SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Pluskylang Great Film overall

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

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.

Michael Ledo This was a film that encouraged black people to stay out of the military in the closing statements.Johnny Barrows (Fred Williamson) was 2 years all-state running back and earned a silver star in the military. After being arrested for being drunk while black, Johnny reluctantly enters a mob war as a white on white hit man who never gets so much as a grass stain on his pants.Classic Fred Williamson urban action film. Also stars Roddy McDowall and Elliot Gould. Soap Opera star Jenny Sherman provides token eye candy.

goods116 Slightly better than average Blaxploitation type film, somewhat more interesting due to cameo from Elliot Gould. Roddy McDowall is also a familiar face (best remembered, at last by me, for Planet of the Apes series). Otherwise plot is paper thin and the few action scenes are mediocre. This is only worth a view for "deep tracks" 70s film buffs (like me) or those interested in the Blaxploitation genre (although this one is kind of on the border of the genre). For anyone else, it's not worth your time at all, the movie is not gripping at all and instantly forgettable.

dbborroughs Slow dull Fred Williamson directed film about the title character,played by Williamson, getting tossed from the army for punching a white officer who tried to kill him and ending up in the middle of a mafia war between two rival families. Just okay action (not counting the laughable martial arts) and okay exposition sequences are done in by dead pacing and dull direction. This film feels wickedly padded with several sequences of Williamson on the street trying to find a job set to meaningful music. It stops the film dead and I wanted to reach for the remote. The sad thing about this film is that the basic plot is very good and it has some nice twists. The problem was that I kind of stopped really watching and let the film drift into the background, only coming back to the film when something interesting happened, which was then followed by my drifting out again. Not really worth a look.

iago-6 I got this film as part of this budget "Bad Brothas, Mean Mothas" boxed set, and watched this one first, because it stars Fred "Super-stud" Willaimson. I was surprised at what different and ambitous movie this is. Whether it lives up to all that ambition...Rather than a typical revenge fantasy (nothing wrong with those, but...) this film follows Johnny B. as he tries to get a job and resist joining the mob after being dishonorably discharged from the army for striking a white officer (after being, to put it lightly, provoked).It takes a while as the film unfolds to realize that he's not, as usually happens in these movies, going to get p***ed and get even. He is arrested and tormented by the police to which he won't even give his name or say anything. For a while I thought he was dazed by being beaten earlier, but by the time he gets to the police station he should be more coherent. Then I thought "Well, he's just so COOL that he won't even dignify those cops by talking to them," but then that falls apart as well and... I just don't know why he wouldn't talk. Because it's a plot point, I suspect.The main idea of the story is Johnny trying to get a real job, and resist the mobsters who are offering him big money to become a hit man.(SPOILERS AHEAD----->)The arc of the movie hinges on Johnny's love for a woman (a WHITE woman, no less), which we are supposed to understand leads to him finally agreeing to work for the mob in order to avenge her rape. Sadly, this entire aspect of the film just doesn't come off at all, as there is barely any connection between him and the woman, there is no discernible chemistry between them... there's just nothing. (more spoilers here:) Another interesting thing about the structure of the film is how Johnny ends up the head of this crime organization at the end. It's just kind of interesting and unexpected. Then he offers his love to the woman, and instead of saying "Yes Johnny, take me anywhere and make love to me all day and all night! Do it right here! Do it right now!" like any sane woman or man would do, she... has a different reaction. And this leads to another surprising thing: the ending, which I totally didn't expect, but won't give away.This movie being directed by Fred himself adds a dimension to all the adoring shots of himself glaring face-on into the camera, but hey, he looks great and he knows it. I also like the change when he finally gets into those slick suits. The cheap DVD I got REALLY suffers from not being widescreen, as Fred seems to like to place his characters on opposite ends of the screen, and it seemed like more than half of the movie featured half a person's face or shuttled back and forth between the ends of the screen.A lot of people posting here have talked about how slow this movie is... I think because they're expecting a traditional revenge tale. This movie is not the greatest, but I think it deserves to be admired for the unconventionality of the story, and the aspects of 70s black culture (namely trying to get a decent job without any credentials, the difficulty of avoiding drawn into crime, in addition to the hammered in "plight of the veteran" aspects) that you don't see covered in other movies, which I think makes it kind of a little gem.--- Check out website devoted to bad and cheesy movies: www.cinemademerde.com