answer for both of those questions. You got two questions, I got one answer: NONE O' YO' DAMN BIDNESS!!" 'Nuff said.This film probably would've worked better as a porno film because it doesn't work as a Blaxploitation film.
usn2001
One of the worst movies ever. The secretary can't stop laughing, the African princess sounds like she went to school in Brooklyn, and the fight scenes (karate? mojo-jitsu?) appear to be what one would get if you filmed actors going through the motions as they choreograph the fights. It actually reminded me of a bad porn flick without the sex. In this case, a little sex might have helped. On the plus side, the daughter that is kidnapped is pretty nice looking, and she has a great shower scened (although its pretty brief). All the rooms look like hotel rooms. Lots of mistakes and weird plot devices. THe detective tells his secretary to destroy his files when he goes off to meet the bad guy, Big Daddy. Why? Also, Big Daddy sounds more like a harlem pimp, not the blond Italian body builder he turns out to be, but, what can you do? Two thumbs up on the badometer.
Woodyanders
Tough private detective Al Connors (the hopelessly wooden Loye Hawkins, who has all the screen presence and charisma of a stale bag of pretzels) is assigned by the CIA to protect the beautiful African princess Ms. Ashanti (the hot, but awful Patricia Fulton, who sports an American accent!) from no-count criminals. Moreover, Connors gets hired by flamboyant ill-tempered mobster Harry De Bauld (the outrageously hammy Steve Gallon, who gives the liveliest performance in the film) to rescue his daughter Wanda (sassy spitfire Cathy Davis) from a bunch of evil white kidnappers led by the nefarious Big Daddy (brawny beefcake hulk Scott Lawrence). Man, does this gloriously ghastly no-budget blaxploitation atrocity give the viewer plenty of stupendously stinky cinematic blunders to relish and enjoy. Groan at Rene Martinez, Jr.'s clueless and fumbling (non)direction. Get down with your funky self as you listen to the groovy sub-"Shaft" theme song and monotonously hard-grindin' soul score. Wince over Gardenia Martinez's hideously dull, talky and uneventful script. Bust a gut at the infrequent and unimpressive poorly choreographed fight scenes. Gaze in total awe at Rafael Remy's horrendously primitive cinematography, which boasts lots of incredibly intense and exciting static medium master shots of people gabbing for what seems like an excruciating eternity. Agonize over the gruelingly slow pace that completely destroys all sense of both tension and momentum. Howl at the uproariously abominable dialogue ("Tell Big Daddy that nobody fools with The Guy from Harlem, you dig?"). Laugh even harder at the equally terrible acting from a lame no-name cast. A positively astounding monument to sheer mind-numbing celluloid crumminess.
hengir
Either this is one of the worst films ever made, even giving 70s blaxploitation an even badder name, or it is a wonderfully constructed parody of the whole genre. It could be the first satirical post-modernist film; pre-post-modernism in fact. On watching it you could think to yourself, are they being serious or is it a pastiche? Have they reduced the genre to its basic elements then re-constructed them into a profound meditation on the plight of the outsider engaged in a "left handed form of human endeavor." Are the pauses in dialogue due to the incompetence of the actors or is an attempt to cross-pollinate the gangster film with a Harold Pinter-ish sensibility? Is the crude photography a pioneering Dogme film long before its time? Is this indeed a lost masterpiece, worthy of Bergman, Dreyer or Welles? No. This is one of the worst films ever made.
