Ragnar Danneskjöld

7/10

To begin with, the person who wrote the completely weak synopsis for the movie didn't actually watch it. Cleopatra Jones is the female version of Shaft. Instead of being a Private Eye, she's a Federal Agent working to clean up the streets from the drugs and crime, working with the local cops, for the betterment of the community. She even protects the local "Clean-up Shelter" for those looking to kick the habit. She's fighting the drug war on a global scale, starting out the film in Turkey where the heroin is grown and processed. Mommy is not a drag queen. Obviously she prefers the female gender for her enjoyments, but she also runs the underworld with an iron glove. Mommy is looking to get rid of anything that stands in her way, including the Drug Treatment Center and Cleo herself. When the Center is raided and threatened to be closed down because of a questionable drug stash found, Cleo is forced to return to the States to get to the bottom of the situation and clear the reputation of the Center. This is one of those movies that screams for a big budget remake, yet will never happen. The original content is solid, the dialog was adequate and the plot flows well. The only downside was that the martial arts were stunted and stiff, but that is a generational thing most movies in the 70s suffered from compared to today's movies. While I'm not a fan of remakes, I only call for this movie being done because: 1) Nobody actually saw the original. 2) It's categorized as a Blaxploitation film which will make younger generations pass it on by. 3) Hollywood moans and cries about not offering strong leading roles for black or female actresses and this is the perfect medium to promote both.

talisencrw

0/10

Needless to say, my favourite Quentin Tarantino film is 'Jackie Brown'. I enjoyed the action, and Tamara Dobson was gorgeous (I can't believe she was 6'2"! Wow!). I wish she had done more movies, and hadn't died so young (at age 59, of pneumonia and multiple sclerosis). Though director Starrett (who died even younger, of kidney failure) mainly did TV work, I loved his 'Race with the Devil', which was from around this time. He was very good at these kind of films, at both presenting action set-pieces and building suspense. I would like to see ALL of these 'urban action' films. Though from my movie-watching experience, I find that I tend to prefer films from before 1970, these films from the 70's are great too, and are a lot more enjoyable to me than most films I see today. I sincerely hope that, like in 'Cleopatra Jones', the filmmakers of today could concentrate on actors' presence and stunts, rather than simply go with CGI. I for one would be a lot happier as a cinephile.